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I don't want to be rude, but this doesn't make much sense. Preferential tax treatment for retirement savings accounts was created with the the specific intenti

I don't want to be rude, but this doesn't make much sense. Preferential tax treatment for retirement savings accounts was created with the the specific intention of encouraging people to save for retirement, in order to minimize the extent of poverty among senior citizens. It is a feature, not a bug, that these accounts make it difficult to speculate, because the speculation decisions of amateurs and even most professionals are provably, demonstrably worse in aggregate returns than buy-and-hold passive investment in the overall economy. If you want to speculate on real estate, you are free to do so. You just have to pay taxes on the money used to do so, so that the government can afford to rescue you from poverty if you fail. > Since the market has been bad lately, I remained in cash. For the record, buying at the top of the market and cashing out in downturns is the maximally wrong investment strategy. A random number generator would in general outperform this strategy, because at least some of the time it would do anything but that.

makomk 11y ago
> It is a feature, not a bug, that these accounts make it difficult to speculate Except that IRAs do let people invest their retirement savings in risky speculative investments like buy-to-let properties - they just have to give the IRA holding company a cut of they money in fees and pay someone else to deal with the repairs and maintenance, both of which have the effect of making their returns worse.
- HappyTypist 11y ago
  The previous poster said it makes it difficult, not impossible. Forcing you to pay fees would be a disincentive and discourage people from speculation
  - virmundi 11y ago
    The issue is that I'm forced to speculate in the stock or bond markets rather than the property market. The companies providing investment IRAs are practically non existent. I've tried to find them. All I actually find was rumors if their existence.

makomk 11y ago

> It is a feature, not a bug, that these accounts make it difficult to speculate Except that IRAs do let people invest their retirement savings in risky speculative investments like buy-to-let properties - they just have to give the IRA holding company a cut of they money in fees and pay someone else to deal with the repairs and maintenance, both of which have the effect of making their returns worse.

HappyTypist 11y ago
The previous poster said it makes it difficult, not impossible. Forcing you to pay fees would be a disincentive and discourage people from speculation
- virmundi 11y ago
  The issue is that I'm forced to speculate in the stock or bond markets rather than the property market. The companies providing investment IRAs are practically non existent. I've tried to find them. All I actually find was rumors if their existence.