I think you may be confused about the differences between an IRA and a Roth IRA.
For an IRA, if you have a low enough income, your investment is tax deductable. In fact, if your income is below a certain income, you can get a tax credit worth half of your investment. When you retire, you can begin taking out your investment at 59 1/2 and you HAVE to start taking out your investment by 70 1/2.
For a Roth IRA, you buy your invesment with after tax dollars. The investment grows (or it doesn't...there is, after all, risk associated with investing
). After 5 years you can take out any of the money you put in with no tax consequences. Anything that the investment made for you must stay in the plan...until you retire. Then you can start taking it out with no tax consequences. But, you can keep the money in the investment forever. You never have to start taking money out of the plan, so you can use this as a way to do some estate planning.