Mark Kohler says Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, and Schwab deliberately limit what they call self-directed retirement accounts to stocks and ETFs because they can't profit from alternatives. Your IRA or 401(k) can actually hold real estate, private loans, small businesses, gold, crypto, and LLCs. The brokerages aren't telling you because the infrastructure and commissions aren't there.
Chapters
You can buy and sell and you are in control. You are self directing. Now that's Fidelity. The problem why Fidelity and Merrill lynch or Schwab does not tell you that is they don't have the platform or make a commission on it. You do the concept of self directing your retirement account, what Wall street would like you to think is that you can go onto your, you know, Fidelity app and you can buy a stock or sell a stock or buy an ETF that's in Bitcoin or some sort of precious metal or crypto and you can buy and sell and you are in control. You are self directing. Now that's fide Fidelity letting you get on their platform and sell a trade what they make a commission on or allow you to self direct, meaning you are directing what is buying and selling on a given day. That is their definition. The real definition, which they don't want you to know is that you can take your IRA Roth, IRA SEP, Simple 401K, Coverdell Health Savings Account, all of those accounts. You can direct the investment into alternative assets, real estate. You could loan money. You could invest in a small business down the street, buy direct gold and or silver buy, buy any type of crypto, coin or token that you would like. You could invest in an LLC to go do real estate development or a hard money loan or anything like that. The problem why Fidelity and Merrill lynch or Schwab does not tell you that is they don't have the platform or make a commission on it. You do.
