Some of the other ways to buy Treasury bonds include ETFs, money market accounts, and the secondary market. When you buy bonds on the secondary market through a broker, you can keep them in an IRA or other tax-free retirement account. You can also do this with ETFs, or even open a Gold IRA. TreasuryDirect is the official application of the United States government where you can buy and hold savings bonds. Since an IRA is not an individual and does not have a social security number, generally a Roth IRA, a SEP IRA, or a SIMPLE IRA cannot directly own a bond I.
That said, many IRA Financial customers who use a self-directed IRA LLC or Solo 401 (k) plan consider it worthwhile to apply for the purchase of I bonds with Treasury Direct. With Charles Schwab and Fidelity Investments, for example, IRA customers can purchase Treasury bonds through their online account with no transaction fees. Just as technically an IRA can be treated as a trust and use Treasury Direct to purchase I bonds, a retired investor can set up a self-directed IRA LLC to purchase bonds I. However, many IRA Financial customers have successfully purchased I bonds with a self-directed IRA through Treasury Direct.
