You’ve been there before. For weeks—maybe even months at a time—you leave your investments to grow. In your head, you’re already tracking the gains those investments are making. You can’t wait to check on their progress again and find out how much your retirement account has increased in value. After all, you figure, the stock market had been performing well. You’re starting to count on seeing some major increases in the value of your retirement account.

Then you check the account, and you have only one reaction: disappointment.

How often has this been you? If you’re like most investors, you’ve probably experienced this at least one time in your life—in all likelihood, you’ve experienced this scenario more than once. So how can you bring your ROI back to where you expected it could be, and use your IRA in a way that will yield more optimistic results?

The answer, of course, lies in the Self-Directed IRA.

Strategy #1: Investing in Your Own Expertise

The first major advantage of a Self-Directed IRA is that it allows you the options to use your own expertise and know-how to invest in the kinds of investments that you know how to read. For example, if you have a lot of real estate investment experience, a Self-Directed IRA will allow you to invest in real estate. It’s a simple idea that many people ignore simply because the idea sounds more complicated than it really is.

But take a few moments to consider your investment strategies. You pay a fund manager fees to manage your mutual funds because you’re not an expert in the stock market. Why not cut out the middle man and invest in what you do know? Self-Directed IRAs give you the potential to do exactly that, investing in private companies, real estate, precious metals, intellectual property, and more. It’s worth investigating to see if you can build an IRA that’s grounded in your own investment experience—rather than someone else’s.

Strategy #2: Cutting Out the “Middle Man”

One of the chief advantages in switching to a Self-Directed IRA is obvious: when you direct your own IRA, you don’t pay a middle-man money manager to do all of the work for you. That means you can save money through your investments by cutting out this “middle man” and instead focusing on what you already know how to do best.

True: a Self-Directed IRA will require a little more time and attention than the standard IRA. But we say that’s a good thing! After all, your IRA is your future. It’s the strategy and nest egg you have set aside to represent your future when retirement rolls around. Why shouldn’t you be invested in its success, rather than simply relying on someone else and merely hoping that they do a good job?

Strategy #3: Diversification

How many times have you heard some street-wise investment types harp on “diversification, diversification, diversification,” only to realize that the real strategy they were trying to sell you had nothing at all to do with actual diversification? With Self-Directed IRAs, you stand to actually implement the strategy of diversification by making investments across a broader spectrum—not just a variety of funds that are all invested in the stock market, one way or the other.

If you’re interested in learning more about these strategies, and what a Self-Directed IRA can do to change your retirement plan for the better, please contact us at 866-7500-IRA(472). You’ll be amazed at how many options you truly have once you take a few seconds to investigate and explore the possibilities of the Self-Directed IRA.