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Lisa from Milwaukee is up next. Lisa, how can we help? Hi, George and Ken. Thank you so much for taking my call.

You bet. My question, a little bit of a background. I started a business in 2023, and it took a little

time to get it ramped up, so I didn't make that much in 2023. So the taxes that I paid were

relatively low. But in 2024, I did much better. And as I was giving all my documents to my tax

repair, I said, oh, my gosh, I'm sick. I can just imagine how much I'm going to have to pay in taxes.

Is there anything I can do to reduce my tax bill? I'm in real estate. And I said, aside from

purchasing properties, I'm not in that mode yet.

And he said that I could, I have a Roth, a self-directed Roth IRA, but that won't reduce my tax bill.

He said I could open a traditional IRA, a step, a simple IRA, or a self-directed 401K.

But at this point, my only option is a traditional IRA for

2024 tax benefits. Is it beneficial for somebody self-employed to open a traditional IRA for

tax benefits? Well, I mean, you're just switching it up. So with the Roth side, you're paying taxes

now and then never again. And so what you're saying is, well, I'd rather not pay the

taxes now, but one day when you go to withdraw that money, you're going to pay taxes on it. So there's no way to really avoid the tax man. You're going to do it on either side. And I would, if I'm in your shoes, I would just stick with the Roth. I don't like doing anything for the tax benefit. I know it stinks to pay taxes, but it's just part of making an income in America today.

And so I would do any other thing you can do to reduce your taxable income through deductions and credits,

but I don't think it's worth switching to the traditional side just to save a little bit on taxes.

Should I have an additional retirement account besides the self-directed Roth IRA

for any, because my expenses for my business, my startup expenses, I had some more, but now my

expenses are very minimal. So the amount of deductions that I have are very small. So the only

thing that he said that could

reduce is either purchasing real estate, which again isn't my mode of opportunity. You're out

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