Last week, ProPublica published the now hotly discussed Lord of the Roths: How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class

You Don’t Have to Be Peter Thiel to Invest Like Thiel with a Self-Directed Roth IRA

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2021-06-29 20:30:07

Last week, ProPublica published the now hotly discussed Lord of the Roths: How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class Into a $5 Billion Tax-Free Piggy Bank.

Some praised him for having the foresight to invest funds from a self-directed IRA in the then-startup, Paypal. Others accused the Paypal co-founder of unfairly profiting from a tax-advantaged investment vehicle intended to provide middle-class Americans a means to build a healthy nest egg.

Whether existing IRA regulations make smart tax policy is debatable, and Congress may decide to revisit these rules. But at the time Thiel invested in the company he was co-founding using a self-directed Roth IRA, he did so as “one of us” and in accordance with IRA rules.

We’ll explain how Roth IRAs work, as well as how companies like Alto, with its Alto IRA account, make what ProPublica calls “supercharged investment vehicles” accessible and affordable for you to do the same.