There’s no magical number here, folks. You can open and start contributing to a Roth IRA no matter how old or young you are. Yep, there’s no age restrictions as long as you’re earning an income (and as long as your income is below a certain amount).5 It’s never too early or too late to start investing for your retirement!
But if you’re still in debt or don’t have an emergency fund, press pause on saving for retirement until you’re out of debt with a fully funded emergency fund of 3–6 months of expenses. Then you can start investing 15% of your income for retirement with your employer’s 401(k) plan and a Roth IRA.