"Financial freedom isn’t about chasing paychecks, it’s about building reliable, hands-off cash flow that works for you, not the other way around."

Retoro Capital Investments

Who, What, When, Where, Why, and (Most Importantly) How? 

Guide to Private Lending for Financial Freedom

What does it take to have the option to retire early, either by necessity or choice, and spend your days with family, volunteering, running your own business or non-profit; in short, chasing fulfillment instead of a paycheck? This is all possible with passive income if you create a portfolio of truly hands-off assets with reliable cash flow. That's what we help you do.

Between thinking, "I really should get into real estate," and investing any capital, there's a learning period to find and feel secure about investing in the right deal. The following is more information on Retoro Capital Investments, so you can start the process to see if we are aligned and would make a good fit to invest with.

If, after reviewing, you'd like to talk with us more, please reach out at partnerwithrci.com

What We Offer: Numbers That Might Surprise You

We offer private money lending for passive investors to a network of borrowers who use the capital to purchase and renovate properties to sell. They add value, provide needed housing, and return to us as experienced borrowers for each new project.

How do you earn by investing with us? Our revenue model is lending at 12% to real estate "flippers" for residential and commercial property purchase and renovations. We pay our lenders 10 or 12% APR on short-term mortgages to our experienced borrowers, secured by a 1st position lien against their property. Investments under $200,000 receive 10% APR; over $200,000 earn 12%, the full value of the interest paid by the borrower.

You'll also want to know how we get paid to both ensure we are motivated, hands-on managers, but not getting paid if you don't get paid. Our profit model is based on origination and servicing fees from our borrowers, along with the interest difference between 10% and 12% for our lenders who invest less than $200k. We have a fixed cost per investor and want to incentivize larger investments while still serving investors who want to "try us on" for a good fit.

When compounding the interest by reinvesting gains rather than withdrawing them, lender returns can top 13-15+% IRR over five years. This rivals most equity deals, with much less risk and more liquidity. We only occasionally offer an equity deal if it can reliably far outperform our lender returns; otherwise, it wouldn't be worth the extra work or risk.

What happens if a loan underperforms and a borrower can't pay? In the worst case, we hold a 1st-position lien against the property that we can recover in a foreclosure or deed in lieu. We can then rely on our construction backgrounds to allow us to take over a project and ensure our lenders are paid. It hasn't happened yet, and we hope it never does, but we are ready just in case. We are very involved with our projects and always available to consult, step in, or take over.

Any project has downside risk, so as part of your due diligence, it's important to evaluate our ability to execute on our business plan to originate and service loans to reliable borrowers, and our ability to follow through on a project that a borrower cannot complete. We have a complete list of projects in our accredited investor portal.

Some things that we don't offer are paid coaching or courses. We provide free investor education to empower you to invest using your self-directed IRA or cash accounts, sharing our personal experiences with tax planning, investor psychology, and more, but you'll never get a sales pitch from us. We empower passive investors to invest with us (or not), and that means our goal is to invest together, not charge a fee to learn more.

Who We Are: Your Potential Game-Changer

Our CEO, Chris Borden, brings over 30 years of experience in corporate executive leadership. Harmonie Borden, our team Realtor and Director of Business Development, co-owns the Utah REIA with Chris, where we source many of our deals. Troy Powell, my husband, handles tech and operations as an early retiree. Lisa Field Moore, Chief Financial Officer, has contributed 15 years to finance. Zasha Smith, our marketing head and Maui resident, transitioned from a civil engineering career to focus on real estate and passive investing. And me, Emma Powell, Director of Content Management, draw on my background in graphic design and commercial multifamily real estate. Together, we manage deals with over a million dollars of our own capital invested alongside you, collaborating to secure more opportunities and generate passive income for all.

We are fund managers at Retoro Capital Investments, not financial advisors, just investors ourselves who have gone down this path to retire early. Please consult a professional aligned with your goals before deciding whether and how much to invest in ours or any opportunity.

Who You Are: Passive Investor Seeking Financial Freedom

We work with many types of investors, but most who resonate with our message are aged 45-55, accredited investors only with either high net worth ($1M+) or high income ($200k+/yr), planning to ditch the 9-to-5 in around 5 or 10 years, well before age 65, and are family-oriented who deeply value time freedom. Our investors are preparing for a lifestyle seeking fulfillment, giving back, spending time with and caring for family members, donating more time and money, building or growing businesses, more deeply connecting with a career based more on passion than money, and focusing on the people and causes they use their time and money to lavishly support.

Is that you? If so, we'd love to get started investing together by booking a time to talk with us at partnerwithrci.com

Where We Operate: A Hidden Gem

The majority of our lending is in the Salt Lake City metro, where our managing partners live, with occasional loans in Texas and Hawaii, where we hold several properties and travel to often.

Chris, Harmonie, and Lisa live in Salt Lake City full-time, while Emma and Troy travel full-time with Salt Lake as our home base, and Zasha lives in Maui. Our proximity in SLC reduces risk as we can be very hands-on with projects, supported by our network of borrowers, contractors, and Realtors. As presidents of the Utah REIA, our partnership leverages our network of local expertise, enabling deep active management that translates into an advantage for our passive investors.

Salt Lake City has shown strong growth, leading the nation in many metrics over the past 10 years. The median home price increased by over 128% from around $250k in 2015 to $572k in 2025. The population grew by 5.94 percent since 2020, up almost a full percent each year. The job market added 39,000 positions in the last year, with a 2.3% growth rate and unemployment at 3.2%, below the national 4.1%. Looking ahead, home values are projected to increase 2-4% in 2026, with sales up 3% statewide. This stability makes SLC a solid choice for lending. None of the partners grew up in Salt Lake City; we moved there as adults for economic and location advantages because it's such a vibrant, growing community.

When to Invest: The Sooner You Start, the Sooner You'll Wish You'd Started Sooner

Our investors typically start investing with us about 5-10 years before their target early retirement goal. Sometimes they just want more time freedom, and other times they may be preparing to care for family members who need extra time. Whatever the reason, our investors want the option to not actively work in a job or business well before the age of 65.

While the best time to invest is now to maximize compounding, take care to not invest before conducting thorough due diligence on the business model and risks, or before you are emotionally ready. Because compounding over years is such a powerful investing principle, it's important to get started sooner rather than later, but there's no reason to rush into something in just a few weeks when a project and relationship will last many months or years. Take decisive action after a careful consideration period.

Why Investing Could Change Your Life: Financial Freedom

This approach lowers financial stress, covers bills, and supports a life without needing to work for money. It allows time to work for fulfillment, spend time with and caring for family, volunteering, donating, starting a business, or a nonprofit, while providing housing and supporting entrepreneurs.

That’s why I both travel full-time with my family and manage a fund: it's to help you find what we've found, to spend time with family, find purpose, grow, volunteer, and donate. I’ve lived it, and I’ve seen private lending at Retoro Capital open that door for other families. What's your reason why? When you find it, let's make it happen!

How to Begin: Let's Get This Party Started!

We use the Avestor portal for accredited investors. Set up a profile, verify identity, review deals, sign documents, and ACH fund when ready. You can invest in every deal we do, just one, picking and choosing to create your own custom portfolio to make it easy to manage your investments with us all in one place, with a single fund-level investor K-1 at the end of the year.

But first, let's get to know one another. Now that you know more about us, we'd like to learn more about you. It's easy to get registered on our portal to receive live deal notifications by reaching out at partnerwithrci.com