Photo Credit: Screenshot of article at ProPublica: “Lord of the Roths: How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class Into a $5 Billion Tax-Free Piggy Bank”
“When Roth IRAs were trending in Twitter…” says no one over.
Except the phenomenon of the sleepy lifestyle topic - retirement planning - did take over Twitter when ProPublica published their article chronicling how the mega-tech-investor Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPal, investor in Facebook, donor to Trump, among many other choices), used - very creatively - his Roth IRA to build and hold $5 billion tax free. Roth IRAs, according to ProPublica, were designed as retirement planning tools for the middle class, and have income restrictions.
The angle of ProPublica’s story - and the audience reaction - was how mega-wealthy investors with mindsets like Peter’s are using Roth IRAs that normal people have access to, in order to spike the way it grows money. While the first impression may be: “WOW, that’s a lot of money to shield from taxes….,” the next reaction of a Roth IRA holder might be: “Wait, how did he do that again? What am I not doing in my Roth IRA to grow it that big?”
And there you have the opportunity for a financial expert to step into this trending news story - while respecting its message of how people game a system - to help others actually pay attention to their Roth IRA, instead of letting their Roth IRA be dormant behind some login somewhere, languishing from no one paying attention to it, depositing any money into their Roth IRA, or tweaking its levers to grow that money on trees. Which is what IRAs were intended to do.
Roth IRA At Its Basic - And How Peter Blew It Up To $5 Billion
According to the ProPublica article, Peter deposited $2,000 into his Roth IRA in 1999 and grew it into $5 billion, “using stock deals unavailable to most people.” According to Vanguard, an investment management group, “A Roth IRA is an individual retirement account that offers tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals in retirement. Roth IRA rules dictate that as long as you've owned your account for 5 years* and you're age 59½ or older, you can withdraw your money when you want to and you won't owe any federal taxes.”
There are limits on the maximum you can put in, and that amount can change depending on who is the President of the United States. For instance, David Rae, CFP, wrote for Fortune magazine: “It is important to point out that the Roth IRA may become more valuable to you because of the new Trump Tax Plan. At least that has been the case for many people. Tax-free growth and tax-free income might be quite appealing to current and future retirees. At the same time, more money in your pocket to maximize today could be extremely tempting as well.”
How A Finance Expert Like You Can Perk The Interest Of A Reporter To Get Your Own PR
This was a trending news story. While attention may have moved on, the relevance is still there for a bit longer afterwards. Here’s how you can pitch yourself to a reporter who might be a good fit for this story:
Set the Mood: Mention in 1 sentence the story and the article at ProPublica. You don’t need to link to it in your email. That may trigger spam filters, and you want to save your link for a link to your own website. But you’ll want to remind the reporter about the story, or inform them for the first time.
Say What You’re Going To Do: Further the mood by telling the reporter what you are can inform them about, based on this article. The urgency here is that X number of Americans have a Roth IRA (bonus points for finding and including this statistic!) and don’t do anything with their Roth IRA. They are missing out on any free money, let alone $5 billion.
Love The Bullet Lists: Put in a bullet list the topics you can speak to. For instance: Kids who can start Roth IRAs now and get that early financial education and growth; Why starting a Roth IRA as a 50 year old may still be a good idea; How to work it into your strategy if you are already retired; Best retirement strategies to take advantage of if you have a low income; How the gears of a Roth IRA churn - how does this thing work and how can people tweak the levers to grow more money from it?
You got this, Small Business Friend. Even if you run a huge business, these strategies will work for you. Use Tin Shingle’s Media Contact Idea Center to browse names for which reporters or producers would be a great fit for this story. Use Tin Shingle’s Google Group to test your pitch on us. It’s the group of Members who can see your pitch and submit feedback. Feeling a little shy? Hire one of our PR Pros (Katie, Beth or Olivia) to review your pitch in private during a Private Training Session (discounted 25% with membership).
All of this can be yours with a Tin Shingle Membership.
Whatever You Do:
Don’t mass-pitch. Don’t send the email to a group of BCC emails. Now the media can see you are blanketing this pitch everywhere, and they may compete with each other for the same story angle.
Do include the reporter’s name in your email pitch. Personalize it!
Do change up points you are making to different reporters and producers. Their audiences are not the same. You need to do some work to make this pitch different.
Tin Shingle wants to hear from you! We share financial insight with our small business readers. Do include us in your pitching! Our audience is a diverse group of old and young creative thinkers who turn ideas into action. Our crowd are business owners, communication directors working for them, and PR professionals seeking to further their education.
Good luck!