With traditional IRAs, you may be eligible to take a tax deduction today and delay paying taxes on withdrawals until later, when you begin taking them. This option might make sense if you’re in a higher tax bracket today than you expect to be in retirement.

With Roth accounts, you won’t receive any tax deductions today but can generally take withdrawals in retirement without paying taxes. You may benefit from a Roth IRA if you’re young, currently in a lower tax bracket or have most of your investments in traditional IRA accounts or retirement plans and are looking to increase tax diversification and flexibility in retirement.

A Solo 401(k) is a 401(k) designed for a business owner with no employees. Your plan is able to cover both you and your spouse. You can have a Solo 401(k) even if you participate in a 401(k) as an employee of another company. Your contributions to your Solo 401(k) may be limited by your self-employment income and the amount contributed to your other employer's plan.

Your Solo 401(k) can have a Traditional bucket and/or a Roth bucket. Maximum contributions take into account both buckets. Keep in mind, you're not able to roll Roth IRAs into a Roth 401(k) bucket.

There are two ways to roll over funds from a 401(k). A direct rollover, and a distribution and rollover. A direct rollover happens when you request a rollover from your 401(k) administrator to go directly to your new Aspira IRA account. This is the "correct" way to manage this. This will most likely be in the form of a check made out to your new IRA trust account. This is a non-taxable event, but is reportable. The administrator will issue a 1099R to you and to the IRS. You should report this on your taxes, but the there will not be taxes due from the rollover. This process can take between 3 days and 4 weeks. A distribution and rollover requires your 401(k) administrator to take a 20% tax withholding from the distribution, even though it is being rolled into an IRA. The administrator will issue a 1099R to you and to the IRS. You should report this on your taxes. You will have a tax credit of the 20% withheld to apply to your taxes, and there will not be taxes due from the rollover. There is no advantage to this strategy unless you have not decided yet where you are going to roll your funds into and there is some pressing reason why you need to get your funds out of your 401(k). Or, you want to have access to your 401(k) funds for 60 days before you roll them into your new 401(k). Keep in mind that it is simple to take a loan from your Aspira 401(k). See 401(k) Loans in the Learning section.

There are two ways to transfer funds and assets from another IRA. A direct custodian-to-custodian transfer, and a distribution and rollover. A direct custodian-to-custodian transfer happens when you request a transfer from another IRA to your new Aspira account. You cannot request the transfer of exchange-traded assets (unless you have a certificate) because Aspira is not a broker-dealer. You can request the transfer of cash and alternative assets. This is a non-reportable and non-taxable event. Paperwork is required to be exchanged between the custodian you are transferring from to resign as custodian of your desired cash/assets and for your new plan to accept as custodian. This process can take between 4 days and 4 weeks. A distribution and rollover is typically faster, but is a reportable event on your taxes. This is because the custodian you are transferring from simply reports a distribution. They will issue a 1099R to you and to the IRS. You must report this distribution on your taxes, but it will not be taxable when you report that it was rolled into another IRA within 60 days. You only get one distribution and rollover in any rolling twelve-month period. you also cannot do a distribution and rollover with an inherited IRA. this process takes between 2 days and a week. Be sure that there is enough cash in your IRA to roll over or transfer, or sell securities to raise the necessary cash.

There are two ways to roll over funds from a 401(k). A direct rollover, and a distribution and rollover. A direct rollover happens when you request a rollover from your 401(k) administrator to go directly to your new Aspira 401(k) account. This is the "correct" way to manage this. This will most likely be in the form of a check made out to your new 401(k) trust account. This is a non-taxable event, but is reportable. The administrator will issue a 1099R to you and to the IRS. You should report this on your taxes, but here will not be taxes due from the rollover. This process can take between 3 days and 4 weeks. A distribution and rollover requires your 401(k) administrator to take a 20% tax withholding from the distribution, even though it is being rolled into another 401(k). The administrator will issue a 1099R to you and to the IRS. You should report this on your taxes. You will have a tax credit of the 20% withheld to apply to your taxes, and there will not be taxes due from the rollover. There is no advantage to this strategy unless you have not decided yet where you are going to roll your funds into and there is some pressing reason why you need to get your funds out of your 401(k). Or, you want to have access to your 401(k) funds for 60 days before you roll them into your new 401(k). Keep in mind that it is simple to take a loan from your Aspira 401(k). See 401(k) Loans in the Learning section.

To roll over funds from an IRA to your Aspira 401(k), you will need to request a distribution. Then these funds need to be deposited into your 401(k) trust bank account within 60 days. This is a reportable event on your taxes. This is because the custodian you are transferring from reports a distribution and will issue a 1099R to you and to the IRS. You must report this distribution on your taxes, but it will not be taxable when you report that it was rolled into a 401(k) within 60 days. You can make as many IRA to 401(k) rollovers as you like. The one-distribution-and-rollover-in-any-rolling-twelve-month-period-rule only applies for IRA to IRA. This process takes between 2 days and a week. Be sure that there is enough cash in your IRA to roll over, or sell securities to raise the necessary cash. Keep in mind, you are not able to Roll Roth IRAs into a 401(k).

The basis behind the opinion that an IRA or 401(k) can invest in an LLC, trust, or corporation, when the plan owner is the manager, is that the entity was not a prohibited party when the retirement plan invested in it. The case law often cited is Swanson vs. Commissioner. In that case, the taxpayer organized a domestic international sales corporation known as Swanson’s Worldwide, Inc. The taxpayer then established an IRA at Florida National Bank and subsequently executed a subscription agreement for the exchange of IRA funds for 2,500 shares of Worldwide original issue stock. The Court stated that a “corporation without shares or shareholders does not fit within the definition of a disqualified person under section 4975(e)(2)(G)”. The Court concluded that it was only after Worldwide issued its stock to the taxpayer’s IRA that Worldwide had become a disqualified person. The Court finds in this context that an LLC that elects to be treated as a corporation and does not yet have members or membership interests is sufficiently analogous to a corporation without shares or shareholders. Swanson v. Commissioner, 106 T.C. 76, 88 (1996)

Life Insurance, S Corps, Collectibles and Transactions done with disqualified parties. Disqualified parties include yourself, your spouse, your lineal ascendants, your lineal descendants and their spouses and any fiduciaries to your plan.

Alternative investments are direct investments in anything outside of exchange-traded stocks, bond, and mutual funds. A common alternative is participation in real estate through direct/indirect ownership, lending, or joint ventures. Other examples are investing in crypto currency, private companies, private debt, precious metals, even a racehorse. The possibilities are endless.

Real Estate - This can be fix & flip, buy and hold rental property, buying into a fund, lending on real estate, buying tax liens or trust deeds, wholesaling real estate. The types are real estate can be commercial, residential, raw land, industrial, retail, vacation and others. Be careful, you aren't able to contribute manual labor to your real estate, comingle your taxable funds or deal with disqualified parties. Cryptocurrency - This is a digital form of currency that is gaining popularity. It is designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network on blockchain technology. There are number of currencies to choose from and a number of exchanges to trade on. Your Aspira account can participate in any of them. Private Debt - You can loan money to anyone who is not disqualified party to your account. These are private contracts between your account and any eligible person you choose. The terms are how you want them. There are no constraints on the rate, duration, underlying security. There isn't even a requirement that their be a contract, though it is a good idea to have one for security and to demonstrate where the money went from your account if ever needed in the future. Private Equity - Retirement accounts are allowed to own shares of companies that are not traded on an exchange. These can be startups without any earnings yet, or large private companies larger than publicly traded companies. They can be organized as Limited Liability Companies, Corporations, Partnerships, Trusts, They cannot be S Corporations. You aren't able to have a transaction with a disqualified party to your retirement account. Be careful who you have a transaction with, there are some restrictions on being involved with a company with people who are disqualified parties to your retirement account. Investment Funds - All pooled investment funds are allowed, except for funds that invest with or are managed by disqualified parties to your retirement account. They can be hedge funds, limited partnerships, membership interests in Limited Liability Companies, and others forms of participation. A Lot of Other Things - There are so many things allowed in retirement accounts, that the IRS doesn't list them. They only list the things you cannot invest in. See the section "What is not allowed in an IRA or 401(k)".