Out of curiousity, why did your friend tell you to wait until you have $5000?
I put money annually into a Roth IRA - I pay tax on the money now, and it's tax-free when I take it out, but the maximum annual contribution is $1500 a year. But I can put it into funds, stocks, whatever.
I assumed he had a reason for it, but I neglected to ask, probably because I thought it would have been rude.
