If you’re the sort of person who prefers to do it yourself, an easy setup self-directed IRA may be exactly the right financial instrument for you. These IRAs allow you to set up and plan your own IRA rather than allow someone else to do it for you, only requiring that you have an administrator through a bank, financial planner, or some other uninvolved third party to enable you to keep your IRA completely separate from your other finances.

With an easy setup, self-directed IRAs are quickly becoming a popular financial tool for those who want to retire wealthy. When you’re in charge, you can decide where your money is invested, figure out how to create wealth, and even pre-plan every aspect of retirement down to the home you’re going to live in with very little interference from others.

To create an easy setup self-directed IRA, you’ll need to start by contacting a broker specializing in self-directed IRAs. He’ll send you a couple of simple forms to help you convert your existing IRAs to self-directed ones administered by him. After a processing period of up to 45 days, you should hear back that your account is ready for you to work with. See – easy!

When you have your self-directed IRA set up, you’ll need to understand what you’re allowed to invest in and what is disallowed. For this reason, it’s a good idea to spend at least part of that 45-day processing period reading about self-directed IRAs and learning their special rules, which can be complex and occasionally surprising.

For example, you are not allowed to purchase antiques with your self-directed IRA, no matter how tempting, though you are allowed to buy precious minerals. You can purchase a home, but you can’t live in it or benefit directly from it until you retire. If you invest in real estate, you and your immediate family cannot rent a place in it, live in it, or realize any benefits until you disburse it as part of your retirement preparations.

A common choice for easy setup self-directed IRA investment: venture capital. If you know of a promising new venture that needs an infusion of cash, and you and your dependents do not own at least 50% of that venture, you can use your IRA without penalty to invest in it. But a word of warning: if you are already heavily vested in the venture, you may want to keep your IRA in something else. What happens when you put all your eggs in one basket and then drop the basket?

Why should you consider a self-directed IRA, however, if you already have a good-performing mutual fund? Because how well your fund is performing is completely relative to the rest of the market. 90% of mutual funds under perform the market! If you think you may be able to do better, you’re more likely to gain than lose by taking your IRA out of a mutual fund and investing it yourself.

Easy setup self-directed IRAs are not for everyone. If you don’t have the time or patience to work with it, for instance, you may be better off leaving it alone. If, however, you love working with money and it strikes you as something that could be fun as well as profitable, you owe it to yourself to investigate this little-used option.

By: William Brightworth

About the Author:
William Brightworth is a consultant who writes about IRA investing in Real Estate Follow this link to learn more about IRA real estate investing