Welcome to The Next Egg

America's retirement investment system is broken.

There's $29T in US retirement accounts, and it's mostly locked up in Wall Street mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance funds that subsidize extractive multinational corporations and build wealth for the already ultra wealthy.

We want to change that.

Crowdfunding and other recent changes in the law make it cheaper and easier to invest in local businesses (which make up 60 - 80% of the U.S. economy!), projects, and people. Self-Directed IRAs, solo 401(k)s, and employee-directed 401(k)s are underutilized tools that facilitate this.

Join our community of practice. 

We want our retirement and workplace savings plans to sustain the thriving of all life by funding ecosystem restoration, locally-owned businesses, alternatives to policing, and so much more!

Together, we navigate legal barriers, co-create resources for public awareness and education, and use collective buying power to bargain for affordable financial products. 

Whether you work for yourself, are an employee, or run a business, we will strive together to help you access the best—and least expensive—tools for localizing tax-deferred savings. 

If we succeed, we can shift trillions of dollars away from Wall Street and into our beloved local farms, cooperatives, and other enterprises that actually sustain our communities and planet into our retirement!

Who We Are:

Our core team includes LIFT Economy (Kevin Bayuk and Erin Axelrod), the Sustainable Economies Law Center (Janelle Orsi, Cameron Rhudy, Valeriya Olegovna Epshteyn, and Sue Bennett), and author Michael H. Shuman.

Sign up and get involved!

By contributing $9.99 per month, you're making an investment in our long-term success. Membership includes access to webinars, resources, and the community we're building! We also offer a free month trial. If the price tag is a challenge for you, email valeriya[at]thenextegg.org and we'll send you an invite to stay on for free. 

Become a member of The Next Egg to access our recorded webinars:

Digging Into Self-Directed Retirement Savings Options

Anatomy of a Solo 401(k): What's inside a plan document?

Exploring Possibilities for Employee Self-Directed Retirement Plans

But Where To Invest? Ideas and Opportunities for Self-Directed Retirement Investments

Community Investment Funds: A New How-To Guide for Building Local Wealth, Equity, and Justice

How We Created A Worker-Controlled 401(k)

The New "Prudent:" A Wild Brainstorm About The Prudent Investor Rule

Invest in Humans Now: How to lend your retirement savings to friends, family, yourself, and other humans in your community

Investment Advisors:  The role they can play on your journey toward transitioning your retirement savings out of Wall Street

COVID, Rebellion & Retirement: A discussion about the role of our nest eggs in this emerging political moment

How to Borrow From Your Existing 401(k) or 403(b)

The 12 Best Local Investments—and 8 Ways You Can Find Them, with Michael Shuman

UPCOMING 2020 WEBINARS:

Solo 401(k) Basics: August 14th

Rolling Over your Retirement Savings: September 18th

Self-Directed IRAs: October 16th

Introducing: the First Hatch

In 2019, we launched TheNextEgg.org, which is a resource and community for people who want to channel their retirement savings out of Wall Street and into life-sustaining enterprises in our communities. We host monthly webinars and we’ve been building up our expertise on tools for self-directing retirement savings, including various forms of IRAs and 401(k)s. In the Fall of 2019, we launched “The First Hatch” with the goal of signing up 100 people to start self-directed solo 401(k)s. We can still bring you into the fold! If you have any self-employment income, you may be eligible to create a plan that gives you full checkbook control over your retirement savings. Learn more and sign up to show your interest here. By building a collective of 100+ people to start plans simultaneously, we can learn the ropes together and gain access to low cost plans. For the First Hatch, we’ve negotiated with a provider to offer plans for a one-time fee of $300, which is quite affordable compared to other plans.

Meet a Member

Jason, 34

• Joined the Next Egg seeking connections with like-minded people grappling with the same questions
• Particularly proud to be currently invested in a small, local clean energy coop & a compost company
• Passionate about early retirement, fostering connections between non-accredited investors and small businesses, and relocalizing accountability through equitable governance systems  

Questions? If you have any questions, please email valeriya[at]thenextegg.org.
Let’s hatch the next economy! We’re so excited for you to join us!