The prevailing belief towards getting wealthy and accumulating strong self-worth is through hard work. While this may be true to an extent, the real way to build wealth is by creating multiple streams of income and earnings. Investing is one of the quickest ways to start setting your future self up for bigger gains and a better life.

The best way to be able to retire comfortably is by building a retirement portfolio through income investing sooner rather than later. How exactly do you start investing? Well, one of the safest options around is a Roth IRA, which works as a retirement account of sorts, but obviously, it is a little more complicated than that. There are also self-directed IRAs that have their own unique advantages, and here are some of the things you can do with a self-directed IRA.

More Portfolio Diversification 

Investing in many different retirement plans or other investing portfolios limits you to a select few assets. Common ones include mutual funds, ETFs, stocks, and bonds. While these are usually safe and proven ways to help build your money, there are so many more options out there to focus only on these few. Being able to diversify your portfolio with rare Earth metals (gold, silver, palladium, platinum), REITs, land trusts, start-ups, equity, and emerging assets like cryptocurrencies helps create a much broader and potentially more lucrative long term investing. Self-directed allows you more freedom to choose what to invest in.

Investing in gold, in particular, can be a valuable addition to your diversified portfolio. It has long been considered a hedge against economic uncertainty and inflation. Additionally, one of the advantages of investing in gold is its liquidity. Gold is recognized globally as a valuable asset, making it relatively easy to sell, and you can often get good money for it, especially during times of economic instability when its value tends to rise. This liquidity and stability can provide investors with peace of mind, knowing that they can easily convert their gold holdings into cash when needed.

More Control Over Investing

Just like you have more control over how to diversify your portfolio, you can expect to be able to grow your knowledge of investing and financial literacy regarding assets as you continue to grow your self-directed IRA. Learning the basics is always important for opening a Roth IRA, but you also need to understand that you have to do it yourself eventually. Financial advisors are great at what they do, but the information is out there, and learning while you invest is always an option that is available.

As a word of caution, investing is not a game, and people can lose a lot of their money when they take risks that are emotionally driven instead of backed by knowledge. It can be incredibly hard to build wealth when you are investing without knowledge, so self-directed lets you have more control over what you do and how you learn, but it does not mean your investments will always go up.

Long Term Wealth Planning

Back to the beginning, making your money solely through income will be able to sustain you, but it will never get you rich unless you are earning a doctor’s salary, so for that, you need to invest. The same applies to building wealth that you can pass down. Generational wealth, as it is called, is lost after just two generations because there is no educating the youth of a family on the power of things like compound interest. Being able to set up your grandchildren one day with a strong portfolio of investments should be something to consider now while you have the time, or at least pass it down to your own children eventually.

Building generational wealth can be done with other types of investing accounts, but a self-directed IRA has an interesting benefit. There is a provision that allows the tax-free gains from the IRA to be passed down, which helps set up your beneficiary with the growth you made. Over a long period of time, the right assets can lead to the planning that helps a family become sustainable and self-dependent with their money.

Also Read: What is the difference between a Roth 401(k) and a Roth IRA?

Better Protection of Assets

It is somewhat of an oxymoron to say that a self-directed IRA provides better protection for your assets, but there is a reason to make that claim. While you are in charge of your investments and there is no hand-holding from a financial advisor or brokerage firm to help you, you are able to move around your assets to protect from downturns much easier than some other types of accounts.

During an economic downturn, your stocks may be stuck losing value, and selling them would be a bad way to reposition yourself. With a self-directed IRA, having a diverse portfolio that allows you to shift your assets around provides some extra protection against volatility. Of course, it requires savvy investments in the first place, but having multiple exit strategies is better than being funneled into net losses for your assets.

Using a self-directed IRA is not for everyone, but it does allow you to do some interesting things with your investments to grow your wealth and your future generation’s wealth. Now that you know some of the things you can do with a self-directed IRA, you can make a better choice on what type of investing account to choose.