What does the future hold? If we had the answer to that, we’d likely be in the fortune telling business. The truth is while no one investor knows what the future holds, a Self Directed IRA is a powerful tool that everyone should know about.

Everyone is simply doing the best they can with the means at their disposal. But that doesn’t mean that you have to be subject to every shifting wind, or that you have to fear the future.

With enough preparation and know-how, you can learn how to hedge against disaster, diversify to protect your assets, and ultimately grow a large nest egg upon which you can comfortably retire.

The truth is all futures are uncertain. But that doesn’t mean you’re exempt from preparing from the uncertain future. In fact, it’s the wise investor who realizes that the future is uncertain and makes the appropriate plans that ends up successful. What can you do to share that wisdom in your own investment life? Let’s explore.

Portfolio Management 101

The first thing to learn in preparing for an uncertain future is to know how to manage your portfolio. Generally, experts will advise that you put a certain amount of money in one type of investment, another portion of your wealth in another market, etc. But that’s not what we’re going to talk about today.

Instead, we’re going to talk about the ability to actually understand where your money goes. “Aggressive funds vs. conservative funds” might be interesting to some people, but we’re more concerned with understanding that funds are not the end-all, be-all of investing.

Your portfolio should be more diversified than that if you plan on investing despite the uncertain future. And true diversification can happen when you utilize a Self Directed IRA for the purpose of managing your money with safety in mind. Don’t think about portfolio management simply as different ways to handle your stocks. Instead, think bigger. Think about a portfolio that includes stocks, funds, real estate, commodities, and more. Preparing for an uncertain future means having investments in more than just one piece of the puzzle.

Don’t Abandon Ship Just Yet

Some people might read the above section and think that it means we recommend getting out of the stock market entirely. This is not the case. In fact, the stock market is one of the best and most consistent ways to earn money on your investments.

It’s just not the only way.

Avoid over-reaction in your retirement plan, because you’ll find that a long-term plan has a better chance of succeeding, with less regard to the wind changes that seem to occur in the marketplace on a daily basis. That’s why it’s important not to sell all of your stocks simply because you get a whiff of a bear market. There’s simply no predicting the future when it comes to investments…so don’t even try.

Many people find that it’s not necessary to cut ties with the stocks and funds they have in their portfolio in order to diversify; sometimes, it can simply be a matter of expanding your investments in the areas where you’ve been lacking. And it’s important to create an overall plan that you stick to with your regular portfolio reviews, much like a ship that occasionally tweaks its course to ensure that it will arrive at the correct destination.

What you can do, however, is prepare for the future by expanding your control over your financial destiny. That means exploring the potential of Self Directed IRAs to introduce other options that you hadn’t previously considered. If you’re interested in exploring Self Directed IRAs further, contact us at 866-7500-IRA(472) to find out more.