@Jill JohnsAn account at TD Ameritrade may be "self directed", but it will still be limited to investing in the stock market.  

Don't mean to bring back a dead post but I just wanted to clarify on the post above.  

Two years ago, I began investing in stocks, options, futures, and forex which consumed a lot of my time and had a long learning curve.

Currently, our net worth is tied up in a pretty big chunk of equity in our Glendora home (bought it 10 years ago, and have it on a 15 yr fixed now), and a large of amount of stocks (that have done very well for us) we invested while my wife worked in Starbucks corporate for 10 years.So, now I'm looking to diversify and increase cash flow by purchasing 1 or 2 SFH rentals this year.But not here in Glendora.

You also forgot to include a return on the $130,000 equity you have lying dead in the property.

I represented a Toronto stock broker in her purchase of a Cape Cod investment Condo last year.

If any of you ever study the stock market or read about it, chances are you are familiar with vanguard.com.

I started out listening more to stock market investing podcasts and stumbled across this site sort of through the Afford Anything blog by Paula Pant.  

Flipping houses and paying UBTI can still be more profitable for your IRA than investing in stocks, or even passive real estate options such as holding rentals or being a hard money lender.  

This is true in the stock market as well (though our mortgages have amortization schedules that improve over time and stocks purchased with cash do not yield the same benefit).