Most people don’t realize just how flexible self-directed retirement accounts can be. You’re not stuck choosing between a handful of Wall Street funds. Real estate, private lending, startups, precious metals—even farmland—can all be on the table when you’re in control. If you had full freedom, where would you put your retirement dollars?Drop your answer below—I’m curious to see the different directions people would take.

I have a friend who's trying to look paper poor. He's runs multiple businesses that do well, builds new construction and is going into larger ventures. I was curious to see what was excluded from calculating his net worth and one of the items was retirement accounts. I immediately thought of ROBS. Would it be possible to stacks of cash into his retirement account and then go the ROBS method or are there contribution limits? If this path was possible for him, would the move be to fund the ROBS, start the business and then pay himself a salary? Are there any other ways to get paid for today money outside of a salary or is everything else funneled back into the retirement account?

Hi All, I’ve been digging deeper into self-directed retirement accounts lately to better understand the tools people are using. One topic that comes up a lot is the checkbook-controlled IRA. It’s a setup where the IRA owns an LLC, and the account holder (as manager) writes checks or wires directly from that LLC. The appeal is clear: faster transactions and fewer custodian delays. I recently spoke with an industry veteran who’s seen this structure play out in practice. Here’s the summary of what I was learned: Why some people use it - Bypass custodian delays and fees - Move quickly on deals like private lending Where the caution comes in - Because the account holder is both owner of the IRA and manager of the LLC, it can look like too much direct control. - Different custodians treat it differently. Some won’t allow it; others do, but it’s still a gray area. - If it were ever questioned, the “fix” would usually be administrative (re-titling assets back into the IRA) — not catastrophic, but inconvenient. Other considerations - Some folks try to get around the control issue by naming a third party as LLC manager. That reduces one risk but creates another (trusting someone else with your funds). - For slower, one-off deals (like a single syndication), a standard custodian-processed IRA can be just fine. Bottom line Checkbook-controlled IRAs do exist and people use them, but they sit in a compliance gray area. For some investors the speed is worth it, for others the simplicity of a custodian held self directed IRA (or a Solo 401k if eligible) is a better fit.