A self directed Roth IRA is a retirement plan that allows for alternative investments for your retirement savings. Although this type of retirement plan has been around for decades, they've struggled to gain popularity. There are many reasons for this, but the biggest one is because the big brokerage firms that spend billions of dollars marketing retirement investments have nothing to gain. If you decide you want to do a self directed Roth IRA, self directed retirement accounts do come in various shapes and sizes. But I'm only talking about the self directed Roth IRA. I'm a strong believer that tax rates will have to be higher in the future, or the government will not be able to meet all of their liabilities. Therefore, it's in the best interest of most Americans to pay the taxes. Now, while we have historically low tax rate, rather than waiting until a time in the future, when tax rates could be double, and create major havoc on your retirement plan, it's important to know that self directed Roth IRAs are not for everyone.