IRAs?

[pinknic38]

yeah so my boss is some big finance guru, and he's tired of watching me spend money every day on amazon.com and is trying to talk me into opening up an IRA and putting a good bit of money each month in it while I'm here, and then dropping down to whatever I can afford when I am back in school, and once I'm in the real world again, kicking it back up.

I know it's prolly a smart thing to do but since I don't grasp things that aren't tangible right now (like, sure having money in like 40 years would be sweet, but it's hard to see it that way when you're 22). his cousin opened up one when she was 20 and I guess will end up with like 1.6 million by the time she's 60 at the rate she's going. So I see that it's a good idea to start early.

I guess I don't really get the whole thing. I know that there's some pentalty iof you take out your IRA early, and you have to claim it as income on your tax return and pay taxes on it. but that's really all I know about it.

any of you have an IRA? what do ya'll think?