Information probably needed: 33 years old.

No debt.

*No retirement.

Monthly income: $2264. Two paychecks/mo at $1132, this is what I budget with. 2 months out of the year I get 3 paychecks.

Extra yearly income (profit): $12,000

Here are my current monthly bills:

Rent/utilties: 850 (includes water, elec, cable, the works).

Health Ins/medications: 400 (employer is hoping to cover our insurance within the next year or two).

Car Ins: 131 (insane I know, but I have an Audi TT and not the best driving record but I need a car, and I have no payment, 60k miles so I'm keeping it for two more years.)

Gas: 200 (I spend more but I am reimbursed for some of it)

Food/eating out: 450 (hey I eat healthy and that ain't cheap)

Phone: 100

Spotify/Netflix: 18

That leaves 115 left which I'm sure I use on clothing (which I do hardly ever buy since I get so much of it for free) or entertainment (the occasional movie) or a night out (LA is expensive to say the least).

So overall, I break even if I simply just did my "normal job."

Current accounts:

Saving: 16,000

Checking: 3,300 (2000 minimum to avoid fees)

*IRA: 1,000.... Now this is where I get confused, I know nothing about them and when I say I've tried to understand them, I just can't grasp the concept. lol. I opened this up a few months ago just to get it started. Do I move more money into this account? And let's say I kept $10,000 in my savings as my emergency fund, that would easily let me live for 6 months, if not more (and I'm not worried about having an income in this field), do I keep plugging into my IRA?

Now let's say I want to open a business or buy a house/condo in 5 years and I have invested $25,000 into my IRA by that time, how easy can I take that out?

And when they say your IRA isn't taxed when you put money in or take it out, what's all that mean and what's with this 59.5 age stuff. Explain please in very, simple, terms, please :)

Other info: I love traveling so I take a few small vacations for under $500 (maybe 2-3 x year) and one bigger one ($2000). So the rest is why I've been able to save. I moved here from Hawaii and bought everything with a little over $10,000 left, so I saved close to $7500 this year if that helps. And no 401k at this job. So I guess what do I do with this extra $7500?