What Common Mistakes Can I Avoid When Setting up a Self-Directed IRA?

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes(Last Updated On: May 8, 2020)

Do you want to take more control over your retirement investment accounts? Have you been considering a self-directed IRA but worried about the rules?

You want to diversify your portfolio – outside of the traditional investment markets such as stocks and bonds. That’s where a self-directed IRA comes into play. It allows you to diversify while also keeping control of your investments yourself.

However, you need to make sure to avoid some common mistakes and pitfalls that plague many investors.

Read on to make sure that you don’t fall into these common pitfall traps.

A self-directed IRA allows you to invest in alternative financial investments. These can include real estate, promissory notes, oil, and gas, tax lien certificates and more.

However, instead of being administered by a bank or brokerage you instead manage the fund yourself.

Take Control Yourself

You know you need to save your money for your retirement. But it can be daunting, to say the least when you are responsible for it yourself. 

When it comes to your retirement, the only person most invested in your success is yourself. Therefore, it stands to reason that you should be the one to make the final decisions regarding your investments. However, without the correct information, you can make some unfortunate mistakes in your choices

Take control of your financial future and get started with a self-directed IRA today. Contact a Quest IRA specialist and find out how we can help you take control of your retirement.

Avoid the Pitfalls of a Self-directed IRA

When you take control of your financial future with a self-directed IRA, you need to ensure to avoid these common pitfalls.

1. Prohibited transactions – these can be tricky to navigate so it’s important to know the rules.
2. Due diligence – As mentioned, the rules can be tricky, and it’s imperative that with a self-directed IRA you make the decisions yourself. Always ensure you do proper due diligence before getting into any investment.
3. Lack of liquidity – with a self-directed IRA minimum distributions are required at 72, however, the alternative investments allowed can be hard to sell. This lack of liquidity can be a common pitfall if you find yourself in an emergency and can’t get your money out of your self-directed IRA.
4. Lack of transparency – when it comes to your exit strategy for selling your alternative investments all parties involved must be in agreement. You also must be fully transparent as to the valuation of your investments. Without this full transparency, you can fall into another common pitfall of self-directed IRAs.
5. Lack of diversity – as most successful investors will tell you: diversity is key to successful investment accounts. However, with self-directed IRA funds, sometimes investors forget to ensure that it is fully diversified.

With a self-directed IRA, you need a trustee or custodian that specializes in these non-traditional investments. However, remember one of the common mistakes with self-directed IRA funds is the self-directed IRA owner not performing proper due diligence on investments.

So this trustee is simply a custodian of your account, not your adviser. You need to work with a company that understands the IRA rules and you can trust.

Stay Educated and Stay out of Trouble

We set up self-directed IRAs to help you prepare for your retirement. The most prepared people for retirement are those that are best educated.Keep continuing your education so you can fully prepare for the best retirement possible. For answers to your questions, contact us today. We can help you open a Quest account to get you started.