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TIAA began as a retirement program exclusively for teachers, but it has significantly expanded its offerings over time.
Today, TIAA is accessible to a broader audience, not just educators. It provides a wide range of investment options, allowing you to tailor your portfolio to your preferences. Additionally, TIAA offers an investment advisory service for those seeking professional guidance.
However, a common question arises among potential investors: Does TIAA offer a gold IRA that can hold physical gold?
Continue reading to discover the answer...
Before we get started with this review:
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History of TIAA
TIAA was founded in 1918. It was designed for teachers and educators to help them plan and invest for their retirement. Their services and product offerings and how the organization functioned were all designed with their client's needs in mind.
Their investment and money-management approach are for the long term. Their objective is to assist their clients in building a healthy nest egg so they will be well taken care of and comfortable in their golden years.
In 1997 Congress passed the Taxpayer Relief Act which allowed employees and investors to hold physical precious metals in a tax advantaged individual retirement account (IRA).
The government had to allow physical precious metals to be held in within IRA due to demand from investors.
The problem is, TIAA never created an IRA that can hold physical precious metals forcing their customers that want to have the safety of physical precious metals to look elsewhere.
That is why we researched every company that offers these accounts and found out that Goldco treats their clients better than all other physical precious metals companies.
We also created a (very small) list of the best, most trusted companies to work with that you can read here.
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.
What is a Gold IRA?
You probably know some things about two types of retirement accounts, which are traditional IRA accounts and 401(k)s. In these accounts, you can invest in stocks, index funds, bonds, and other investment vehicles as part of your retirement portfolio.
What you might now know is that these do not let you purchase gold as an investment. To invest in gold, you would have to open a gold IRA.
A gold IRA is a special kind of IRA that can hold gold and other precious metals like silver, platinum, and palladium.
You can contribute your pre-tax dollars to the fund, and they follow similar requirements as traditional IRAs in terms of limits on contributions and income. They are not like 401(k)s and traditional IRAs because the latter can only hold assets on paper.
With gold IRAs, you can buy and hold the physical precious metal in the account. After you buy your precious metal via the gold IRA, you cannot keep it at home even if you have a secure safe.
You have to store your assets in a secure deposit facility outside of your home, with a custodian. A high-quality gold IRA company with a good reputation can get you started with your gold investment.
They can help you with buying your gold and opening your gold IRA. They are familiar with all of the restrictions that the IRS places on these types of retirement investments, and they ensure that your portfolio is maintained in full compliance so you can enjoy a peace of mind.
The gold IRA provider can collaborate with the custodian in taking care of your assets.
Benefits of Gold IRAs
A gold IRA gives you a chance to defer your current taxes or optimize your tax-free gains. A traditional IRA is an effective approach to saving for your retirement. However, if you want more flexibility in investing, there are better options.
A gold IRA is one of those options that can you invest in to grow your nest egg. You can invest in precious metals and defer your taxes on the gains you make.
Gold has been a safe and stable investment historically because it is not affected by market instability like wheat, oil, and other commodities.
The price of gold has risen steadily over the decades, so when you sell, you are likely to make a healthy profit. It is also easy to sell your gold when you want to.
If you require cash right away, you can sell your gold easily. You just have to contact a coin shop or a place that buys gold. Let them know how much gold you have to sell and that you want cash for it.
If the price is agreeable to both of you, you can have cash in hand. It is not as easy selling other investment assets like real estate because it takes time to find the right buyer, and real estate transactions are always complex.
Gold offers stability when the economic environment is volatile. The value of other assets, like stocks and bonds, can go up or down with the market, but gold remains stable over the long term.
That is why it is considered one of the safest investments. The value of gold tends to rise when there is economic uncertainty and high inflation. The value drops when the economy is strong and inflation goes down.
So, gold is a great way to add diversification to your retirement portfolio to balance your stock and bond investments.
Gold has existed for over millennia, and it will continue to be around in the future. As long as people keep using precious metals for jewelry and currency, which is likely, gold is here to stay.
Gold has been the foundation for currency for thousands of years, so it is not going to disappear. Countries that base their currency on gold enjoy healthy economies.
You can make regular investments in gold every month or every year depending on your investment strategy.
An economy experiences inflation when there is too much money in circulation. That means the value of the dollar goes down, and you cannot buy as much with the dollar. In deflation, the opposite happens because there is insufficient money circulating.
So, the dollar is stronger and consumers can buy more. Historically, economic problems are connected to inflation. Gold is an effective hedge against economic downturns because the value of gold remains stable when the economy is unstable.
During inflation, gold prices go up, even though consumer prices rise. The value of their gold protects the consumer. During deflation, gold prices trend downward, but consumers enjoy lower prices again.
So, gold is there to protect the investor regardless of inflation or deflation.
Self-Directed IRA Explained
A self-directed IRA is similar to a traditional or Roth IRA in many ways. Investors get tax advantages. The eligibility requirement and limits of contribution are the same. For 2022, the limit is $6,000 ($7,000 for people older than 50).
You can enjoy penalty-free withdrawals at 59 1/2.
A traditional or Roth IRA only allows you to invest in mutual funds or CDs. A self-direct IRA allows you to invest in many other types of investments. This is where they differ.
You can invest in the following in your self-directed IRA:
How to Fund Your IRA - Gold IRA Rollover Explained
When you have funds in a 401(k) or another IRA, and you want to own gold as a hedge against inflation, you can invest in gold with part of that existing fund by doing a gold IRA rollover.
In this process, you determine how much money to remove from your current IRA to fund the gold IRA. The money is held for a maximum of 60 days before you have it transferred to your gold IRA custodian.
Steps to rolling over your funds into a Gold IRA:
A gold IRA is different from a traditional or Roth IRA because you are holding actual precious metal in your gold IRA. The other IRAs hold stocks and bonds on paper.
So, you should find a reputable dealer in precious metals and a gold IRA provider to take advantage of their expertise. The gold IRA representative is a valuable source of information.
They will help you every step of the way in creating your new gold IRA account, hiring a custodian, choosing your precious metals, and selecting a secure depository to store your gold.
The best gold IRA providers are experts in dealing with precious metals for these accounts.
In addition to helping you through all of the paperwork, transactions, and metal purchase, they will advise you on all aspects of your gold IRA for as long as you hold it.
A gold IRA custodian is the link between the investor and the IRS. They keep records of all transactions and provide service and documentation to you and the IRS.
They administer the buying and selling of the precious metals in your account, and they can complete the transaction on your behalf.
A lot of financial institutions do not offer you actual physical metal to purchase for your IRA because this is an additional expense on their part.
So, make sure that your gold IRA custodian sets up a "self-directed" IRA for your gold IRA. This allows you to manage your IRA assets in the way you want without relying on the custodian to make the choices.
After you have identified the custodian of your new gold IRA, you will open the account with the gold IRA provider. They will help you with buying and selling the precious metals in your investment.
They will work with the providers of the precious metals for the transactions.
After your funds have been rolled over to your gold IRA account, the new provider can use their product expertise to help you find the right precious metal for your purchase.
Once purchased, they will arrange to have the metals delivered to a secure depository of your choice.
Who Should Invest with TIAA?
TIAA Bank is appropriate for people who like to do banking with an online-only bank. TIAA offers a full range of services.
Here are reasons why people should choose them:
Customer Service at TIAA
Although TIAA is an online bank, it provides full banking services. They provide live client support. They have brokerage and advisory services.
You can access banking tools from your computer or your mobile phone. You can pay your bills, set up auto-pay for your bills, get payment alerts, and much more. You can set up a budget, and savings goals, and use Zelle to send money to your family and friends.
Their live customer support line is available every day, including weekends. Their hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Monday to Friday, and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Hours are based on Eastern Standard Time. 24-hour emergency service is available if your credit card is lost or stolen.
Pros and Cons of TIAA
Pros
Cons
Conclusion
TIAA is good for people who want easy access to an ATM and who use their debit cards to make any purchases. If you want higher interest rates from an online bank, however, you might want to open your bank account somewhere else.
If you want to protect your wealth from inflation with a Gold IRA, there are much better options that we recommend.
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. <<
Or, if you like what you have read about TIAA, you can go to there website below:
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.
