All you young whippersnappers on Hubski. Start now. Before you are 21, buy your first IRA. Do it. Now. Never touch it.
Your IRAs have such low contribution limits. Our RRSPs here in Canada allow up to 18% of your total income or about $25,000, whichever is less. And our TFSAs, which are equivalent to the Roth IRAs that you linked to, have a slightly smaller yearly contribution limit, but in our case it's cumulative, so if you contributed $5,000 but withdrew it all for something, the next year you could contribute up to $10,000, to make up for the $5,000 you withdrew. I don't see any indication you can do that with IRAs.
Doesn't it make more sense to pay off student loans in full and building up an emergency fund / building up credit then investing in an IRA after the debt is paid off? I'll be making contributions to a 401k to max out what I can get matched by my employer, but that will be about it outside of savings until I have no student loans (which are quite a lot of $$$). That's the current plan, throw a ton of the money I'll be making at my student loan debt to try and pay it off in 5 years, then aggressively pursue retirement fund options. Maybe it's not a good one?
All depends on the interest rate. Yours are probably 6.8%, no? At that rate, which sucks a fat dick, paying them off is probably a good idea, because that's just about the average market return over the long haul. Mine are 2.3%, because they're from years ago, and I'm paying them off as slow as the government will let me (which is very slow).Doesn't it make more sense to pay off student loans in full and building up an emergency fund / building up credit then investing in an IRA after the debt is paid off?