Rather than give advice on how to protect your investment and mitigate risk my advice is do not invest with family.

Any advice/expertise is much appreciated!

Best for personal protection, and tax purposes when first starting out?

When an IRA receives income from a trade or business on a regular or repeated basis, it can become subject to a tax known as UBIT which is meant to level the playing field and protect tax-paying businesses from unfair competition. 

,I'd like to start off by saying I am very impressed at the varying levels of expertise represented on this site and that I only wished I would have learned of all of these opportunities earlier.A little background on myself, I 32 years old, a Texas Native (Houston Area) and for most of my adult life I have been employed (comfortably) in the oil and gas industry.

I've got a question that I need your expertise on. 

Why would you form an llc, supposedly for liability protection, then commingle funds by personally paying the llc bills, immediately killing any protection you thought you had?

An LLC does not offer as much protection as you might think.

Just be carful trying too hard to protect everyone else or you could end up the loser.

Our state regulations require a "seal" to protect from contaminants.