If one is good, two must be better, right?  In the world of Self-Directed IRA’s, the answer is probably YES!  You’ll be shocked at just how smart it can be to have more than one retirement account.  I’m Bryan Ellis.  You’ll learn how RIGHT NOW in Episode 137.-----Hello, SDI Nation!  You’re looking great, today, people!  Did you do something new with your hair?  HeheheheYou know, it’s nice to be back among the living, so to speak.  As my regular listeners know, I’ve been quite ill during the past several weeks, and it was awful.  I’m on a rapid climb back to full health and actually got to work a full day yesterday which has been quite rare lately, but so very welcomed!  My work backlog is huge, and I’m so happy to be with you here right now!Folks, I mentioned earlier in the week that by end of this week I’ll finish a new e-Book called “The Portfolio Fortress” that outlines a really great, and very efficient, approach to protecting your assets from financial predators, and it’s particularly apt for those of you with at least 3-5 real estate properties in your portfolio.  The most common strategy these days among people who are concerned about rogue lawsuits is to put every different property into a separate single-member LLC, but it seems like a new court decision every month is proving that strategy to be wildly ineffective.  There’s a better way, and it’s far more efficient than having a separate LLC for every property, and I describe that approach in The Portfolio Fortress.  I’m going to publish it on Amazon for sale there, but I’d like to give it to YOU as a listener to this show for free, if you request it before publication.  The way you get it is to text the word FORTRESS to 33444.  If you’ve already texted FORTRESS to 33444, you don’t need to do it again, I’ll send the ebook to you on today or tomorrow when it’s ready.  But if you’ve not yet requested a free pre-publication edition of it, then text the word FORTRESS to 33444 and I’ll be happy to send you a copy when it’s done in a couple of days.So… two or more IRA’s?  Who would ever need to do such a thing?  HeheheheThere are actually many reasons one might consider doing so, and at least one you may have never before considered that I’ll tell you in a moment.First things first:  There’s nothing in the law that prohibits you from having more than one IRA.  You can have a traditional and a Roth.  You can have multiple traditionals, multiple Roths, a 401k and a SEP mixed in for good measure, and so long as you qualify to make contributions to those accounts, and don’t go over the proscribed limits each year on a cumulative basis, then it’s fine to have multiple accounts.Sure, there are rules.  For example, if you have an employer-sponsored retirement plan, then there might be some limits to the deductions you can take from contributing to a traditional IRA outside of your employer’s plan.  That’s an area where it makes good sense to consult with your tax advisor.But the general idea is this:  It is totally kosher to have more than one retirement account.But is there any reason to do so?The answer – particularly for many self-directed IRA owners – is ABSO-FREAKIN-LUTELY!The reason, in two words, is PROHIBITED TRANSACTIONS.For my newer listeners, to commit a prohibited transaction means you’ve broken one of the rules that the IRS has put in place for your retirement account.  While those rules are complex, they’re easy to boil down into simple concepts:  You can do anything where the money in your account ends up in your own pocket, or the pockets of your family members, unless through a proper account withdrawal.  You can’t use slick strategies to contribute more to the account than the law allows.  You know, things like that which, honestly, seem pretty reasonable to me, given the magnitude of the tax advantages offered by these accounts.So here’s how Prohibited Transactions tie into the notion of having multiple IRA’s.Imagine with me, if you will, Joe Blow who has an IR