Buy into a mutual fund (T.Row Price, Franklin Templeton for example)
Put money in it every payday and do not touch it.
As you are very young look at growth funds. Compound interest is your friend at this stage of your life.
Later when you get a full time job you can start thinking about an IRA or Roth IRA. to add to your mutual fund investment. This will help your tax situation. Good luck
Its good that you are young and thinking about investment. Lets face it Wandering down to your local bank and opening up a savings or money market account is just not going to pay off big. They are for emergency runds only. Remember these funds okay
Vanguard Total Stock Market Index
Vanguard Roth IRA
Employee Retirement with company match
Invest long term through dollar cost average.
Best of luck
You can easily invest money without it being in a retirement account. Basically a "retirement" account and a regular investment account are the exact same thing and would be invested in the same types of financial instruments (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc). The only difference is when it comes to calculating taxes and when you can touch the money. So you can easily invest without it being a retirement account.
Talk to your parents about how to get started. You can either open up an account on a "do it yourself" site like E-trade or TD ameritrade or go to a financial planner who will take care of many of the things for you.
You probably won't earn enough to have to pay any income tax so there's no point in opening a retirement account. In fact, opening a retirement account might subject you to taxes and withdrawal penalties you wouldn't otherwise have to pay
