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| By Nilus Mattive |
Mainstream headlines have mostly focused on the ways Donald Trump is shaking up things like global trade and immigration.
But he’s also been changing the world of retirement planning …
And it looks like he will continue doing so in the months ahead.
For example, the recently passed “Big, Beautiful Bill” created a new type of retirement account called a “Trump Account.”
Children born between 2025 and 2028 will qualify for the accounts and get an initial $1,000 deposit from the U.S. government.
There are no income requirements.
The accounts will become available in July 2026 to all U.S. citizens who meet the aforementioned birthday window.
From that point, parents and others will be able to put as much as $5,000 a year into the accounts up until the year before the beneficiary turns 18.
Employers will also be able to contribute up to $2,500 a year. And that money will be exempt from taxes.
So basically, Trump Accounts function like a combination of a Traditional IRA and the employer contribution component of a 401(k) plan.
As far as investment choices? There aren’t any.
All the money will go into an investment that tracks a major stock market index.
From my perspective, Trump Accounts are great for the kids getting them … but not really a major game changer.
However, there are rumors that President Trump is also planning to announce an executive order that will alter the retirement landscape in a much bigger way …
And it would be a major step in the right direction as far as I’m concerned.
A Major Financial Prohibition
That Needs to Go Away
As you probably know by now, I’ve become a big proponent of diversification — and not the fake diversification of stocks and bonds that Wall Street likes to pitch …
But real diversification into all types of assets beyond those categories …
Things like crypto, precious metals, real estate and private companies.
The reason why is simple: Some of these assets offer massive upside potential. And including them can help make a portfolio safer overall.
Unfortunately, buying and selling many so-called alternative assets has been almost impossible for regular investors … especially if they use standard retirement accounts.
And while they’ve been locked out of these categories, the rich and connected have been laughing all the way to the bank.
Want an extreme example?
Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, brought some of his founder’s stock and other private investments into a self-directed Roth IRA and ultimately took it from an initial value of $2,000 to more than $5 billion.
Thiel was able to do this because he already had access to pre-public shares in things like PayPal and Facebook.
Their initial values were extremely low. So, he was able to bring them into his account.
Then, as they skyrocketed in value, he was able to keep parlaying the profits into even more exponential growth.
Regular American workers?
There’s no way they could do the same thing or anything even remotely close to it.
Which is where that rumored executive action comes into the picture.
According to several sources, President Trump wants to allow 401(k) plans to have access to private equity investments.
I wholeheartedly endorse that idea.
Why should regular Americans not have access to ALL the same investment categories that the wealthy do?
Traditionally, the answer has been that these types of things are too sophisticated and too risky for the masses … as if day-to-day workers are not capable of reading disclosures or properly allocating our money based on how speculative a particular investment is.
In a world where the performance of major stock market indexes is largely driven by a handful of big-name tech companies, it’s actually more important than ever that everyone has access to the widest range of investments possible.
So, let’s hope President Trump follows through and announces that executive order.
And let’s hope it’s the first of many in the same vein because there are plenty of other categories — including crypto — that are still prohibited in traditional retirement plans.
Best wishes,
Nilus
P.S. The good news is that you can already invest in some private startup companies ahead of Trump’s possible executive order.
In fact, my friend and colleague Chris Graebe is lining up a special deal that you can buy right now.
