HODL! How Crypto Can Make IRAs Attractive to Young People

“I’ll be honest, I don’t know if I have had a client under the age of 25.”

Tom Tantillo, an IRA Specialist with NuView Trust, thinks that cryptocurrencies can be the way to finally get younger people excited about investing for retirement. As the emergence of web3 has opened up the door to parts of the financial world for many who would otherwise had never have taken part, Tantillo believes that the same can now be mimicked in IRAs.

“Everyone loves paying less taxes, and everyone loves giving less money to Uncle Sam,” said Tantillo. “[However] the main thing is getting young people excited to save for retirement, because it’s not sexy.”

According to Tantillo, a self-directed IRA with digital assets creates a perfect balance of risk and reward for a digitally native investor. Much like mutual funds or traditional stocks, crypto packaged alongside other conservative investments can create big returns in portfolios.

“If you put 2-3 percent of your portfolio into crypto, just the top ten ones off market cap, not going crazy or anything, you can boost your portfolio returns past the S&P 500 average and up to 16 percent.”

After NuView’s investor’s retreat last week, Tantillo claims that after inquiring about feedback from clients, the highest rated panel at their event was the three hour panel dedicated to digital assets. “Clients were like, ‘this cryptocurrency stuff, I don’t know much about it, but I’m interested and I want to get started.’”

Not only do digital assets provide a trendy appeal to retirement investing, they also provide the technology element that younger people see as a sense of legitimacy in a financial product. Tantillo believes that although the potential for digital assets is astronomical in terms of changing the investment mindset of younger people, he also is aware that the current system and demographics in retirement savings are holding the innovation back to a certain extent.

“The whole reason why I educate myself on this is so I can stay ahead,” he said. “That’s what I encourage everyone to do. I don’t want to be that old parent asking their son or daughter how to use tech, I don’t want to fall behind.”

With the maximum contribution in most IRAs being no more than $6,000, Tantillo argues that it’s almost a no-brainer for a financially intelligent crypto enthusiast to bank on digital assets for retirement. “You can do quite a lot of damage with $6,000,” he said. “If you put $6,000 of Bitcoin in an IRA six years ago, you’d be chillin.”