Traditional IRA with Vanguard to ???

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My apologies, I accidentally hit the post button by mistake. Continuation: I own a business but it isn't RE related. The business doesn't have any full time employees. I also have a full-time job. If anyone can provide any details as to what steps they would take from here, I would greatly appreciate it. All the best, Henry

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My $0.02:Leave the tax-defered IRA with Vanguard, invest it in any combination of their many mutual funds, ETFs, or buy stock through their brokerage account. Use pre-tax money for RE investment. Personally, I don't like the complexity, strict rules, & overhead costs of sdira... I like simple & stream-lined costs...

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@Justin WindhamThank you Justin,I wasn't thinking of investing all of my funds into private money loans unless I was given a good reason as to doing so. I was only looking into a solo-k with checkbook accessibility in order to use it towards the purchase of an investment property. Here in South Florida 30k will not get me very far but it will get me started. Thank you again,Henry

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@Henry F.It sounds as though you are Solo 401k eligible, so that may be a great option for you. I agree with you, checkbook control can be a great feature to have. Whether you should move all of the funds really depends on what you'd like to do with the money. Do you want to invest all of the funds into alternative assets such as private money loans? Do you want to keep a portion in traditional assets? Most people with that asset value would probably move all of the funds. Keep in mind, you can invest into both traditional and alternative assets from the Solo 401k, so that may make you more likely to transfer all of the funds.The process with most providers begins with submitting an application form so that your information can be used to create your Solo 401k plan and trust documents. A tax-exempt EIN is usually obtained for the trust as well. Once you have your documents, you can sign your signature pages, open up your deposit account for the trust, and fund the new Solo 401k with any rollovers and/or new contributions. Once the account is funded, you are ready to invest. Let us know if you have any other questions.

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@Henry F.Many of our clients use Vanguard as the brokerage firm for their checkbook solo 401k plans. Vanguard will issue a checkbook for placing alternative investments like real estate.They like this option because they can still invest in Vanguard funds but gain access to also investing in real estate. In order to open a solo 401k, you need to be doing part-time self-employment activity which appears to be the case here. You can also have a full-time job and even participate in multiple 401k plans. See the following IRS page for more information on this. https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/how-much-salary-can-you-defer-if-you-re-eligible-for-more-than-one-retirement-plan

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@Henry F. If you want to take that money already in the IRA and move it to another account to invest in real estate I suggest that you go with a Self Directed IRA. This will give you the ability to move that money that you have and then invest in real estate once it is moved. A good person to chat with on the site is @Dmitriy Fomichenko

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Account ClosedThank you Joe,How bout solo-401k's? Are they simple? Thanks for your inputAll the best, Henry

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@Henry F.:My recommendation is that you simply do not try to use that $ you have in the traditional IRA for Real Estate. Leave it with Vanguard in an IRA, invest it in whatever of Vanguard's mutual funds you like. Think of it as diversification, retirement $, emergency funds, etc. It will benefit you down the line as you apply for mortgages since it will be considered liquid assets. Trying to extract it to use in Real Estate is too costly in my opinion to make sense. If you try to go the SDIRA route the overheard costs & strings attached don't make sense to me. If you withdrawal the funds you'l have to pay taxes and get hit with a 10% penalty. That's steep - borrowed money would be cheaper.You'd be better off just working and saving, or borrowing $ for Real Estate investment. If you're employed, buy a light fixer with a mortgage and move into it. Or you can get roommates and "house hack". Mortgages are available with as little as 3.5% down, USDA loans in some areas I think $0 down.Myself, I used 0% teaser rate credit cards to get started. It's not a strategy for the risk adverse, it hammers your credit scores in the short term, but I made it work...

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Account ClosedThanks Rita, You make complete sense. I appreciate your feedback.All the best, Henry

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I think you have a few options. First, I would roll over into a Roth IRA. Yes, you pay taxes now but if you are young, then it grows tax free. Another option I was looking at was into Direct IRA. I was reading on the BP sites and it seems like the Solo 401K is less of a headache. You need to ask yourself do you want everything in real estate or do you want part of it in stocks. If you want the max out the real estate, then the Direct IRA or Solo 401K is the way to go. However, if you want some money in stocks, then maybe keep it in the Vanguard and roll it over into the Roth IRA. Call Vanguard. They will give you the paperwork to roll it over. I have my own business which has employees but you do not. My retirement is with Vanguard. If you make a lot of money, I would look into the SEP IRA to maximize your retirement. You can open that up with Vanguard. I can't remember the maximum contribution but it's about $50-60,000 per year.