Rocket Dollar Review | Features, Pros & Cons, & Pricing

Do you want to invest in cryptocurrency for your retirement?

These days, plenty of companies let you invest in your IRA or 401(k) with crypto and other alternative assets. But the fees, supported coins, and investing process differs greatly between your options.

Rocket Dollar is one of the most popular players in the space that’s also more flexible than most of the competition. If you want to add crypto to your retirement portfolio and dodge steep fees, it could be the right investing platform for you.

Pros & Cons

About Rocket Dollar

Rocket Dollar began in 2018 and currently operates out of Austin, Texas. The company was founded by Henry Yoshida and Thomas Young with the goal of making saving for retirement more flexible and easy for everyday investors.

Since then, Rocket Dollar has grown into a popular alternative IRA and Solo 401(k) investment option. It currently works with dozens of investing partners to provide its members access to a variety of asset classes.

What It Offers

Rocket Dollar has two product lines: its self-directed IRA and its Solo 401(k) account. You can invest in numerous asset classes in either account type, leveraging potential tax benefits while saving for retirement with more exciting investments besides stocks and ETFs.

The company offers different IRA account types depending on your goals and the type of tax benefits you’re looking for:

• Traditional IRA
• Roth IRA
• SEP IRA

However, Rocket Dollar does things a bit differently than many alternative IRA investing platforms.

When you open a Rocket Dollar account, you’re actually creating an LLC (limited liability company). You invest through this LLC, which is technically investing money through a company that you own.

Investing through an LLC opens the door for more investing opportunities and lets you remain compliant with various alternative investments in your retirement account.

Overall, how Rocket Dollar works is a bit more complex than many other alternative investing platforms. But the trade-off is you get a lot more control over the asset classes and investing partners you use to save for retirement.

Cryptocurrency IRA Investing

With Rocket Dollar, you can invest through any cryptocurrency exchange as long as it accepts registration of your IRA LLC or Solo 401(k) trust. Usually, this means the exchange has to accept a W9 form.

Currently, Rocket Dollar recommends three cryptocurrency investing partners:

• ErisX
• Gemini
• River Financial

Unfortunately, Rocket Dollar has stopped collaborating with Coinbase as of December 2021. And different exchanges have different sign-up processes and wait times. For example, Gemini can take 10 weeks to enable crypto investing for your IRA, and onboarding with ErisX involves emailing its customer support team with your LLC information.

Overall, this process feels a bit convoluted. However, the benefit is that Rocket Dollar is more flexible than many alternative IRA investing options like Alto IRA, which just lets you invest in crypto Coinbase supports.

So, you can use your Rocket Dollar self-directed IRA to invest in popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. But nothing stops you from investing in altcoins like Dogecoin if that’s something you’re interested in.

Additionally, Rocket Dollar lets you put your crypto to work, which isn’t common for crypto IRA platforms.

For example, you can generate yield with Gemini Earn or crypto savings accounts like Celsius. You can also earn staking rewards as long as the rewards are credited to your IRA. You can even go so far as to buy mining equipment to mine crypto, or use your crypto to take out loans.

However, Rocket Dollar states that things like mining income or non-recourse loans from crypto lenders greatly complicates your tax return. To simplify your crypto taxes, it’s probably best to just invest in various cryptocurrencies and to explore passive income options.

Also note that Rocket Dollar’s self-directed IRA isn’t compatible with decentralized exchanges like Uniswap. This is because decentralized exchanges don’t collect and pass on your personal information to the IRS. Additionally, NFTs aren’t eligible IRA investments at this time.

Other Alternative IRA Investments

Flexible crypto investing for your IRA is one reason to use Rocket Dollar. But the platform also supports plenty of other alternative investment options like:

• Conventional loans
• Energy
• Equity crowdfunding
• Farmland
• Income-generating real estate
• Peer-to-peer lending
• Precious metals
• Private equity loans
• Small businesses and startups

And Rocket Dollar truly has some niche offerings. For example, you can even help finance inventory production for small businesses through its partner Kickfurther and receive a portion of profit as inventory sells. Or, if you prefer business investing, Rocket Dollar lets you invest in franchises, start-ups, and through various private equity investing firms.

The fact you can help fund consumer loans and notes also makes Rocket Dollar different from many alternative IRA investing options that shy away from loans and debt.

In short, if you want as much variety as possible for your IRA or Solo 401(k) investments, Rocket Dollar has you covered.

However, investors must conduct diligence when considering alternative investments. Rocket Dollar works with dozens of partners, but this doesn’t guarantee returns. So, make sure you do your research and consider alternative investments carefully before investing retirement savings you can’t afford to lose.

Solo 401(k)

Rocket Dollar’s Solo 401(k) account lets you invest in the same alternative assets as a self-directed IRA, including cryptocurrencies.

However, you must be self-employed and not have any full-time employees to qualify for this account type. As for eligible income, numerous types of business income qualify, including:

• Sole Propietorships
• LLCs
• C Corporations
• S Corporations
• Limited Partnerships

Ultimately, this is a more niche account type than a self-directed IRA since it’s for self-employed individuals without employees.

But if you’re a freelancer or small business owner and this is your scenario, you can contribute to your Solo 401(k) to reduce your taxable income for the year. Just note that contribution limits can change per year as outlined by the IRS.

Bring Your Own Deal (BYOD)

Another advantage of investing with an IRA LLC is that you can “bring your own deal” (BYOD) and propose assets to invest in. In short, this lets you invest in almost anything as long as the IRS allows the asset in retirement accounts.

According to Rocket Dollar, its team can help you open, fund, and invest in eligible assets if you have an investing idea that the platform doesn’t currently support.

Pricing & Fees

Rocket Dollar offers two plans: Core and Gold. Core includes everything you need to start investing whereas Gold has all the features from Core plus some premium perks:

The one-time setup fee might seem steep, but remember, you’re investing through a newly-created LLC which keeps things flexible. Plus, depending on your balance size, only paying $15 to $30 per month can be incredibly cost-effective.

Rocket Dollar doesn’t charge additional investing fees. However, its partners can have various fees and minimum investment requirements. Additionally, customers can pay different bank fees, including:

• Domestic Outgoing Wire Transfer: $25
• Domestic Incoming Wire Transfer: $10
• Bounced Or Returned Checks: $5
• International Outgoing Wire Transfer: $50
• International Incoming Wire Transfer: $10

Rocket Dollar Alternatives

These days, crypto retirement investing is much more common than it used to be. This is excellent news since it gives you more options when choosing how to save for retirement with alternative assets.

Additionally, other popular crypto IRA platforms have different fee structures and supported assets than Rocket Dollar. Here’s how Rocket Dollar compares versus Alto’s CryptoIRA and BitcoinIRA.

The advantage of Rocket Dollar over Alto CryptoIRA and BitcoinIRA is that you have more control over how you invest in crypto. In contrast, Alto works with Coinbase, so you can’t use other exchanges even if you prefer them.

Granted, Coinbase is a comprehensive exchange that supports over 100 cryptocurrencies, so this isn’t necessarily a drawback.

Ultimately, what makes Rocket Dollar the right choice or not is how its monthly fees stack up percentage-wise. Paying $15 or $30 per month is very reasonable for large portfolios but might be too steep for smaller ones.

It’s also worth noting that Alto’s new CryptoIRA doesn’t charge fees currently, making it slightly superior to Rocket Dollar.

Account Opening Process

Opening a Rocket Dollar account takes several steps. Once you sign up with your email address, you choose between a self-directed IRA or the Solo 401(k) account. After making your selection, Rocket Dollar’s team prepares several documents within a few days for you to sign to approve your new account.

Rocket Dollar’s team does all of the work from there. This means working with its various banking partners to open an LLC checking bank account and handling all the paperwork. Once your bank account is open, you can transfer funds from your previous IRA custodian.

According to Rocket Dollar, it takes about two weeks to open and fund a self-directed IRA on the Gold plan and three to four weeks for the Core plan.

Safety & Security

Cash deposits with Rocket Dollar get up to $250,000 in FDIC-insurance. Additionally, Rocket Dollar undergoes annual security audits and also has features in place like two-factor authentication to help improve account security.

Rocket Dollar doesn’t have access to your funds either. Rather, its custody partners deposit your funds into your LLC’s business bank account.

Overall, Rocket Dollar is safe, although you should never invest money in cryptocurrency or alternative asset classes you can’t afford to lose.

Customer Service

There are several ways to contact Rocket Dollar’s customer support team.

Non-customers can email [email protected] Dollar.com or call 1 855-762-5383 to speak to customer service. Paid customers can email Rocket Dollar after logging into their account.

As for phone support, Core customers can schedule support calls whereas Gold customers can call a customer support line anytime.

The Bottom Line

There are numerous self-directed retirement investing companies that now let you add digital assets to your portfolio. But despite the crowds, Rocket Dollar stands out as one of the better options.

If you value flexibility and want to use different exchanges to invest in crypto, Rocket Dollar is for you. Plus, its set fee structure can make it incredibly affordable for larger portfolios.

The fact you can earn staking rewards with your crypto is another bonus. Overall, if you’re looking for a reliable way to invest in alternative assets for your IRA or 401(k), Rocket Dollar is an excellent choice.

Rocket Dollar Features