How to leverage 401k accounts

[Stephanie Medina]

For those of you that have good w2 income and want to take advantage of employer matching (100% return!), how do you tap into that money to scale your portfolios?  The way I'm looking at it, if my spouse and I only do employer matching for the 10 years we would have more than enough in there and still 10 years out from being able to access it.

I do plan on doing 401k loans for deals if the numbers check out, and I've considered rolling over some of our 401ks into roth IRAs to access our contributions but we'd have to pay taxes out of pocket (a big hit to cash flow) and we couldn't touch it for 5 years.  Both of our employers now offer roth 401k contributions instead (with matching going into regular 401ks), and I may take advantage of that too, but another small hit to cash flow.

At some point, do you just suck it up and take a 10% penalty?

[Dennis Bragg]

@Stephanie Medina

Your question brought me back to a deal a client of mine did in Chicago a few years ago. He took a 401(k) loan to fund the down payment on a four-unit building in a rapidly appreciating neighborhood. The key for him? Treating loan repayments like a non-negotiable expense while reinvesting property cash flow back into building equity. Today, that building generates enough passive income to cover his annual retirement contributions.

You mentioned taking the 10% penalty, which I’d only recommend as a last resort. Instead:

401(k) loans: They’re low-interest, and you’re paying yourself back.

Roth rollovers If you can afford the taxes now, this gives future flexibility.

Creative financing: I’ve seen clients leverage partnerships or seller financing to limit retirement fund withdrawals.

One thing to consider: real estate markets today are vastly different from a decade ago.. so opportunities may require extra creativity.

Have you looked into specific deals yet? Curious what’s catching your eye.