How to Increase your Retirement Savings

How much have you socked away in your IRA or other retirement accounts? Do you have enough to be comfortable in retirement? If not, here’s how to increase your retirement savings by going offshore.

According to Fidelity, you should have about 7 times your annual salary in your IRA by the time you hit 55. So, if you’re earning $120,000 a year you should have nearly $1 million in your retirement account.

Most Americans aren’t even close to this amount. We are horrible savers and need to find ways to quickly boost our IRAs.

The Economic Policy Institute reports that, for households between 50 and 55, the average savings balance is $124,831. For those between 56 and 61, that number comes in a bit higher, at $163,577.

According to the Motley Fool, “these figures don’t tell the whole story. Because a select pool of strong savers can bring up the average and compensate for poor savers, it’s often more helpful to look at the median savings amount for these age groups. For households between 50 and 55, the median retirement account balance is just $8,000. For those between 56 and 61, it’s $17,000 — not much better. And when you have a situation where the median is considerably lower than the average, it means that most 50-somethings have less than average.”

Most of us have a lot of catching up to do. Unless we want to work into our 90’s, we had better begin to think outside of the box. The amount you can contribute to your IRA is fixed by law. Big increases will come from taking some risks and finding higher returns with your investments.

I suggest that the best investments for your IRA are found outside of the United States. Whether it’s real estate, stocks, physical gold as a hedge, ICOs or cryptocurrency, the highest returns are now only available offshore.

Let’s take ICOs as an example. The United States has pushed all the best ICOs offshore. By regulating ICOs as they do IPOs, the US SEC has added all kinds of costs and burdens on to ICOs that make them impossible to complete.

If ICOs have to go through all the headaches of an IPO, and spend millions of dollars on compliance, why do an ICO at all?

And because ICOs are typically for “portable” businesses, most have decided to leave the US and offer their tokens in a more friendly environment. As someone on the front lines, I can tell you with certainty that all the best ICOs are being done outside of the United States.  

The US also wants to know where every coin is coming from and whether you have paid your taxes. In fact, the IRS has been using Bitcoin tracking software since 2015.

Also, the IRS issued a John Doe summons to Coinbase demanding records of all US holders. If you invest or hold crypto in the United States, the government wants to know about it.

Another reason to increase your IRA offshore rather than in the US is your ability to use leverage. Most US brokerages don’t allow you to use leverage in your US IRA. This is because you pay US tax at 35% on any gains from that leverage and it creates a real headache for custodians and IRA investors.

For example, let’s say you buy US stocks in your IRA using 50% leverage. You take $100,000 from your IRA and your brokerage firm gives you $100,000 non-recourse loan. You buy $200,000 of Microsoft stock.

This stock goes up by 40% over a couple of years, netting you a gain of $80,000. Under IRS rules, 50% of that gain flows into your IRA tax free and half is taxable as Unrelated Business Income (UBI) at 35%. For a more detailed explanation, see: What is UBIT in an IRA?

Take this same transaction offshore, and setup up a UBIT Blocker with your IRA LLC, and you eliminate this tax. Buy with a non-recourse in the US and pay 35% tax in the gains from that loan. Do the same offshore and pay zero. For more on UBIT blockers, see: Eliminate Tax on Leverage in your IRA with UBIT Blocker.

In order to increase the value of your retirement savings offshore, you need to first setup an offshore IRA LLC. This is a specially constructed international Limited Liability Company that can hold your US IRA or 401-K. A husband and wife can use the same offshore LLC.

You then move your retirement account from your current custodian to one that allows for international investments. Providers like Fidelity don’t allow for offshore investments because they make money selling you their bonds and funds. When you go offshore, you’re in control and don’t need to pay a commission to any US provider.

This custodian transfers the money into an offshore bank account under the name of the offshore IRA LLC. From here you manage the investments of your retirement just like a professional investment advisor would

For more information on how to take your IRA offshore and earn higher returns, see: Here’s how to take your IRA offshore in 6 steps.

I hope you’ve found this article on how to increase the value of your IRA offshore to be helpful. For more information on taking your IRA offshore, please contact me at [email protected] or call us at (619) 550-2743. All consultations are free and confidential.

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