I currently have a 401k through work and, in addition, have been putting the max toward my Roth IRA every month.

If you're in this boat, roll your 401k (hopefully fully or mostly vested at that point) into a self directed IRA and you've got a nice chunk of change to start investing with outside of the mutual fund market.Don't sweat the coffees.  

If you have a $400 for P&I and your sales terms are 20 years at 9% then your sale price is @44,500, if you are all in for $25,000 then your return is over $18% a year (remember you are getting 9% on the 44.5k sale but only invested 25k, thus the higher rate).Then sell 85 payments on the loan to an IRA investor at 9% and you get $25,000 for that sale.  

With a Roth IRA you can take out your contributions tax free and aren't required to repay them.

I have a Roth IRA (not self-directed yet), and no other retirement accounts yet. 

Between 5 to 10 business days if you are funding it with former employer or IRA funds to allow time for the movement of those funds to the solo 401k plan. 

In addition to maxing out my Roth IRA this year I am saving an additional 500 a month for REI and on months I am not doing home improvements I can save 1500 a month. 

@Jim Peret you posted in Tax, Legal issues, contracts and Self-Directed IRA forum.

Let us get some basics out of the way.An IRA - Traditional or Roth - Most common vehicle for retirement investments.Traditional IRARothTax deferral - Traditional IRA grows tax deferred - pay income tax as you take out distributions.

Does anyone have any recommendations or referrals for someone who has setup LLCs to manage Self-Directed IRAs?