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You can take advantage of the stability of precious metals, which includes gold and use Gold IRAs to help you to diversify the investments you are making for your retirement savings.
These Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) are specifically designed for investments that are not traditional, like silver, gold, real estate, and others.
Do not worry if you are short of funds to make new investments now. Your gold IRA can be just as easily funded from your other retirement accounts, which include Roth IRAs, existing 401ks, and others.
We will guide you through this process so that you understand how it works.
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There are two ways by which you can fund a gold IRA from existing retirement funds. They are:
If you are looking for a rollover, the custodian of your current IRA will give you the money that you want to withdraw, but then you have to ensure that you deposit this money in a newly opened Gold IRA within 60 days of receiving the money.
Failure in meeting this deadline can result in a penalty of 10% of the withdrawn amount if you are less than 59.5 years old.
In the case of a transfer, your IRA custodian will directly send the money to the custodian of your Gold IRA, and there will be no need to withdraw any cash from your account.
This is the generally preferred method as you do not have to deal with the money yourself, which can be a hassle at times, as you have to be wary of missing the 60-day window that you have.
Opening a Gold IRA
A Gold IRA is a self-directed IRA and you need to look for a company that is specialized in dealing with such accounts. We have got together a list of the best Gold IRA firms so that you can start opening an account.
Fill out the paperwork required to open your account after which you will need to fund it. This process is detailed below.
Choose the metals you want to invest in, gold in this instance, and then give directions to your account custodian to purchase the metals for you. As per IRS rules, there are only certain metals that are eligible for such purchase.
Once the purchase is concluded, the gold will be sent to a secure storage facility.
Transferring Your IRA to a Gold IRA Custodian
It is quite simple to transfer the funds from any IRA account that you have.
The process:
Get in touch with the administrator of your IRA account. Tell that person that you need to initiate a transfer.
There will be some paperwork that needs to be filled out. This requires you to have the necessary details of your new account, and the amount that you want to be transferred.
Your account administrator will require some time to wire the funds to the administrator of your new gold IRA. Once these funds are received in the gold IRA, you can start the purchase of gold or other metals.
Choose the gold that you want to buy. You are only allowed to buy certain coins or metals.
Get your gold IRA custodian to make these purchases. The funds that are now available in your precious metals IRA will be used to buy whatever metals you have chosen.
These metals will then be sent to a secure depository so that they can be safely kept there. Some companies say you can keep the gold at home, but this is not advisable.
The companies may claim this, but you are taking a high risk that can even lead to IRS penalties.
Once all this is done you can restrict yourself to reading account statements and monitoring the performance of your investment.
Fees for a Gold IRA Transfer
There are no fees to be paid to the IRS or government for making a gold IRA transfer. However, some companies may have policies that require your administrator to charge you a fee.
Before you transfer any funds to a precious metals IRA, get your present IRA administrator to tell you whether you will incur any charges or fees.
The best gold companies, and our top recommendation, will perform your transfer for FREE.
Tax Implications of a Gold IRA Transfer
Your Gold IRA gives protection against penalties that can come with a rollover. If you are not of retirement age and fail to make the necessary deposit within 60 days of receiving the funds, you may have to pay a 10% penalty.
Rollovers are limited to one a year.
Opting for a transfer will result in funds being sent directly to your Gold IRA, thus avoiding the chances of a penalty or added fee. As no money is being withdrawn and given to you in a transfer, these funds do not get taxed by the IRS.
For more information you can read our article about tax regulations for gold IRAs by clicking here.
Why Should You Transfer an IRA to a Gold IRA?
This transfer of any funds that you have in your existing IRA to a Gold IRA can bring you several benefits.
These include:
Putting all your funds in a single asset can be risky. You reduce the risk level of your portfolio if you are diversifying from other investments you have invested in, and investing in gold or silver.
Your purchasing power will drop if there is a drop in the value of the U.S. dollar. Your investment in gold will protect you against any loss, as its value is generally ahead of the dollar.
The economy or the stock market in which you have invested funds can take a turn for the worse. If your money is in gold, this can result in reducing your losses.
Gold has appreciated over the past decade and can grow further. If this trend persists, it can increase the value of your portfolio.
Famed commodity investor Rick Rule views holding physical gold and silver as savings and also security, but with all the geopolitical and economic turmoil of today, Rule expects gold and silver to out perform over the next 5 to 10 years.
Talk to your financial planner, if you are not able to decide whether it is the right thing to do to transfer your funds to a Gold IRA. They will know your financial situation and the goals that you have and help you in coming to the right decision.
Opening a Gold IRA Account
To open a Gold IRA account you will have to choose a good company. Choose it, taking into consideration their experience, the service they render, and costs.
All these factors can vary, and you must shop around comparing options before you arrive at any decision.
You can start by going through our guide on the top Gold IRA companies.
Facts About a Gold IRA
A Precious Metals IRA is a retirement account that allows you to invest in gold, physically. You can use it to diversify your savings and in creating a hedge against inflation. As most IRAs do, they also offer other tax benefits that you will find of value.
Investment in physical gold is an alternative that is not possible in a regular IRA. Gold IRAs are self-directed and so can hold other alternative investments as long as they are permitted in IRS rules.
There are government regulations that dictate the type of gold that gold IRAs can hold and where they can be stored.
Fortunately, reputable gold IRA companies, like the ones that make our top recommendations list, take care of these details and make it easy for you to comply with them and bring precious metals into the savings you make for your retirement.
Types of Gold IRA Accounts
The various types of IRA accounts in this area each come with their benefits. Your financial situation can have a bearing on why you should prefer one over the other.
This is the most common one. Contribution of money to a traditional IRA allows you to deduct that amount from the income that determines the taxes you have to pay.
During any year that you contribute to it, your taxes can be reduced. If in a traditional IRA, you withdraw any funds, the amount that you withdrew is subject to income tax.
These IRAs are just the opposite of the traditional IRAs. When you pay money into a gold Roth IRA, this amount gets taxed. Once it is in the account, it becomes tax-free and you do not have to pay any taxes on any withdrawals.
These IRAs also do not have any restrictions on withdrawals from what you have contributed like other IRAs will have.
These are IRAs meant for those who are self-employed or run small businesses. This SEP gold IRA gives these people and businessmen an option to make contributions themselves or to their employees and works like a traditional IRA.
Types of Gold and Other Precious Metals That You Can Hold in a Gold IRA Account
You can hold not only gold in this account but a total of four precious metals. These are silver, gold, platinum, and palladium.
The IRS limits the type of bullion that you can hold in a Gold IRA. The object of these limitations is to make sure that the metals you buy are of high quality and will have long-term value.
Gold has to be held in a form that has a purity of 99.5%. You can find this purity in American Buffalo coins, Credit Suisse bars that have been made at an approved facility, and Chinese Panda coins. American Eagle coins that have a purity of 91.67% are an exception to this rule and can be held in a Gold IRA.
Silver bars and coins need to have 99.99% purity. Coins and bars of Palladium and Platinum have to be 99.99% pure.
Of course it's always best to speak with a specialist at a trusted of Gold IRA company to help you to choose which coins, bars, and bullion will meet the requirements for being held in a Gold IRA.
Why Put Gold in Your IRA?
Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) protect your retirement as well as your family's financial security.
These special accounts allow you to set aside tax protected savings that you can use in the future.
With these long term accounts it's important to allocate a significant portion to assets that are solid and reliable, so you have a secure and worry-free retirement.
You can have cash in an IRA, but that is devaluing at a rapid pace and inflation is out of control.
You need an asset that's dependable, retains it's value, and even increases in value over time, and there is no better asset for this than gold.
With the world's economy struggling through lockdowns, shortages, wars, and inflation, uncertainty has never been higher and investors are protecting themselves by placing physical gold in IRA's.
A gold IRA investment prospers from these crisis that negatively affect most other assets.
Risk is knowing the economic dangers and doing nothing to protect yourself and your family.
Safety is knowing the economic dangers and taking action to protect your financial future, and this is easy to do with a gold IRA.
You can get a Free Gold Investors Guide from our top gold and precious metals company recommendation by clicking the link above or you can read our article of the top companies we reviewed this year:
>> CLICK HERE to read our list of the Top Gold IRA Companies. <<
I started BMOGAM Viewpoints as a way to compile all my views on investing in one place. I own my home, have some real estate, and own a few stocks like most people, but what really drives my interest in investing is I have a strong love of precious metals, especially gold.
