A Self-Directed IRA Success Story

A Local Builder Builds His IRA – His Way

Our success story today comes from a custom builder in his 50’s residing in Lake County, Florida. Chuck (the client is real, his name is not), has owned his own business for 25 years and heard about NuView IRA when he met NuView’s CEO, Glen, at a networking event. Chuck was asked to provide a quote for a home remodeling job at Glen’s residence and later they got to chatting about self-directed retirement accounts.

Chuck decided to move his retirement funds into a self-directed account several years after he lost $200,000 during the tech bubble in 2002, he says because his financial advisor did a poor job of diversification of his investments.  After such a huge loss, Chuck wanted full control of his funds and to take advantage of real estate opportunities he often ran across.  Chuck’s first investment was the purchase of a piece of property with 5 acres on a small lake for $60,000. Turns out the piece of property was land-locked but luckily Chuck had purchased Title Insurance on the land and Title Company represented that the land did have deeded access to the public road. The Title Insurance company was then responsible for negotiating a way to get access to the land which they were successful at doing. One and half years later, Chuck sold the piece of property for $260,000 making back all of the money he lost during the tech bubble.  He then converted his Traditional IRA to a Roth.

Since that first purchase eight years ago, Chuck has used his IRA account to invest a variety of alternative assets including raw land, mortgages, single-family rentals, rehabs & flips, and notes for vehicles. These days he has been holding on to his investment longer to take advantage of the continual cash flow.  Chuck’s hires people (paid by his IRA) to maintain his properties so little work is needed from his end which makes it an attractive way of investing his funds. Chuck says he particularly likes investing in mortgages and notes because they don’t require any management and come with a great rate of return along with cash flow.  He says that for his lending, he currently targets a “safe” 8 percent return and has no problem finding borrowers at that rate.

When asked if his retirement goals have changed since he started self-directing his IRA, Chuck explains “I’ve always kept track of my net worth and what my cash flow needs to be before I retire. Self-directing has helped me speed up the achievement of that goal as I’m only a couple years away from reaching the net worth I desire and deem comfortable for a happy retirement”.

We also asked Chuck what he loved about self-directing his funds; Chuck said he enjoys the benefit of purchasing investment property at discounted rates such as distressed home sales and earning a high return.  When he was in the stock market, he had to buy at retail and hope it went up.

Chuck’s number one tip for new self-directors is “Anyone can do this!”.  Just build your support team to assist you with their expertise and time.

Chuck said: “Most people view self-direction as difficult or challenging but, it’s in fact, much easier than you think once you understand which alternative assets you want to invest in. “I pay realtors, construction workers, and a maintenance team to take care of my properties so there’s very little leg- work on my end.”

Chuck takes advantage of NuView’s workshops and networking events and says he’s enjoyed meeting like-minded investors at our events and learning about new investment opportunities in the market.

His most recent endeavor has been investing in assets via his self-directed HSA account. He has been adding the max annual contribution amount of $6,750 for a family policy (contributions are 100% tax-deductible from gross income). Chuck has successfully grown the account to purchase small notes and do one land flip all within the HSA. Now with his account built up to $90,000, he has plans to invest in a single-family rental home with the profits he’s rung up so far.

Eight years later, Chuck holds $1.4 million balance in his self-directed IRA account, a long way from his initial $60,000 balance in 2009. His one regret?  Not converting his Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA earlier.

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To meet people like Chuck and many more, be sure and sign up for our client networking event on March 15 in Orlando, only a few seats are remaining…

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