Whether it is a wedding, a harvest festival, a religious holiday, or a national observance, our celebrations are woven tightly into our overall cultural identity.

This can be very attractive as it's so much easier.When a trusted person in the public eye takes your money and "invests" it, you are counting on their reputation and belief that, because they are an educator, your money is safe.

Those are limiting beliefs.

My belief is that if you buy gold, you take POSSESSION of it.

This all leads to my firm belief that most people do not understand our monetary system and thus proves very difficult to impliment neccessary changes.

Chris Masons - Your IRA is already a tax deferred account so you can not get depreciation or the other write offs, as you don't need them in an IRA - it is already tax benefited.With that said, the benefits are this: Your ability to control your returns better (unlike in the stock market), your ability to self direct, your ability to grow your IRA tax deferred using RE as the vehicle.That said, my personal belief is that buy and hold inside an IRA is NOT the best use of your IRA funds.

After two months of religiously studying this board and reading numerous books, last night I finally attended my first REIA.

Could be random luck, but I’m of the belief that the rehab just wasn’t as thorough as MSHB.  

@Alan Pederson you may want to try this approach rather than just being ambiguous and noncommittal whIch can mIlItate theIr mistaken belief that you don’t know what your doing and lead to further embarrassing situations

Some people want extra income for retirement, to fund religious missions, control over their investments, tax advantages, freedom from their job, funding for their kids’ future, etc.