You don’t know my voice… but as a listener to this show, you know my work, as you’ll soon see!  I’m filling in today for Bryan while he’s ill, but we’re not going to miss a beat. Today you learn how to confirm beyond any shadow of a doubt that the latest, greatest self-directed retirement account strategies you’re hearing about are officially kosher with the IRS before you ever take the plunge.  I’m Carole Ellis.  This is episode 132.----Hello, listeners in America and the world over!  It’s so exciting to be with you today!I’m sitting in for Bryan today, who is, despite his stubborn insistence to the contrary, still quite ill.  He’s been struggling with some rather severe respiratory illness, and hopes to be back to full health soon.  But you folks should feel honored:  Each day, for the past 2 weeks, he’s only been able to work about 2-3 productive hours per day before being too exhausted to continue, and each day, he’s given that time to you guys, because he LOVES doing this show.  It really makes him very happy to spend this time with you.  But last night, I through down the gauntlet and demanded that he actually rest until he’s better, like the doctor ordered.By the way, my name is Carole Ellis, and I’m Bryan’s wife and business partner.  And before you’re tempted to think that I’m behind the SDI microphone today only because I’m Bryan’s wife, well let’s go ahead and dispense with that now, shall we?  Bryan encouraged… insisted, actually, that I brag on myself a bit – he actually called it “establishing your overwhelming credibility to my listeners” – so here goes:  I’m currently involved in over a dozen active real estate investment projects as I speak to you.  Additionally, in just the last 30 days, Bryan and I have flipped 2 houses, both profitably; we have done hard money loans and sold a real estate note.  It’s Bryan’s role to find great deals… it’s my role to be the voice of reason and make sure he doesn’t miss anything on the due diligence side.  And by the way, I’ve written books and training programs for famous investors; I just wrote an article about the business of Private Lending which is featured in this month’s edition of Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine and is on newsstands right now; I’ve got another article coming out in a few days in another national real estate magazine about the research we’ve done into one particularly promising real estate market out west; and I’m the editor of a real estate investing newsletter with nearly 700,000 subscribers.  And by the way… nearly all of the hard data that Bryan shares with you on this show comes from my research.  So let’s just say I’ve got my finger on the pulse of the investing world in a pretty big way.Ok, enough of that.  Let’s talk about something that’s important today… AVOIDING trouble with your self-directed retirement account.But first, Bryan wanted me to tell all of you that he’s really in the mood to buy some first-lien real estate notes.  And honestly, people, I hope you’ll sell some to him.  He gets pretty moody when he’s in the mood to buy, and I’d like to see that be resolved as quickly as possible.  Hehehehe.  Seriously though, if you’ve got first-lien real estate notes against residential property, and if you actually own those notes – no brokers, please – then reach out to Bryan via text or online.  You can reach him by text by sending the word SELLNOTE to 33444.  That’s spelled S-E-L-L-N-O-T-E with no spaces.  Text the word sellnote to 33444.  Or you can go to SDIRadio.com/sellnote.  Either way works just fine.Let’s talk about something that’s near and dear to my heart:  Due Diligence.  Like I told you, in the deals Bryan and I do, a big part of my role is to make sure that he sees the big picture.  He’s a numbers guy, and is incredibly good at it.  But sometimes, there’s more to a deal than just the numbers, so let’s look at that today.When it comes to self-directed retirement accounts, it feels like the sky is the limit because the tax