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Planning for your retirement is a task you cannot overlook. Even if you have started a retirement savings account, reviewing your accounts and options regularly is important to protect your assets and grow enough income for your golden years.
One of the ways that you can take more control over your retirement savings is by starting a gold IRA. Even if you currently have an IRA, you can roll it over to a gold IRA to get all the benefits of owning gold as part of your retirement savings.
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Why Own Gold As Part Of Your Retirement Portfolio?
Investing in gold as part of your retirement account is one of the easiest ways to protect your retirement assets. Gold has performed very well for decades and is the investment people quickly turn to when the stock market experiences a significant drop or fluctuations.
Gold is considered a safe haven because it always remains in demand. Gold is a limited commodity, so demand drives the price. Because demand remains high, holding physical gold helps stabilize your investments and hedges your account against inflation.
Gold is also considered a liquid asset. You can sell gold much easier than any other type of hard asset, making it perfect when you need quick access to cash. Of course, when you hold gold as part of your IRA, you must wait until you are at least 59.5 years old before making withdrawals from your account.
Starting A Gold IRA Is Simple
You must have a gold IRA account to own gold or any allowable precious metals. A gold IRA is considered a self-directed IRA. Self-directed IRAs allow you to hold more assets in your account than stocks and bonds. Standard IRAs will only allow you to hold stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.
The quickest way to start a gold IRA is to work with a gold brokerage company. Why is this the most straightforward way? Because these companies specialize in these accounts.
When you work with a brokerage company, they can help you start your account, manage any rollovers, and help you purchase the gold for your account. These experienced reps can answer your questions and help you through the entire investment process.
What Types Of Gold Can Be Held In A Gold IRA?
Now that you know how important it is to hold physical gold as part of your retirement savings, you need to know what types of gold qualify for these accounts.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has specific guidelines for owning precious metals as part of your retirement account. All precious metals must be 99.5 percent or higher in purity to qualify for ownership in your account. The only exception is the American Gold Eagle coin.
All precious metal coins and bars must come from approved mints. Some of these mints include those in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Several European mints will also fall under the approved mints. Some South African Coins will qualify to be held as part of your account.
By restricting the types of gold and other precious metals to the highest quality and purity levels, the IRS is helping you protect your retirement savings. Gold has different values based on purity level. By owning the purist forms of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, you are ensured the highest prices when you sell your assets for retirement.
All Gold Must Be Held At An Approved Storage Facility
All the gold and other precious metals purchased for your retirement account must be held in an IRS-approved storage facility. This ensures that your assets are protected and you do not violate any regulations surrounding an IRA. Under IRA regulations, a person cannot access any assets before age 59.5 or face penalties and taxes for early withdrawal.
Gold brokerages that offer gold IRAs will have the information you need to select an appropriate storage facility. They will ship your gold purchases directly to storage, so you never have to worry about paying fines for possessing your assets. Once you reach the withdrawal age, you can withdraw the gold to hold in your possession or sell it as part of your retirement money.
Is Investing In Gold Worth The Effort?
You may ask yourself if investing in physical gold as part of your retirement is a smart move. It seems like there are many regulations surrounding holding gold as an asset in your retirement. Do you want to take advantage of owning gold and having more control over your retirement savings? Or do you want to risk it all by only investing in stocks and bonds?
The answer is simple. Gold is worth the effort. In fact, there is really no effort to own gold at all. Regulations about the types of gold or precious metals you can own and where they must be stored are for your benefit.
Gold provides you with a secure base for your investments. Most investors will spend 5 to 25 percent of their investments on precious metals to secure their retirement base. Owning gold helps stabilize your investments during times of market instability, recession, and inflation.
Physical gold also gives you a liquid asset in times of need. It is quick and easy to sell physical gold, especially at the purity that you are required to own in an IRA, which means you can always access your money fast.
Physical gold is something that you can pass down through your family as well. If you are comfortable with your retirement income, you can use your gold to establish generational wealth. When you purchase coins and bars of solid gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, they will be valuable now and in the future. Some coins may even significantly increase in value due to low mintage and rarity.
Owning gold has many benefits. Major investors always turn to gold as part of their investment strategy. There is no reason you should not take advantage of this investment as well.
Funding Your Gold IRA
If you are ready to start your gold IRA, you must do two things. First, you will need to select a gold brokerage to work with. For your convenience, we reviewed the top three companies later in this piece. Second, you will need to fund your account.
There are several ways that you can fund your account.
Your personal rep at the gold brokerage company can help you process any necessary paperwork to roll over accounts or send money from your bank to fund your account. Allowing them to manage the rollovers from your other retirement accounts ensures that you are not penalized for early withdrawal.
You cannot roll over money from your 401k account that you have with your current employer. You can only roll over money from previous accounts.
When Is The Best Time To Invest In Gold For Retirement?
Gold is one of those investments that can benefit you in the short or long term. Unlike some bond or stock investments, where you have a limited time to purchase them, you will always benefit by owning gold.
Gold will give you a long-term base for your investments if you have just begun investing. When you diversify your investments, make sure that gold represents a portion so that you always have that safe haven as part of your portfolio.
If you are close to retirement, gold can protect you from inflation and market fluctuations. Gold can give your retirement account the stability you need to feel comfortable retiring.
How much you invest in gold depends on your savings, the time until your retirement, and your personal preferences. Some investors go as low as five percent of their assets in gold, while others go as high as 25 percent. The average investor usually sticks with 10 to 15 percent for the best results.
Top Gold Brokerage Companies
There are several companies that are offering gold IRA services. It is important that you research these companies to ensure you find a company that offers what you want and meets your needs.
We encourage you to look at the following things when selecting a gold brokerage company. This will help you avoid the “fly by night” companies or companies that do not have your best interests in mind.
It is also very important to know that any company stating that you can personally store the gold you purchase for your IRA is not legitimate. The IRS prohibits anyone from holding the physical gold or precious metals part of their IRA. The only exception is if you are considered a corporation with a physical address and have a very high insurance policy dedicated to that asset. Very few corporations even receive approval when they apply. You must store your gold or other precious metals at an approved facility or face penalties.
We have found that the following companies meet or exceed all of these standards for finding an excellent gold brokerage company.
Augusta Precious Metals (WINNER)
Augusta Precious Metals is a Wyoming-based company providing gold IRA services for over a decade. The company has an amazing amount of educational material for clients and a superior customer care crew, so you are never left with questions when you begin your investment journey.
Augusta Precious Metals specializes in gold and silver coins and bars. The company works with reputable IRA management companies directly with approved storage facilities. They have thousands of 5-star reviews and have been ranked as the leading gold IRA company in the US by Money magazine.
#2. Goldco
Goldco is a California-based company offering gold IRA services since 2012. The company has continued to receive outstanding reviews across all of the major review sites, ranking thousands of 5-star reviews each year. Several TV personalities who personally use their service have also promoted the company.
Goldco specializes in gold and silver IRAs. They offer a large variety of coins and bars from approved mints worldwide. Their customer service reps continue to rank very high for dependability and knowledge.
American Hartford Gold is based in California for over ten years. Several financial magazines have ranked them as one of the top gold brokerages in the US. American Hartford Gold also has exceptional ratings across all review sites.
The company has one of the largest inventories of gold and silver coins in the business, and you can also purchase a variety of gold and silver bars.