IRA contributions for real estate investors

[Amy Pfaffman]

Hi everyone,

Since it's year end (or the new year when you're reading this), I was thinking about contributing to my existing Roth IRA or at least moving some money from my traditional IRA to my Roth. I wanted to be sure I was operating within the law, so I looked up the rules, and it says to contribute to an IRA, I need "earned income," which specifically excludes rental income, dividends, interest, and retirement distributions. That's all my money. I tried Googling it, but I end up with a sea of results about self-directed IRAs, which is a totally different topic. For those of you like me, earning all your money from rents, what are you doing when it comes to retirement savings?