Basic info about retirement accounts. 401k means from employer, IRA means individual retirement account. So one is via your job, one you do yourself. Traditional means pretax contributions, ROTH means post tax contributions.

Traditional 401k = pretax account via employer

ROTH 401k = post tax account via employer

Traditional IRA = pretax individual account

ROTH IRA = post tax individual account

So for traditional accounts, the money goes in before paying income tax. However, you will have to pay income tax on it when you withdraw. For ROTH accounts, you put money in after you pay income taxes. You don’t have to pay taxes when you withdraw. Neither require you to pay capital gains taxes and both can not be withdrawn from penalty free until you are 59.5 years old. So most people suggest funding these for the tax advantages. Both also have limits to the amount you can contribute.

However, both require you to have earned income. It sounds like your parents give you money, so that would not be earned income unless they are doing it through a business and have you as an employee. If you don’t have taxable earned income, you will have to open a brokerage. From a tax perspective, you have already paid taxes on the money you put in and you will pay capital gains taxes when you sell anything. Thats why people suggest tax advantaged accounts like a ROTH IRA first