A self-directed IRA means you're in charge of asset selection and management, so it’s important to understand your choices.
All hands on deck! Directing your own IRA essentially makes you the chief cook, bottle washer, and captain of the ship, which means you’re responsible for determining the mix of assets as well as risk management.
IRA investors at TD Ameritrade have a range of investment choices, including stocks, bonds/fixed income, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and managed accounts. You can also access a number of tools to help you navigate the journey—a retirement calculator to help you see if your plans are on track, planning tools to help you align your portfolio with your goals, and much more. Select any of the three tools below for a sampling of what’s available.
You may want to explore adding futures and options to your portfolio for potential asset class diversification, protection, and potential income generation. These products have substantial and more complex risk and are not for all investors.
Futures: Futures can give you exposure to nontraditional asset classes such as precious and industrial metals (gold, silver, platinum, copper); energy (crude oil, natural gas); agricultural commodities (corn, soybeans, livestock); plus foreign currency (futures), bond futures, and stock indices. These markets are open virtually 24 hours a day, six days a week. But futures aren’t like traditional securities. Not all account owners will qualify to trade futures, and because they are leveraged instruments, they are inherently riskier and have minimum net capital requirements.
Options: You can also buy and sell options in an IRA, provided you get approval and follow only approved options strategies. Options are contracts that give the buyer the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell an underlying asset. Options could provide you with flexibility to attempt to manage risk and potentially generate income in your IRA. Like futures, options involve unique risks and are not suitable for everyone.
Choosing how to invest your retirement funds doesn’t have to be complicated, and TD Ameritrade is here to help. You can consider all your investing choices as part of your midyear review of your portfolio and planning for the rest of 2019. Contributions to an IRA or Roth IRA for a given year can be made up until the tax filing deadline in April*. For 2019, you can contribute up to $6,000, or $7,000 if you’re 50 or older up until April 15, 2020.
See if you’re on the right course for retirement. Call us at 800-454-9272 to speak with a financial consultant who can help develop a plan to meet your goals and objectives.