What is MyRA President Obama spoke about

Last night, one of the topics President Obama spoke about was a new retirement vehicle called MyRA.  But what is it exactly?  After doing some further research, these are the basics:

• Geared towards low to middle-income earners that don't have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan (ESRP).
• Rate of return will be approximately 1% in a savings bond like product.
• It will function as a ROTH IRA investing with after-tax dollars with a yearly maximum contribution of $5,500 per year.  Earnings and withdrawals are tax-free.
• Once the threshold of  MyRA is reached, it will rollover into a ROTH IRA.

Will it solve the problem of people not saving up enough for retirement?  No, but it's a start.  Personally, I'd rather invest directly into a ROTH IRA where the rate of return is far greater than 1% but that's coming from someone who has a financial goal in mind.

Now only if I had that same financial goal 10 years ago, things would be VERY different.