What is the difference between a regular IRA and a self-directed IRA? What are the benefits of a self-directed IRA? Amanda Holbrook, from Specialized Trust Company shares her knowledge.

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What are the main differences between a regular IRA, for example, Fidelity or Vanguard, and a self-directed IRA?

When you're at some of those big box companies, they will give you that old pat on the back stuff and say," Oh, Steph, you can go and pick your stocks, bonds, and mutual funds yourself". That is not true self-direction. To do true self-direction is to invest in what you know, and it's the same types of vehicles that you've become accustomed to Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, 401 K's, and health savings accounts, the same ones you see over there, except when you shift over here. Instead of picking your little toys out of that sandbox called stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, we give you the whole playground. You can participate in a big commercial deal, be a private money lender, and own a rental property inside your retirement account versus the stock market. These things have been around since the 70s, and the knee-jerk reaction I get is, "Oh my gosh, this is crazy. How come no one in my professional roundtables ever told me about this?" And a lot of times, it comes down to money because a lot of those institutions don't get paid when you create an account and when you invest in opportunities in your backyard, when you put money on Main Street versus Wall Street, that's the big difference.

Can we invest in other assets besides real estate?

It's almost Pandora's box. The IRS, and how the codes are written don't tell you, "Oh, here are all the beautiful things you can do to take advantage of our tax code", they tell you what you cannot do. As long as you're not violating one of these cardinal rules, self-dealing, which is to buy something you already own, doing business with anyone up and down your family tree: parents, grandparents, spouse, children, off limits, if they branch off such as brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, they're okay. Your siblings can fund your deals, you can fund your siblings' deals, or stock of a sub chapter S company life insurance. There are certain things like collectible artwork that cannot be held. No artwork, no collectibles. Everything you can think of outside of that shortlist is doable: tax liens, private lending, precious metals, oil and gas, timber. I have brothers down west of Fort Worth, they breed cattle in their retirement account because it's what they know. Real estate is one of those three basic needs of every human on the planet. That is the most common but there's a million different ways you can participate in real estate.

Amanda Holbrook

(505) 514-0587

[email protected]

www.specializedtrustcompany.com

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