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Thursday, 9 November 2017

Why Invest In A Self Directed IRA

By Carolyn Russell


When investing for retirement, people often have three main objectives. First, they want to preserve their savings. Secondly, they want to grow their savings. Lastly, they want to pay as little tax as possible. Unfortunately, most retirement plans expose savers to a lot of risk, mainly the volatility of the markets. A self directed IRA, however, seems to be the exception.

The recent stock market crash of 2006-2008 taught investors a number of lessons. For instance, real estate investments are not necessarily the best. Secondly, stock brokers, fund managers and investment advisers do no always know more than the average person. That is why people rushed to look for better says to invest, and that is where self-directed IRAs became popular.

When you open a self-directed IRA, you will be in charge of choosing investments to put your money in. This means you may invest in anything you want. With traditional IRAs, the fund manager normally picks assets for clients.

If you are comfortable with real estate investments, a self-directed IRA will give you the opportunity to invest in rental properties. Alternatively, you can invest in real estate investment trusts and get a regular income. If gold and precious metals are your thing, you can buy physical gold and hold the assets in your individual retirement account.

Please note that when you use savings in an IRA to buy real estate, you cannot live in that property or collect the rent from that property and use it for personal gain. The rent must be deposited to your IRA less any maintenance costs and property management fees. The property tax will also be paid by the IRA. It is important you learn all the rules governing these accounts before you open one.

If you decide to invest in physical gold, you cannot keep it at home in a safe as this will constitute a withdrawal, which usually comes with huge penalties. The gold must be kept with a licensed custodian. When the account matures, you will need to liquidate all your assets to get liquid cash.

A self-directed IRA gives you total control over your retirement savings. You can decide to invest everything in blue chip stocks or to hold some of your assets in form or gold while the rest goes to real estate. You can even combine your resources by teaming up with colleagues and friends.

The key to protecting your portfolio from the volatility of the market and inflation lies in diversifying your portfolio. By spreading your portfolio across the different asset classes you are comfortable with, you can minimize your risk. If one asset class does not perform well, another class will cover the loss.

The main advantage of directing your own IRA is that you can make a lot of savings since you will not pay any accountant management or brokerage fees. You can use the savings to further grow your nest egg. This means that you can meet your retirement savings goals much faster.




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