Tax/Investment Question

[Jonathan Lilly]

Hi. I work for a small Engineering firm where we have a Simple IRA plan. The maximum tax deductible contributions for this plan are $11,500 per year. I have always tried to contribute this amount every year, because, up to this point, I thought investing in the stock market was my only opportunity to invest for retirement. I also contribute this much so that I can deduct the maximum allowable from my income for tax purposes. Recently though, I have began to learn about the benefits of real estate investments. I plan on buying my first rental property in the next year; however, me saving so much for the IRA plan every year severly restricts the amount of money I can save for this property. My question is, should I start saving less in the company sponsored IRA plan to give me more funds to invest in real estate? Do you think the lost tax deductions from the decreased IRA contributions would be made up through the tax deductions from the investment property? Thanks in advance for the help!