#Clockedin with Jordan Edwards

#247 - Unlocking Tax-Free Wealth Through Self-Directed IRAs

• Jordan Edwards • Season 5 • Episode 246

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Did you know your retirement account could be used to invest in real estate, private businesses, cryptocurrency, or virtually any other asset class? Most Americans don't, and it's costing them millions in potential wealth.

In this eye-opening conversation with Adam Bergman, founder of IRA Financial Group and tax attorney, we explore the hidden power of self-directed IRAs and how they're revolutionizing retirement planning. Adam reveals that despite what most financial institutions tell you, IRAs have remarkably few limitations—you can't buy collectibles like art, you can't purchase life insurance, and you can't engage in self-dealing transactions. Everything else? Fair game.

The wealth-building potential is staggering. Adam shares how investing just $5,000 annually from age 25 to 70 with an 11% return (achievable through alternative investments) could yield nearly $5 million tax-free. Compare that to a taxable account, which would only generate about $2 million with the same contributions and returns. The system is literally "rigged in our favor," as Adam puts it, yet most Americans never take full advantage.

What's particularly concerning is the concentration risk in traditional retirement accounts. The S&P 500, where most Americans have their retirement funds, is heavily weighted toward just ten companies that make up approximately 80% of its value. Meanwhile, over 80% of companies with revenues exceeding $100 million are privately held—meaning they're completely inaccessible to traditional retirement accounts. Self-directed IRAs solve this problem.

Beyond investment strategies, Adam shares his personal philosophy on balancing business success with family life, physical health, and philanthropy. His advice on career transitions is particularly valuable: rather than abruptly quitting your job to pursue a passion, find ways to leverage your existing expertise while building something new on the side.

Whether you're just starting your retirement planning journey or looking to diversify an existing portfolio, this conversation provides actionable insights that could transform your financial future. Check out IRAFinancial.com to learn more about self-directed retirement options.

To Learn more about Adam: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adambergman1

To Reach Jordan:

Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ejFXH1_BjdnxG4J8u93Zw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.edwards.7503

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanfedwards/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/



Hope you find value in this. If so please provide a 5-star and drop a review.

Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-555/intro-call

Speaker 1:

Hey, what's going on, guys? I got a special guest here today. We have Adam Bergman. He's founder of the IRA Financial Group and he's a tax lawyer. Adam, we're so excited to have you on the Hashtag Clocked In podcast. Our first question is why are IRAs important and are people focusing on them enough?

Speaker 2:

Well, jordan, thanks for having me Super excited to be here, focusing on them enough. Well, jordan, thanks for having me Super excited to be here. Yes, iras are super, super important. They were created 1974 by ERISA. There's about 65 million IRAs out there almost $15 trillion in IRAs. And why they're important? Two reasons you get a tax benefit, so you get a tax deduction if you make a pre-tax IRA, and number two Before we get into it, Adam, what even is an IRA?

Speaker 2:

Okay. So an IRA is an individual retirement account, so anyone with income could create an IRA. Anyone that has a 401k and leaves their job could roll those funds into an IRA tax-free. So the IRA was born in 1974, and it could be a pre-tax IRA where you get a tax deduction for putting money in. Tax deduction means you reduce your taxable income, which is a benefit, or you can do a Roth IRA, which is an after-tax IRA. You do not get a tax deduction, it's after-tax money. But here's the catch with a Roth IRA so long as you're 59 and a half and the Roth has been open at least five years, you can pull everything out. You want tax free, zero tax.

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and with a pre-tax traditional IRA, once you're 59 and a half you pull the money out. You do have to pay tax on it, but the beauty of the IRA is the money grows in the IRA, world tax free, and that's known as deferral or compounding returns.

Speaker 1:

That's incredible and the thing that a lot of us I was watching a video. I was telling you earlier that I was literally watching a video and there was this girl who mentioned she was working in corporate America for eight years and didn't know about her 401k or how it worked or how the IRA worked. And the reason I want to bring this up today is because if you're working a corporate job, if you're working as a self-employed, if you're doing any of these things, you should have an IRA. A 401k fits into that IRA and Adam's the expert on this. But it's just super important for us to realize what these are and actually evaluate them and not just go. Yeah, we literally treat them like we're picking out a sandwich at a deli. What are we going to invest in? We just pick it out like, oh, what options do they have? There's a million different options.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, no, it's so true, jordan. So if you look at the IRA world, an IRA is an individual retirement account. 401k is a qualified employer plan, so it's set up by a business. So there are different requirements. An IRA, for example, in 2025, you can put in 7,000 if you're under 50, 8,000 if you're over 50. 401k, you can go all the way up to 23,500, 31,000 if you're over 50. There's also a special catch-up If you're between 60 and 63, you can put away even more. And if you're self-employed, you have a really robust opportunity to set up a solo 401k and put away up to $70,000 or $77,500. So, like you said, jordan, there are so many amazing opportunities and I always tell people this and people don't believe it, but it's true. The system is literally rigged in our favor.

Speaker 2:

And what I mean is if you think about it, congress doesn't agree on anything right. It doesn't agree on, obviously, like immigration, tax policy. But one thing it definitely agrees on is retirement accounts. And if you look at the Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, it's total bipartisan support. So any major retirement legislation, it's almost unanimous cross the aisle support Because it works right. It's based off simple math.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but you start to realize that most of us opt in to specific things that are already picked for us. Yeah, and there's a guy named Ramit Sethi where he talks about $30,000 questions. So I'm hoping that everyone listening to this sits down afterwards and goes wait what even is in my retirement accounts and do I like these. Are these the best options for us? Because Adam's going to explain how his company does something very unique. And what does your company specifically do for people?

Speaker 2:

Right. So IRA Financial is a self-directed company. So, just like IRAs were born in 1974, the tax code did not distinguish between an IRA that bought stocks and an IRA that buys real estate. In fact, the tax code only says three things you cannot do with an IRA, that's it. It doesn't say what you can do, only what you cannot.

Speaker 2:

And here are the three simple things. Number one can't buy collectibles like art. Number two you cannot buy life insurance. You could with a 401k, not with an IRA. And the third and broadest category is found under Internal Revenue Code, Section 4975.

Speaker 2:

And what it says in sum is this you cannot do anything in your IRA that directly or indirectly personally benefits you, your lineal descendants, so your parents, your children, your spouse, daughter-in-law, son-in-law or any entities 50% or more controlled by such persons. So what does that mean? It means you can't buy a house and live in it. You can't take your kids to Disney in your IRA. You can't buy yourself a Ferrari. You can't buy yourself a Rolex watch with your IRA.

Speaker 2:

But what you can do is you can buy real estate and rent it to a third party. You can even transact with brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins. Those are not disqualified, they're legal. You could buy Bitcoin, you could buy gold. Private equity, venture capital, private placements, real estate funds, credit funds, tax liens, you name it. You can do it. Other than those three things, Jordan, you can do it. And there's no reason to just settle on stocks or mutual funds or ETFs. Again, if Congress didn't want you to do alt and did not want you to diversify, they would have prohibited in the tax code. They just would have said hey, you have to buy publicly traded securities, just like 529 plans, educational plans, you have to do publicly traded securities. It's not the case with IRAs, 401ks, even health savings accounts and Coverdales. Government wants you to diversify.

Speaker 1:

Interesting and you start to realize here that there's a ton of different opportunities and you're probably sitting there going. Why would I care about other opportunities? So what's the big advantage of putting your money into a private equity deal or a real estate deal or a stock Like? Why would someone even want to diversify?

Speaker 2:

Right. So there's multiple reasons. Like number one, diversification. Right, you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket we all saw what happened with tariff trade wars. Like, no one wants to see all their net worth or retirement account drop, you know, 20% in a few weeks. That's very painful, it's not a good idea. So you can ask and I'm just a tax lawyer, I'm not a wealth advisor, but my wealth advisors and people I talk to always preach diversification. Right, you want to have exposure to different asset classes, right. So whether it's real estate, whether it's Bitcoin, gold, real alternatives like private equity or venture capital, it's good to spread around your assets so you have exposure to different assets.

Speaker 2:

Another reason some people just don't understand Wall Street right, they just don't understand it. It doesn't click with them. But they like real estate and they want a tangible asset, right? Something they can touch, something they can drive by and say, hey, that's the house I own and no matter what happens with tariffs. Like, I have a tenant that's going to pay me 2000 bucks a month for the unit. So there's a sense of hey, I'm going to have some constant cashflow and also, hopefully, some appreciation.

Speaker 1:

Listen, if you look, how would that? How would that one work? Like the real estate, because I've known about real estate where you can do IRAs with big deals, where they're doing buying apartment buildings, but you can buy them with individual houses.

Speaker 2:

Oh, yeah. So IRA Financial. We have 25,000 accounts, almost $5 billion in assets. 70% or so of our clients are involved in real estate, so tens of thousands of clients are buying Airbnbs, literally individual homes, either to flip, to hold and rent out, to buy residential commercial all different types.

Speaker 1:

So basically they have this account. Inside of the account maybe they've been working or doing whatever saved up like 50 grand or something or a hundred grand and now they're taking this money and purchasing homes and then does the cash flow go back into the account or does it go to themselves, or how does that work?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so great question. So all the beauty of an IRA is that when you buy an asset whether it's stocks or real estate all the income and gains flow back to the IRA tax free. So here's an example I have 100 grand, I buy an apartment in Texas and three years later someone offers me 200,000 for the apartment. The $100,000 of gains goes back to my retirement account without tax. I don't have to worry about capital gains, no ordinary income basis holding periods, it's all tax-free. Same with the income from the rent.

Speaker 1:

Let's say, you know, john smith pays me 2 000 bucks a month back to my ira, tax-free wow, and you mentioned in your journey you were working eight years as a tax lawyer and didn't had were just like that girl in that video had no idea, so exactly honestly, exactly and's even.

Speaker 2:

I'm embarrassed to tell you that, but yeah, that's true. I listen, I have a master's in tax law. I consider myself pretty smart guy. I worked at some of the largest law firms in the world in New York city and I was an eighth year associate and I never heard of a self-directed IRA. All my 401ks were in stocks and ETFs mutual funds and I was asked by a partner to help a firm's client to look at using his IRA to invest in a hedge fund he was associated with and I was like blown away that you could do this. I had no idea and literally quit my job within months and started IRA Financial about a year later, because I just was so incredibly just blown away that you can actually do this and the fact that I didn't even know you can do it. There had to be millions and millions and millions of Americans that would want to do this if they just knew about it, and that's been my mission.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And the thing you start to realize here is and the big reason people want to do this is because your returns are different. So you might get higher returns in other areas or you might get lower, but you're also diversified. But if you can start getting bigger returns in different asset classes, then you can expedite your life Like it literally buys you back years. And if you ever played, if any of the audience is listening you can go to compoundinterestcalculatorcom and literally type in your assumptions of like how much money you have, how many years, and then percentage based, and usually the S&P does like 10%. Bitcoin historically has been doing like 60%. Houses sometimes do different percentages. So it's just whatever these are and you can mix and match however you want. But it becomes very interesting where everything's tax-free.

Speaker 2:

Right. So here let me just run through a couple of those compound examples for your listeners, because I think it's helpful. So I'll take a really, really basic conservative approach and then an aggressive example to show the differences. So let's say someone's 25 years old and they want to save $2,400 a year. Right, $200 a month, it's doable. And they say you know what? I'm going to save $2,400 a year from 25 to age 70. Even if I end up making more money when I'm 30, 40, 50, I'm just going to keep putting in $2,400. And you know what? I'm going to assume an 8.5% rate of return, even though, as you said, jordan, the S&P 500s aver average about 10% over the last 100 years. So if I do that $25 to $70, $2,400 a year I would have over a million dollars tax-free at age 70. Yeah, that's $2,400.

Speaker 1:

Let's say you know, yeah, that's a lot of people feeling behind and this is one in America nowadays, especially like big cities, that's like one dinner. That's literally one dinner, exactly.

Speaker 2:

So how about, instead of 2,400, you say you know what? I'm gonna put 5,000 bucks away from 25 to 70. And I'm going to average 11% rate of return, which is doable, especially if you're an alts you'd have almost $5 million tax free. Okay, so the numbers don't lie and that's what people don't realize. Yes, it's not going to happen tomorrow. Right, you're not going to just like click a few buttons, put a dollar in your IRA and you're going to have five million bucks. But if you follow these three simple rules and I tell people, it's like, just start as early as you can, just be consistent, put in money every year and then just wait and have some fun and watch your money grow Like.

Speaker 1:

Watch your money grow like you're going to be rich tax free the way to the way to really do this. I love the starting early. The second thing is we've been like what I do with people sometimes is just automate, like even my friends and family. I just tell them to automate, like you don't want to think about this stuff, you really don't. So if you can automate this and it doesn't need a required like Jordan's's approval or Adam's approval or anything, and it just continually invests and continually does its thing, it's crazy how fast it grows. You don't realize how fast Because most of us are thinking there's like a few different lifestyles I've seen.

Speaker 1:

I've seen one is the person who's like, hey, I'm just trying to get by, I can't even do this. Then there's two where it's hey, I'm just the saver, I don't trust the markets, I don't trust all that. Then you get the someone who's been doing that versus someone who's just been saving the cash. They can't compete, they sit there and go how'd you do that? And then you realize you eroded so many years of your life because now you have to work more just to make the same amount of money. It is the hack of all hacks, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, that's why I keep saying it's rigged in our favor, it's the hack of all hacks. Yeah, exactly, that's why I keep saying it. It's rigged in our favor, it's the hack of all hacks. I love it Like. I had dinner last night with some friends and we were just talking about savings and one of my friends, super smart with Ivy League, does pretty well. He has no retirement account, he's self-employed, he's got a bunch of employees, zero retirement savings and 401k since I was 24 years old. Now I'm almost, you know, 50, so for 25 years I have millions of dollars tax-free.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, but he literally probably sits there and goes. I make a lot of money so like it's fine, but he can't compound that fast like you did because it's impossible. It's impossible to do that and you just keep missing year after year and it's's like dude, don't worry, I got, I got money in cash, and it's like completely different.

Speaker 2:

I mean, listen, I'll give you. I'll give you an example, like if you, if you looked at a taxable account. So let's go back to my example 25 to 70, 5,000 bucks a year, 11% rate of return, assuming you're at a 25% tax bracket. It's pretty low, but let's just say that's where you're at, okay. So I said you'd have 4.9 million tax-free If you, if you did the savings in a taxable account, you'd have just over 2 million because you'd be paying 25% on all your income and gains. So you'd lose almost 60% of your value by not saving in a retirement account.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So there you go.

Speaker 1:

It's a massive difference. And how would somebody like set this up Like if they wanted to do it? Because there's probably people listening going like this sounds great, like I want $5 million. How do I set this up, like, what do I need to do?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you have a lot of options. If you just want an IRA to just buy some mutual funds or stocks, you can just go to Schwab or Fidelity. Actually, IRA Financial, we're starting a partnership with Interactive Brokers.

Speaker 2:

We're going to launch at the end of the summer, where you'll be able to actually buy equities on our platform as well. But let's say now you just want to start with Tesla or Apple or Alphabet, you can go to any institution, just open an IRA for free and they'll help you out. If you want to do alts, like real estate or invest in your friend's business or gold or cryptos, you can go to IRA Financial, open an account in minutes and you can either contribute directly to the IRA or you can roll over money tax-free from the former 401k or from another IRA you have and then from there you can direct us where to send the money and you can invest tax-free in a self-directed IRA Interesting.

Speaker 1:

Interesting. And why do you think so many people are missing the ball on this? Like, why do people not care? Like it's really like they care more about their jobs than they do about the back end, Like so I think about it as like a front back. So the front is like sales and then the back is like operations, but in this case, like as if there's an employee or an employer, like the front would be like income coming in and then the back is like how do you handle the investments, say all that kind of stuff, and it's there's no attention on the back.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think two reasons. Number one the traditional financial institutions are not eager to tell you about options, right? They just want you buying their products because that's how they make money. So they're not giving you the options that you can do. Hey, I can buy real estate or gold or Bitcoin or do other things in my IRA, because they're not selling that. So they're not making money. So they're just forcing you into certain asset classes, and not all Americans really understand the markets or want to have their money in the markets, so they're not saving.

Speaker 2:

And then the other thing unfortunately, we're not being taught, right? I always give the example. I have a law degree, I have a master's in taxation. I didn't take one class on retirement savings, not one class on compounding returns or deferrals. So no one's teaching us the benefits. I only understood it because of my parents. My dad was just super smart and he just kept explaining to me that, hey, you're going to max out your retirement account. You have no choice. That's the best way to save because of compounded returns. So I got it, but most people don't and it's not taught to us, and it's just, unfortunately that's well, it's also.

Speaker 1:

It's also the constraint that your dad forced you to put yourself on, yeah. So when you put yourself in that constraint of hey, now I got to max this out and it's like whoa, that's like half my set, like when you're younger, it's like so much of your salary and you're like I don't know how I'm going to do this, but you force yourself to do it and your future self thanks you where it's like hey, now I have a lot more optionality.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean literally. I can stop working now if I wanted to. I've saved that much over the last 25 years. I love what I do so I wouldn't. But I have millions of dollars tax-free in a retirement account that keeps growing every year because I just started saving. And the nice thing with a 401k is most employers will give you a minimum 3% match on what you put in. So let's say you make 100k, you work at Apple and you put in 3,000 bucks. They'll match and give you 3,000 extra. So you thousand bucks. They'll match and give you three thousand extra. So you'll have six thousand bucks a year. Right, and you compound that over five, ten, fifteen years. You're gonna have a lot of money. So it's again.

Speaker 2:

If you don't want to do all, that's fine, and why I'm here is to really, you know, help your listeners understand that. Just do three simple things like start an ira. If it's all you get from this program, just start an ira, a, a Roth IRA, save in a 401k, pick investments you like and understand, and then just trust the process. Be patient, your money will grow. You will have six to seven figures tax-free when you retire, guaranteed.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I'm going to be honest with you, it's become so much simpler Like downloading these apps. You can literally do it on your phone. Download an app simpler like downloading these apps on your. You can literally do it on your phone. Download an app fidelity, schwab, any of them and literally you can make retirement account made and it's like so simple it's it's insane and they're just making it simpler and simpler and simpler. But it's just really important for everyone to realize this is not something you should be scared of.

Speaker 2:

This is something that you should actually embrace yeah, and, like IRA Financial, we have an app and we have a hundred plus amazing smart people that we want people to call us. Right, there's no charge to call and chat with us and we'll help you set up the right account, whether it's an IRA or Roth. Maybe you're self-employed we'll put you in a solo 401k. Maybe you want to use your retirement money to buy a business? There's a structure called a rollover business startup that we can do for you, where you can use your retirement money to start a business tax-free. So there's so many amazing things that are in the tax code and unfortunately, you know, the traditional institutions are just not educating people and either our universities or high schools. In terms of the value of compounding returns, right. Albert Einstein said it's the eighth wonder of the world. He's right. Like you can get rich by just saving in a retirement account.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, exactly. It makes a huge difference. So at Edwards Consulting, we have five pillars. There's mental health, physical health, community service, philanthropy, spirituality and relationships. So for you, adam, mental health, and this is just like where you're at today, just, and this can be through the financial lens, this could be through your life lens, like I know you're traveling a lot. So where are you at mentally? And then what are maybe some tips and tricks you use, or maybe maybe there's some areas of improvement?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so what do you think?

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean, my mental health is great Cause I have a great home work balance. I have a great family, a great wife, great kids. My wife's like super supportive. In fact she helped me start this business, so without her I wouldn't have started this business. So I'm super respectful of her and I think it's important to have peace at home. I think without peace at home you're not going to have peace in the workplace.

Speaker 1:

So finding balance is super important.

Speaker 2:

How do you create that peace at home, because I know people are sitting there. Going sounds great, but how do we do that? So I listen, I got lucky. I, I have a great wife. Uh, even though she's from new jersey, she's still a great a great person, jersey's great, jersey's great.

Speaker 2:

I'm joking, joking, joking. But um, I got lucky. She's a great person, we. She's my best friend. I think you have to communicate and you have to listen and respect your spouse. So I know there's things that if we bicker like there's things below the belt that I'm just not going to go to, that I know really bothers her. So I have a mutual respect for her where I know if I'm really mad at her, I just I'm not going to go certain places. So we just make sure those quarrels don't escalate and we just kind of laugh it off and move on. And I think that's the best answer is just communicate, communicate, communicate.

Speaker 1:

Just don't hold things in I think you're bringing up a really good point where it's communicate prior to an issue, so like, if there's a hey, like I thought you were going to be home for dinner and you weren't, it's like, have that conversation there. Don't let it pile up for three months of all these other issues and then do an attack. Like I'm just saying that for the audience, it's good for us to realize like, hey, if there is a slight issue, nip it in the butt right now. Yeah, because it's so much easier to attack earlier than it is later.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no-transcript, I think that's helpful, but I think communications, like you said, super important and just making sure you have respect for your spouse.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely yeah, and I like how you talked about the alternative perspective there, where it's hey, they're a person too, they live 24 hours as well. It's not just one way or the other. It's not one's the star, one's the cast member, it's we're both the stars. And how do we support each other?

Speaker 2:

absolutely. And the last thing I'll say, my dad's advice is pick your battles right, like there's certain things it's just not worth fighting about, like what restaurant we're going to tomorrow night, what movie it's just not worth fighting about.

Speaker 1:

So pick your battles yeah, yeah, if you're passionate about it, then you bring it up, but otherwise you're absolutely right, there's little remedial things. But what we're investing in the 401k, that's a battle to pick. Yeah, for sure, it really. It really no, because people don't realize and I I'm kind of bringing up and and I'm joking a little bit, but I'm not People think of their 401k or IRA investments as much as hey, what movie are we going to watch on Netflix tonight? And it is something that should take hours and hours of research and really look into this and reevaluate it once a quarter or every six months or once a year, because you might not like what you're in at the moment and most of us don't even know what we're in. So it's important for us to realize that which is bizarre.

Speaker 2:

It's bizarre because literally it's there's $33 trillion of retirement money in this country, for most of us, our largest source of savings in an IRA or 401k and, like you said, jordan. Most people don't even look at their account, they don't even think about it.

Speaker 1:

So it's crazy. They literally sit there and go oh, my bank account, I have like a thousand dollars, or I have $5,000 or a hundred thousand dollars and it's like that's great, but they don't even know their retirement. They don't even know their retirement, especially if they switched a bunch of jobs. They're like, oh, that just went somewhere and I'm like it's probably 20 grand there, 50 grand there.

Speaker 2:

Finding the lost ones is insane.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, in 2014, I bought Bitcoin in an IRA. I put in less than $50,000. You can imagine how much it is today. It's insane. If I just said you know what it's in stocks, I don't care, I'm not going to look at it. I would have missed that opportunity. Plus, I was able to invest in a lot of different amazing opportunities certain startups Some worked and some didn't, but the ones that did really, really worked and some really really cool real estate opportunities and loans and hard money loans that have been very, very great sources of consistent, tax-free cashflow for me. So I agree, you should do what you want, right, and you should do what you like. So if you feel great in the stock market, then stay there, but pay attention to where your account is. If you don't understand the market and maybe you understand real estate or maybe you like investing in startups or real estate funds you can do it. The government is allowing you to do it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this is a lot of stuff where people are just like over my head. I'm not focusing on it, but that's why I think it's so important to bring you on, because these are important subjects. So the second pillar is physical health. How do you feel about your physical health on like a one to ten?

Speaker 2:

yeah. So I think physical health, like mental health, is crucial. I feel great, probably around eight, although my achilles is killing me lately because I've been running a lot. But I try to exercise every day, even if it's just walking.

Speaker 2:

I try to get at least 15 000 steps in a day oh, wow oh yeah, so I'll walk at night, I'll walk in the morning, depending on my schedule. If the weather's not great, I'll walk at night. I'll walk in the morning, depending on my schedule. If the weather's not great, I'll walk on a treadmill. I try to sit ups pushups every morning, 30 minutes, nothing crazy, but I think physical health is crucial.

Speaker 1:

So how do you do that when traveling? Because I know traveling can really put a deterrent on people.

Speaker 2:

I wake up earlier. There's hotels, so there's, every hotel is a treadmill.

Speaker 1:

and I just wake up 30 minutes earlier and I you're big on just getting the steps in, like getting the walking in or running or whatever it is gotcha like yeah, no, because I mean it's. And then how do you track it all?

Speaker 1:

I have actually yeah, but I have like a garmin watch no, the reason I bring that up is because the trackables people have no idea. But you start wearing this, you measure and monitor your stuff and you will improve because now you have a baseline to go against. And it's like I only got 13 days, Like I literally saw my wife. She's walking around the kitchen yesterday. I'm like are you okay? And she's just like got to get my steps in. I'm like there you go, there you go. Whatever works for people, it's important. So community service, philanthropy how do you think about that and how, how has that impacted your life at all? Some people are involved, some people are definitely very focused again, I think later on.

Speaker 2:

I'm almost 50 now. Um, I think as I was starting this business I didn't have a lot of time for community service and philanthropy. So my idea is I'm going to sacrifice now so as I get older and hopefully more successful, I'll be able to give more back to the community, and that's what I'm trying to do. So I sit on a number of boards in my community. I try to be as philanthropic as possible. I do believe in good karma. The more you give, like I think, god will bless you with more. But it's hard when you're starting a business and you just don't have a lot of financial resources. It's tough. You can give your time, but in some cases it's almost better to focus on your business so you can actually develop financial stability and security, so you can end up giving more money as you get older. So I think in life, philanthropy, community service sometimes there's the right time for it.

Speaker 1:

That's interesting and so when do you think you really started like stepping into it and like doing boards, donations, all that kind of stuff, just because it gives the audience kind of a perspective on like hey, like how do you even find a philanthropy?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for me mid 40s, I was a little bit more secure, the company was a little bit more stable. For me mid-40s, I was a little bit more secure, the company was a little bit more stable. But I started this company 15 years ago, so the first 10 years I didn't have any money to give. I was really. I didn't take a big salary, I was. All of my money was going back into my business and that was my focus. And the sacrifice was hey, I'm going to do that because, God willing, as the company grows and hard work leads to more success, I'll have more money and I'll be able to do more good in my community and thank God it's worked out that way. So it's okay, Like, if you can't give money, that's fine, you can give time, but if you can't give time or money, then focus on what you can do and then hopefully down the road you'll be able to do more.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely, and I think it's. It doesn't always have to be this big formal thing either. Sometimes it's like it's funny. I've been, I've had a podcast each day this week, so I've been doing these same similar questions and I was talking about the community service. I'm like, damn, I haven't done anything in a while. So I'm literally on a walk and I bought some waters for the homeless and I'm like and that water's in a rice cake because it's 15 bucks. And like the thing is they were pumped and it's Florida. It's not like you need a water. So that's a very minor thing that you can add into your life. It doesn't have to be like I got to get on a board or do this or that. Sometimes it's the little steps, so I think that's awesome. And then relationships for you. In regard to personal.

Speaker 2:

Obviously, you spoke very highly about your wife. But in business and life, like, how do you think about your relationships? That's a good question. So I've had more time. So the first 10 or 11 years building this business, I didn't have time for a lot of friends. Ok, I literally was working seven days a week. All my attention and time was focused on my business and my mission, so my circle of friends did not grow. I have some core friends and that was ample because I just didn't have enough time. But over the last five years I've been able to build deeper relationships with my core friends and also expand my friend group because I just had more time. But I'll be honest I think if you have to choose between your family and your friends, you should choose your family. If you have a free Sunday, you should be with your spouse and kids versus going to watch football at a bar with your buddies. I just personally think your obligation is to your family first.

Speaker 1:

And I think you're getting more out of that too, because then it's not so much of this escapism but it's more of hey, we're going to build a life together and this is what we want to work on together, Cause I completely agree, I mean, there's a lot of people doing like a lot of different activities and hobbies and this and that, and like you see that they're never crossing paths and it's like it's very challenging. But that's why it's important to figure out like exactly absolutely, and plus friends, they come and go.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes you're not really sure who's going to stay around yeah, you, you want to make sure your friends aren't transactional right, like your friends care about you and they want what's best for you instead of just wanting what's good for them yeah, like a friend at the front sitting at the bar, absolutely so.

Speaker 1:

Then spirituality how do you think about that? That could be religion, that could be personal, that could be yoga meditation. Some people are like I don't care. Some people are like I care, like what do you think about that? That?

Speaker 2:

could be religion, that could be personal, that could be yoga, meditation. Some people are like I don't care. Some people are like I care. Like what do you think about it? Yeah, I think it's good to be a good person, whatever you believe in. Right now, again, my spirituality, my focus, is really like on my business and my family. That's kind of what I do. I believe in being a good person giving back to the community, so that's kind of what I do with. When I think about spirituality is just focused on my family, the mission of my business because the goal again for me is to help millions and millions of Americans save more on their retirement account, do it easier, so they can generate more wealth for themselves and their family.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. That's incredible, and so for you, you guys have over I don't want to say it wrong but 25,000 accounts currently. How do you guys, how does someone even grow 25? Like that's a lot. 5 billion, like that's a lot of money, that's a lot of people. How are you able to build these? Like? Are you doing strategic partnerships? Are you just doing it, knocking on doors? Like?

Speaker 2:

no, with the internet you can scale right, you can scale with the internet. Uh, people find us we do. You know digital marketing? Um, going on podcasts like this just I've written nine books um just just educating people and letting people know that, hey, there's options out there. The products sell themselves, like the solutions sell themselves, because if you want diversification, if you want to buy alternative assets, the traditional institutions won't let you do that. So they have to come to the self-created world and hopefully they find IRA Financial, because we think we're the best in the business.

Speaker 1:

And how has that been over the past 15-ish years? In regard to the very beginning, where it was like 2010, 2011? I because I feel like even now, like we talked about a few people before like that you're like, yeah, we do the backing behind those people as well. Like, how has it been? Like, has more people entered the space? Is it still like a pretty like hidden area? Because I don't know too much. Yeah, I've done over. Yeah, I've done over two yeah, I've done over like 240 podcasts.

Speaker 2:

Literally never met anybody who's like yeah, this is my ish, Like, this is what I do. Yeah, I get it. Listen, there's probably, as I mentioned, about 65 million IRAs the alt world now maybe five to 6%. When I started it was probably 2%. I remember when I started this business I told my colleagues at the law firm I was at this is what I'm doing and they looked at me like are you crazy? Who would buy real estate in a retirement account? That doesn't make sense.

Speaker 2:

And now it's just so so standard, right, it's really just the norm that of course, I want to do alts and an IRA Like why wouldn't I, why wouldn't I want to get more control and invest in things I know and trust and understand. So a lot has changed in 15 years. It's still not obviously mainstream enough for my liking just because the big, big institutions have the ability to spend, spend, spend and kind of gear people towards traditional investments. But I would think over the next five, 10 years you're going to see a big, big transformation. Just a few weeks ago, larry Fink, who's the CEO of BlackRock, largest asset manager in the world he came out and said 20% of people's net worth should be in alts.

Speaker 2:

Really 10 years ago, no one would say that Now, and that's just Larry Fink.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, larry Fink was talking smack about bitcoin too, and then they switched their policy pretty quick. Like people don't realize how fast the landscape is changing, and it's not so much what job you have, how much money you make, but it's really how do you keep the money, and I think that's one of the most important things, and a lot of us aren't realizing that. So let's run a quick scenario here. Adam, let's say I have 100 grand coming in from other retirement accounts. How would I, can I allocate certain portions to, like different funds? Like I don't fully understand. Like can I do some to real estate, some to a side business? Like how would I think about that?

Speaker 2:

Jordan individual retirement account. Thank God, we are in the greatest country in the world.

Speaker 2:

You can do whatever you want, so long as it's not life insurance collectibles and self-dealing like taking the money and buying yourself a Porsche you can do it. So, if you want to put 10% in Bitcoin, you want to put 100% in Bitcoin. If you want to invest in a company in Zimbabwe, you can do it. You can do. If you want to invest in a company in Zimbabwe, you can do it. You can do whatever you want. You control your future. You create your own luck.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's incredible. I mean, that's really opening up a lot of doors and a lot of perspectives for people, because they never even thought this was possible. For most people, they're just sitting there going I'm doing my thing. I'm doing my thing, it's going to be all good. It's fascinating, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And that's what attracts me to the space, because not only do you get to use the tax benefits of deferral and compounding returns, but you also get to marry that with the ability to kind of have freedom and invest in what you want, and to me this is nothing more American than having control over your future.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and a lot of us have been noticing that as well. I think it's becoming more mainstream that we want to have control. So how? What do you think is the biggest struggle for a lot of people thinking about this? Whether they're listening right now and they're like hey, this sounds great.

Speaker 2:

but I'm still a little confused, like I think it's just that people get intimidated when they hear like tax right or rules or anything. But let me tell you it's so easy, Like. You literally can go on our website or app, open an account in minutes and you just. We do all the work, We'll transfer the money, We'll give you consulting. All you need to do is pick what you want to do. So it's super easy. The financial institutions, the big ones, they'll try to scare you and say oh, you don't want to do real estate, you don't want to invest in your friend's business. It's so risky. But again, the problem, what's happening now is that, if you look, most of us are invested in the S&P 500. But really, in reality, the S&P 500 is made up of 10 stocks. Right, that's all it is.

Speaker 2:

That's all we're investing in. So if there is a meltdown in the market, the meltdown is going to be even bigger than 08, because we're all concentrated in like the magnificent seven, plus maybe three or four other companies. They make up 80% of the S&P 500 valuation. So it's scary. There's such a concentration of investment into 10 or so businesses that we're all so under diversified and it's so much risk yeah, yeah, I mean it, I don't.

Speaker 1:

Has it ever been like that before? Because this is like no, really, and why? Why do you think that happened? Because I I started to realize it too, where they're like the mag 7 literally carried 90 of these% of these gains, which is like Facebook, alphabet, google, all of these companies. And you start to realize, like wait a second, this isn't 500 companies anymore.

Speaker 2:

Right, right. And you want to go on top of that. If you look at companies that have over a hundred million in revenue, more than 80% are privately held, so you can't even invest in them.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I didn't even know that.

Speaker 2:

Yes, companies are not going public to the same degree they used to SpaceX companies like that. They are not public. So if you want to invest chat, gpt, you want to invest in the next emerging company, you're going to have to invest in it privately. You're not going to be able to do it at Schwab or Fidelity. So you're actually losing out on the future of America, because all you're able to invest in is almost only 20% of the companies with a hundred million or more in revenue, because they're the ones that are publicly listed. So what people are realizing that is, if I want to invest in the next Google, the next Apple, I'm going to have to do that privately because they're not public.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and those are the ones where you can get outsized returns. That's where you can go in and get a 10, 100,000 X because you're so early into it. So that's why people like startup investing, even though it can be higher risk. But that's okay sometimes because you got to get. You got to yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, listen, it's all about diversification and deciding what allocation you want to put into high risk assets. But if you look at venture capital or private equity or real estate funds, those types of funds generally have like a seven to 12 year horizon. Well, that actually meshes really well with an IRA, because IRAs are long-term investment strategies. It's not for the next week, it's for the next maybe 10, 15, 20 years. So it really works well with alts and that's why it's worked very well for me and my clients.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I completely understand that it can be very challenging. So the other big thing with you, adam, is that you worked with some big time guys who, like you, were telling me that you were working with like Cardone and like some of these other people doing this. So how did you get involved and get this idea across to a lot of them? Because now I'm kind of taking the business owner perspective, because I can imagine people are sitting there going like I want to work with high level people, like how do you get involved with such high level people?

Speaker 2:

People find us. I mean, I think when you're good at what you do, it gets out there. And again, this is my life, this is my mission, this is all I do. I write every day. I've written nine books. I'm writing my 10th book. I blog every day. So people find you and I think the cream rises to the top and I'm just lucky that I found my passion. I'm super, super fortunate that I love what I do and I've been able to work at what I love and I think that kind of comes out and people kind of will gravitate towards that.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And what do you think people should do if they're sitting there thinking like man, this guy sounds like he's got it all figured out. Like what, if I'm in a place and I'm listening and I'm like I'm not the happiest with what I'm doing, like what are some things you can do to kind of figure out maybe something that might be a little bit more in alignment with them?

Speaker 2:

So the best advice I ever got was I had a friend, a good friend, whose dad was a software just godfather of the software industry, brilliant software entrepreneur, brilliant guy, just godfather of the software industry, brilliant software entrepreneur, brilliant guy. And I remember talking to him. I was a lawyer, I liked practicing law, it was interesting but it wasn't my calling. And I remember saying I really want to start a business. And he said okay, you know tax law, you should go find a business or do something that could connect with tax law. Why? Because if you go to a random industry, like you want to go into the furniture business, there's going to be a thousand guys that know more than you or gals and it's going to be very hard to rise to the top. But if you get into a space that is tax connected or linked, you're already going to be at the top. You're going to have the pedigree that your competitors may not have and you're already going to be above them.

Speaker 2:

And that's kind of led me to the self-directed world, because it's like it marries the tax law. I can use my tax background, my law degree, to help clients and help me develop strategies and tax benefits my competitors just don't even know about and that kind of started me off right at the top and that was the best advice I ever got. So if you're sitting here saying I work at company X or an industry Y and I like it, it pays the bills. It's like golden handcuffs. I'm not really happy. Then number one I'd say well, don't just quit your job right. Find an area you can do that. You can use your skill set and your strengths to make more money.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, truly find what you're good at. I actually really like that advice. You don't hear that advice too often where it's like, hey, you parlayed the skillset you previously had, because most of the time people are like just go do it and it's like that is tough advice.

Speaker 2:

It's bad advice. A lot of people say, oh, just quit your job. You're unhappy, just quit your job. You're unhappy, just quit your job and do this. No, no, don't quit your job. You're getting paid. Try to develop a business while you're working. I hope my former employers aren't listening, but that's what I did. I kind of stayed working as a lawyer on the side when I had free time on the weekends, still getting a paycheck. I was developing to start did I quit my job.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it takes the time.

Speaker 2:

It gives you so much more it gives you way more confidence.

Speaker 1:

It gives you way more Like. I have a mentor. He's 79 years old and he literally sits there and he goes Jordan. When people do that, they don't have financial stress Because you're not desperate for the next deal and you can actually explore different ideas and explore new things and you can quote, unquote, waste time while also learning. You know what I mean. You could sit there and write nine books, ten books. You don't write books when you're like I got to sell today.

Speaker 2:

And this is crude, but it's true Like, learn on other people's dime. That's what I did. I'm like, listen, let's say I have an extra hour during the day because I'm quiet. I'll focus on my business. Yes, Is it unethical? I don't know, maybe, but is it less unethical than surfing the web? It's the same thing, right? I have some free time in my day. Let me focus on my business while I'm getting paid and then, when I'm ready to take the leap, I'll do it, but like I'm not going to put myself in a bind.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely yeah. There's just no reason to nowadays. So for you, what's going on with all the books? What's going on with the writing? Why do you do that? And what should people be writing but like? Why do you?

Speaker 2:

I'm a lawyer, I love to write. That's just something I love to do. So for me it's just fun. I enjoy doing it. Has it helped? Yeah, I think it helps. It gets your name out there. People read it. You get some pedigree, some respect. But I do it really to help people, to educate people. You can buy it on Amazon, they're cheap. I don't I. I I do it really to help people, to educate people. You can buy it on Amazon, they're cheap. I don't make any money on my books really, Um, but I do it cause I love it and even if if only one person read it and benefited from it, that's fine for me.

Speaker 1:

Do you think maybe you do it because of legacy as well. They kind of leave the legacy a little bit.

Speaker 2:

It's possible yeah.

Speaker 1:

The reason I say that is just because, like, when I started my podcast, I thought about it, because I started it like four or five years ago and I was like how cool would it be when, I'm like 80 years old, my grandkids going hey, jordan, what do you do at like 25? And it's me interviewing all these cool people and it's on YouTube. I don't know if YouTube will still be there, but it's like you know what I mean this cool like video archive of like hey, interviewing this person, interviewing, learning about this, learning about that, and then it's this cool compilation of like whoa, like he was doing interesting stuff. How do you do all that?

Speaker 2:

yeah, yeah, I think it's just my passion. I'm literally like blessed by god to have found this. I don't know how I found this, like I never even knew the self-directed world existed, so it was just an opportunity. Thank God, I took advantage of it and it's been great.

Speaker 1:

I love it. I love it. I'm glad you found what you're looking for, because, I mean, there's so many of us that aren't and we just hear about the negativity, so it's great to hear about the positivity of what there is and what there can be. So, adam, where can people learn more about you, learn more about your business? Where can they reach you if they want to open an account?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think like I would start our YouTube channel, ira financial. There's thousands of videos, tons of great info, like if you're a newbie or more advanced or just want to learn about retirement accounts, investment options, tax strategies, great, great stuff. Check out IRAfinancialcom. That's our website. There's tons of great content, blogs, if you want to just read, and you can call us, like we got a phone number. We want to hear from you. You don't need to be a client to get a free console and we have an incredible team of just brilliant people that we really work hard together to kind of just keep focused on training and keeping our level of education high and current. So we've seen it all. I mean you know we've 25,000 accounts. We've probably spoken to 150,000 people. We've seen it all. I've done it all. I've done investments in every country in the world. I've seen, I've done it all. So if you have a question, we'll have the answer. Call us. We're the best at what we do and you know, whether you do it or not, like we'll give you the answers.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I love that. Thank you Awesome.

Speaker 2:

It's my pleasure.

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Jordan Edwards

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