Rating: 
Summary: Taking Control of Your Retirement
Review: As someone who was hit particularly hard financially from the fallout from the Enron debacle, I've been actively seeking alternative methods to protect future wealth. This book provides a straight forward and practical guide providing insight into a viable option that most people never hear about. I particularly liked the easy reading style, as well as the thorough presentation of the material. Resources are carefully documented, adding credibility. The information is presented so that someone like me--whose only real estate investment to date has been my personal home--has enough information after reading this book to undertake this investment strategy. I've given out five copies to family and friends who also have interest in investing in real estate, but felt it was not going to be financially possible. To the writers, kudos!
Rating:
Summary: Opens up new avenues for growing your retirement savings
Review: As the CEO of an IRA custodial firm, PENSCO Trust Company, I had the honor of assisting with the editing of this book. Pat Rice and Jennifer Dirks have managed to take a generally unknown and complex area of IRA investing and develop an easily digestible and interesting book that will help millions of Americans restore wealth to their retirement accounts. While there are no guarantees in the world of investing, this book lays out very practical and varied methods of real investing through self-directed IRAs that should assist thousands to add value to their retirement savings. It just amazes me that someone like Pat can write this well, yet cannot catch a fish in a fish hatchery! Seriously, buy the book if you want to us an IRA to buy real estate. Tom Anderson.
Rating:
Summary: Opens up new avenues for growing your retirement savings
Review: As the CEO of an IRA custodial firm, PENSCO Trust Company, I had the honor of assisting with the editing of this book. Pat Rice and Jennifer Dirks have managed to take a generally unknown and complex area of IRA investing and develop an easily digestible and interesting book that will help millions of Americans restore wealth to their retirement accounts. While there are no guarantees in the world of investing, this book lays out very practical and varied methods of real investing through self-directed IRAs that should assist thousands to add value to their retirement savings. It just amazes me that someone like Pat can write this well, yet cannot catch a fish in a fish hatchery! Seriously, buy the book if you want to us an IRA to buy real estate. Tom Anderson.
Rating:
Summary: Packed with valuable ideas and real life examples
Review: Despite having been a real estate investor for over 30 years, 18 of which participated in this well kept secret of self-directed IRA investing, I was stimulated by the straightforward explanation of the basics coupled with the many creative, profitable examples taken from the author's real life experience. There is something for everyone here, whether novice or seasoned real estate investor, conservative or high risk. Rice and Dirks use a nautical journey to give us an enjoyable reading style while keeping us aligned with the real world. A must read for anyone looking for fresh investment ideas.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Worth Reading
Review: I first hear about alternative IRA investments through a real estate class I took to become a broker. I picked up this book because I wanted to learn more about the subject. As I have read extensively in the subject of investments, the fact that I didn't learn much from this book doesn't necessary mean it's not a good read for some people.My problem with this book is that it holds real estate investments in IRA (specifically Roth IRA) out to be one-size fits all solution to retirement riches for everyone. It claims a minimum 12% annual return with zero chance of going wrong. It claims RE IRAs has a lower cost (including fees to trustee, financial advisor, attorney, accountant, and real estate broker) compared to brokerage IRAs which supposedly cost 3-6% a year. As with all comparison the author makes in this book, real estate IRA is better in all respects to everything else. Most Americans have high percentage of their net worth tied up in their residence; does it make sense from a diversification point of view to put their IRA in real estate as well? Is a loan to someone who couldn't get a loan from the banks really an investment with zero chance of going wrong? The author claims to have many years of experience, which I wish could have translated to more examples of what could go wrong so the reader can learn from others' mistakes. I learn absolutely nothing from scenarios after scenarios of perfectly constructed examples that produces double or triple digit returns. There are several calculation errors and mistaken use of financial terms but in general the book is easy to read. My favorite quote from the book, which comes after a paragraph describing which relatives are not prohibited from transacting with your IRA: "For some of you, this information alone is worth the price of this book." I think I will be going back to my local book store.
Rating:
Summary: Easy and inspirational read
Review: I have just begun to read your book and it is perfect timing as my husband and I have a sum saved in our IRA. We plan to read the book together and investigate the investment strategies suggested. Thank you. The book is an easy and inspirational read on a complex subject.
Rating:
Summary: A Practical Guide for My Retirement
Review: I'm not sure which was the most frustrating:
Watching my 401K shrink over the last few years.
OR
Having financial & real estate people tell me self directed real estate IRAs were not legal.
This book not only tells the reader why they are legal, but how to do it. Whatever your stage in life and whatever your station, there is a way to take advantage of nuggets in this book.
Thank you Rice, Dirks and your staffs for the advice and resources in the book as well as your Website.
Rating: 
Summary: Opened my mind to new ideas
Review: IRA Wealth provides a series of alternatives to the traditional IRA Stock Market investment opportunities. The book is organized to first dispel the myth that investing in real estate with your IRA is illegal and second to explain how to structure your IRA investments with a "self-directed" IRA. The following chapters identify IRA real estate investments based on the level of risk associated with that particular type of real estate investment. The final chapters discuss some of the nuances of liquidating your real estate investments upon the time of your mandatory IRA distributions. Finally, IRA Wealth provides several appendices to help you start your own due diligence with regard to IRA investing in real estate.
Overall, I enjoyed reading IRA Wealth and found that it opened my mind to new ideas on IRA investments. Most of us have probably felt the sting of lackluster stock market returns during the past few years. So the prospect of low to moderate risk real estate investments is clearly of interest. I found the organization of the book to be well thought-out and comprehensive. If you have already read several books on real estate investing, you will realize that several investment methods continue to pop-up. IRA Wealth takes those methods and ties them to your IRA.
Regardless of your level of experience with regard to real estate investing, I believe you will find IRA Wealth a worthwhile read and well worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Opened my mind to new ideas
Review: IRA Wealth provides a series of alternatives to the traditional IRA Stock Market investment opportunities. The book is organized to first dispel the myth that investing in real estate with your IRA is illegal and second to explain how to structure your IRA investments with a "self-directed" IRA. The following chapters identify IRA real estate investments based on the level of risk associated with that particular type of real estate investment. The final chapters discuss some of the nuances of liquidating your real estate investments upon the time of your mandatory IRA distributions. Finally, IRA Wealth provides several appendices to help you start your own due diligence with regard to IRA investing in real estate.
Overall, I enjoyed reading IRA Wealth and found that it opened my mind to new ideas on IRA investments. Most of us have probably felt the sting of lackluster stock market returns during the past few years. So the prospect of low to moderate risk real estate investments is clearly of interest. I found the organization of the book to be well thought-out and comprehensive. If you have already read several books on real estate investing, you will realize that several investment methods continue to pop-up. IRA Wealth takes those methods and ties them to your IRA.
Regardless of your level of experience with regard to real estate investing, I believe you will find IRA Wealth a worthwhile read and well worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Examining both low-risk and high-return real estate ventures
Review: IRA Wealth: Revolutionary Strategies For Real Estate Investment is the collaborative effort of Patrick W. Rice (investment columnist and the owner of IRA Resource Associates -- offering expertise in investment real estate for self-directed retirement accounts) and Jennifer Dirks (personal finance and real estate issues staff, and winner of the U.S. Small Business Administration's 2002 "Journalist of the Year award for the Pacific Northwest), diverges sharply from the common understanding that IRA holdings can only be invested in stocks and certificates of deposit. In response to the decline of the stock market, IRA Wealth presents real estate as a profitable and worthy investment venture, and one that is perfectly legal to hold in any personal IRA account. Examining both low-risk and high-return real estate ventures, IRA Wealth is a superbly presented, "reader friendly", informational presentation for anyone seeking to diversify their IRA account holdings into property as a hedge against the volatility of the stock and bond markets.
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