Advice needed on investing Roth IRA money

[Andy K]

Hi everyone,

My wife and I have been contributing toward our Roth IRAs for a past few years. The money has been sitting in a savings account at a local bank not doing much, and we would like to invest the funds in real estate going forward to get a higher return. We wanted to get some advice on how to best invest the Roth IRA funds.

How are folks on the board investing Roth IRA money in real estate? The money is not large enough to be able to buy real estate in SoCal. But it could be used as down payment for flipping properties, or as a private money loan, etc. Any suggestions on what we could do are appreciated.

Also, what can be the best type of account to move these Roth IRA funds into to begin investing?

1. One option could be to move the money into a Self directed Roth IRA with a custodian like Entrust. The downside is that I see there are a number of fees charged by the custodian, like for every check that needs to be made out, etc, in addition to the annual maintenance fees for the account.

2. Another option is to convert this to a Solo Roth 401K. But I read on the IRS website that Roth IRA cannot be converted to a Solo Roth 401K. Is that correct, or am I mis-understanding it?

As always, thanks a lot for your advice and suggestions.

- Andy.