First job out of college. Start IRA or save up for first RE deal?
Hey everyone,
My name is Toby and, as the title states, I am currently starting my first job out of college. My question revolves around peoples' opinions on how to best prepare myself to invest in income producing properties in the next 3-4 years in regards to 401K v IRA v highly liquid personal stock portfolio.
I have read many posts on here referring to using self-directed traditional or roth IRA's as the vehicle through which to invest in real estate, but I am curious if I have not yet started a roth would it be better to start a post-tax savings/ investment account so that I can be ready to jump on a deal nearly immediately if one presents itself? I also read that when using an IRA, all expenses must come out of that account. I am not sure how this would work as a down payment may run the account pretty dry.
To give a few more details, my employer provides a generous match to my 401k so I plan to contribute the full matchable amount there. After that though, I am budgeting that I should be able to save ~$10k my first year (and hopefully increase that over the following few years) between either a roth or alternative investment options. As I am starting with a clean slate, how would you all attack my situation if you were in my shoes?
Thank you in advance for any help and I look forward to learning more from everyone on BP!