What to do in the first couple years of a new self directed IRA?

[Chris Koch]

Just opened my first SD-IRA for REI, deposited 2017's $5500, and converted to Roth. Plan to do this again in 2018. It'll be maybe a few more years until I have enough in there to buy a turnkey rental (our primary REI strategy). Meantime I'll continue to invest with my personal or LLC's account.

I'm wondering what people do with their SD-IRA in the first couple years rather than just let the money sit there uninvested. Should I buy stocks and get some sort of return, maybe act as a small-time hard money lender? ($5500-11000 isn't exactly a ton of money for that right?) I'm basically just looking for ideas.

Thanks!

[Brian Eastman]

@Chris Koch

ETC will kill you on termination fees.  Check with them to see what it will take to get the account deployed into conventional things like funds.  They have some avenues that are a bit clunky, but that work.

The alternative would be to say "lesson learned" and bite the bullet and close the account and send it somewhere like Vanguard or TD Ameritrade for now, then setup a SDIRA with a better custodian in the future once you are ready to start investing.  ETC is probably the most expensive / least customer friendly firm in the industry (with the biggest marketing budget).