There May Be More Money Available to You Than You Think
Most investors assume their retirement accounts are off-limits until their mid-sixties. The reality is more interesting. A self-directed IRA or self-directed 401k can be used to purchase investment real estate or fund private money loans—often long before you hit traditional retirement age. That's the conversation we're building toward at our next Central Oregon investor meetup, and it's worth a closer look.
What a Self-Directed IRA Actually Does
A conventional IRA or 401k typically sits in a target-date fund or a mix of stocks chosen by your plan provider. A self-directed account lets you decide where the money goes. Instead of waiting for a fund manager to allocate your savings, you direct those dollars toward assets you understand—like a rental property in Bend or a private money loan to another investor.
The "self-directing" part is the key distinction. You're telling your retirement capital where to work rather than letting it ride passively in the market.
A Real Deal: Buying a Bend Property Through a Self-Directed IRA
We helped a client purchase a property in Bend using her self-directed IRA within the past year. A few things stood out from that experience:
- Lenders who offer this product are few and far between—finding the right one takes research.
- These loans take longer to fund than conventional financing.
- Interest rates run higher than standard investment property loans.
- In this case, the client required very little to no money out of her own pocket, which was the primary appeal at the time.
- The plan was to get the property running, optimize rents, and eventually refinance into a DSCR or traditional investment property loan at a lower rate.
It's not a fit for every situation, but for the right investor with the right goals, it got the job done.
What You Can Use It For
Real estate is the obvious application, but it's not the only one. A self-directed retirement account can also be deployed as private money—lending to other investors and earning a return inside your tax-advantaged account. If you've been curious about private lending but don't have a large pool of liquid savings, this is worth exploring.
It's also worth going back through your records. A lot of people have old 401ks sitting in a former employer's plan, quietly accumulating and easy to forget. Those accounts may be candidates for rolling into a self-directed structure.
Who This Strategy Is Best Suited For
Our honest take: this feels like an intermediate-to-advanced move. If you haven't closed your first investment deal yet, we'd generally suggest getting one under your belt first—whether through traditional savings, seller financing, subject-to, or some combination. Then start looking at what your retirement accounts can do for you.
That said, we're genuinely curious whether our upcoming guest sees it differently. She may make the case that a self-directed IRA is exactly where a first-time investor should start. We'll find out.
Meet Our Upcoming Guest: Amanda Hullbrook of Specialized Trust Company
At our June 25th online meetup, we're bringing in Amanda Hullbrook from Specialized Trust Company. Amanda specializes in self-directed accounts and the broader ecosystem around them—entity structuring, LLCs, trusts, finding the right lenders, and avoiding the tax mistakes that can undo the whole strategy. She'll cover the differences between self-directed IRAs, Roth IRAs, and 401ks, and help you figure out which structure fits your tax situation and goals.
We get one-off questions about this stuff all the time—should I hold my property in an LLC? Do I need a trust? Amanda knows how to bring those pieces together into a coherent plan.
If you're working a W2 job and building toward financial freedom, your employer-sponsored retirement account is one more tool available to you right now—not just at 65.
Come With Your Questions
If you've been watching your IRA balance grow and wondering whether any of that capital could be working harder for you in real estate, this meetup is worth an hour of your time. We learn something new from every speaker we bring in, and this topic has real implications for how you fund deals and scale a portfolio over time.
Join us online on June 25th, noon to 1:00 p.m. Pacific. Find the link in the show notes or send us a message and we'll get it to you directly.
And if you want to go deeper on private money—whether as a borrower or a lender—check out our PRIMO Private Money Academy. It's built for Central Oregon investors who want to move beyond the obvious financing options and put every available dollar to work.
