There’s a sentence we hear more than any other in this business. It comes over the phone, in webinars, at Meetup events, and it’s always delivered in the same tone, somewhere between disbelief and delight:
“Wait. I didn’t know I could do that.”
It’s the sound of someone discovering that the walls around their retirement account were never actually walls. And after years of these conversations, we’ve collected quite a mental museum of the assets that prompted them. So to close out the month, here’s a tour of the surprising, the clever, and the “wait, really?” side of self-directed investing.
A quick note before we start: everything below describes categories of assets self-directed accounts can hold, drawn from patterns we’ve seen over the years, with all details generalized. Nothing here is a recommendation of any investment, just a demonstration of how wide the field really is.
The Land That Doesn’t Look Like Real Estate
Everyone knows an IRA can hold a rental house. Fewer people realize how far the “real estate” category actually stretches.
We’ve seen accounts hold farmland leased to working farmers, with the crop lease payments flowing back into the IRA. Timberland, where the trees themselves are the appreciating asset. Raw land held patiently in the path of growth. Parking lots, which are essentially real estate with no toilets and no tenants in the traditional sense. Mineral rights, where the account owns what’s under the ground rather than what’s on it. Even billboard sites, where the real value is the lease with the sign company.
The common thread: if you understand land and what makes a location valuable, the ways to express that knowledge inside an account go far beyond a single-family rental.
Being the Bank, and Then Some
Regular readers know about private lending and notes from earlier this month. But the paper category has its own surprising corners.
Tax liens are the classic example. In many jurisdictions, when property taxes go unpaid, the county sells the lien, and investors who purchase those liens earn a return set by the local process. It’s a niche with real homework attached, every jurisdiction runs differently, but it’s a legitimate and long-standing corner of the self-directed world that most people have simply never heard of.
We’ve also seen accounts hold equipment leases, where the IRA owns equipment leased to a business, and seller-financed notes created when a client’s IRA sold a property and carried the financing itself, turning one asset into another.
The Business Side of the House
Retirement accounts can hold private company interests, and this is where entrepreneurs’ eyes tend to widen. Accounts can invest in private funds, real estate syndications, and startup equity, participating in businesses long before any stock ticker is involved.
The important caveat, and it’s a real one: this category is dense with rules. The prohibited transaction restrictions mean your IRA generally cannot invest in a business you or certain family members own or control, and some structures raise tax considerations inside the account. This is the corner of the field where the guardrails matter most, where diligence is heaviest, and where your own advisors should absolutely be in the room. Surprising doesn’t mean simple.
The Truly Unexpected
And then there’s the category that makes webinar audiences laugh out loud. Over the years, the self-directed industry has seen retirement accounts hold livestock. Water rights. Storage facilities. Mobile home parks. Cryptocurrency. Music royalty interests. Each one, on inspection, follows the same logic as everything else on this list: it’s an income-producing or appreciating asset, held by the account, for the benefit of the account.
Our favorite pattern in this category: the asset almost always traces back to something the investor knew intimately. The livestock investor grew up ranching. The royalty investor worked in music. Nobody wakes up and buys water rights on a whim; they invest in the corner of the world they understand better than most. Which is, of course, the entire idea.
What an IRA Can’t Hold (It’s a Short List)
Here’s the plot twist that surprises people most: the IRS doesn’t publish a list of what IRAs can hold. It only prohibits a few things. Collectibles, artwork, most coins, gems, antiques, and the like, are out. Life insurance is out. S corporation stock doesn’t work due to shareholder rules. And no asset, however permissible, can involve self-dealing with disqualified persons.
Beyond that short list, the field is open. That’s the structural fact hiding underneath every “I didn’t know I could do that” moment: the surprise was never that some exotic loophole exists. The surprise is that the door was open the whole time.
What’s Your Version?
Every asset in this article started the same way: an investor looked at something they already understood, deeply and personally, and asked whether their retirement account could participate. Usually, the answer was yes.
So as we close out August, here’s the question we’ll leave you with: what’s the thing you know better than almost anyone? The industry you’ve worked in for decades, the asset class you evaluate instinctively, the corner of the economy you see clearly while others squint?
That’s your version. And if you’re curious whether your retirement account can hold it, that conversation is exactly what we’re here for, no pressure and no obligation. Or join us at an upcoming strategy call and ask us live, because honestly, those questions are our favorite part.
MidAtlantic IRA, LLC does not review the merits or legitimacy of any investment and does not endorse or recommend any companies, products, services, or investments. MidAtlantic IRA does not provide financial, legal, or investment advice. All examples are generalized illustrations of asset categories and are provided for educational purposes only. Please consult with your professional advisors prior to making any investment decisions.