Retirement Investors — Making Your Savings Work

This video is for anyone who has money sitting in a retirement account, a 401, an IRA, a Roth, and has wondered whether they can use it to invest in something other than the stock market. And the answer is yes. And a lot of people don't know this, so let me walk you through it because I think this is very important to know and understand, especially if you're looking at a retirement balance and feeling like your money isn't working as hard as it could be. Most retirement accounts are held through a custodian. That's the company that holds your retirement account and manages the investments, like most traditional brokerages or your employer's 401 provider. And with most of these custodians, your investment options are limited to what's on their menu: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, index funds. That's it. That's all they offer. But there is a type of account called a self-directed IRA. Which is a type of retirement account that lets you invest in alternatives beyond stocks and bonds, like private investments, or a self-directed 401, which is the same concept applied to your employer-sponsored retirement plan. These accounts give you much broader investment authority, including the ability to invest in private placements, meaning private investment offerings like FreedomNotes, real estate, and other alternatives that traditional custodians just don't offer. It means you can take capital sitting in a retirement account earning whatever a money market fund or bond fund is paying and put it to work inside FreedomNotes. You get the tax-advantaged structure of a retirement account, meaning your earnings grow tax-deferred or tax-free depending on whether it's a traditional or Roth account, and you get our return of 8 to 14%. One of our investors, she's been with us for about a decade now, came to us through a self-directed 401. She described looking at her retirement balance and feeling like it was just sitting there doing the minimum. She moved a portion into FreedomNotes through her self-directed account and started receiving quarterly distributions, which in a Roth IRA context grew completely tax-free. And she told us it was the first time in years she actually felt like her retirement money was working for her. That story stays with me because that's exactly what this is supposed to do. Now I want to be clear, I'm not a financial advisor and I'm not a CPA. This is educational and you should consult with a qualified advisor before making decisions about your retirement accounts. What I can do is walk you through what the process generally looks like. Step 1 is establishing a self-directed IRA or self-directed Solo 401 through a custodian that specializes in alternative alternative investments. Companies like Equity Trust, Camaplan, and others specialize in this. Your current custodian, like Fidelity, may not offer this, which is why you need a specialist. Step 2 is funding the account. You can fund it through contributions, or in many cases, you can roll over, meaning transfer, funds from an existing IRA or old 401. This rollover process is tax-neutral when done correctly, meaning you don't trigger a taxable event just by moving the money. And step 3 is directing the investment. Once your self-directed account is funded, you instruct the custodian to make the investment in FreedomNotes on your behalf. The custodian holds the investment inside your tax-advantaged account, and then the returns flow back into your retirement account or compound depending on the investment track you chose. The best part is that those returns are tax-deferred in a traditional account or tax-free in a Roth. That compounding inside a tax-advantaged wrapper is one of the most powerful wealth-building tools available over a long time horizon. For investors thinking about retirement income, the Income Track can function like a retirement income stream, getting distributions every quarter. Predictable, on schedule, and backed by real assets. A lot of retirees find that combination really compelling compared to what a bond fund or CD is offering. And many investors reach a point where they look at their retirement balance and feel like they've done everything right— contributed for decades, stayed diversified, and still feel like the results don't match the effort. If that's where you are, there may be options you haven't explored yet. And if this is a path you want to explore, please reach out. We work with investors in self-directed accounts regularly and can connect you with the right resources. In one of our next videos, we get into the tax side— how real estate investing is taxed, what a K-1 is, and how smart investors use tax-advantaged accounts to keep more of what they earn. Head over to chatwithfreedom.com and let's start that conversation. I hope this was helpful, and I hope we have the opportunity to work together.