Investing in Gold with an IRA: A Comprehensive Guide

Learn about investing in gold with an IRA - discover tips for making sound investment decisions in a gold IRA & examine our selection of the best Gold IRA providers.

Investing in Gold with an IRA: A Comprehensive Guide

Are you looking to diversify your retirement portfolio and hedge against inflation? Investing in gold with an IRA may be the right choice for you. With the right guidance, you can make sound investment decisions and ensure a comfortable and hassle-free retirement. The tax code allows you to invest in precious metals, such as gold and silver, using specialized IRAs. There are several methods for including gold in your IRA, such as buying and selling stocks and holding them in a conventional or 401(k) IRA.

However, alternative asset classes should not exceed 5 to 10 percent of your entire retirement investment portfolio. Congress established an important statutory exception that allows IRAs to invest in certain gold, silver, and platinum coins and gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bars that meet applicable purity standards. Coins or bars must be held by the trustee or custodian of the IRA rather than by you as the owner of the IRA. These rules apply equally to traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP-IRAs, and simple IRAs.

When choosing a company that provides IRA Gold services, your account representative will use subject matter expertise to help you decide on your purchase. These investments are available in a normal brokerage IRA, which means you won't have to go through the extra work and costs of setting up a self-directed gold IRA. The Internal Revenue Service imposes strict regulations on the precious metals you can choose for your gold IRA. Read up on each company's IRA-approved selection of precious metals, and ask questions before making your purchase.

Most companies charge setup, administration, and storage fees, as well as fees for buying and selling gold. Once you turn 72, you will be required to accept the Minimum Required Distributions (RMD) of a traditional Gold IRA (though not a Roth). That said, since the Great Recession there has been a wave of announcements encouraging retirement savers to convert their savings into cash into precious metals within an Individual Retirement Account or Gold IRA. When planning your Gold IRA, it's important to compare your options first.

You'll need to choose whether you want to fund your Gold IRA with pre-tax (conventional) or after-tax (Roth) dollars. Augusta offers common gold and silver bars, premium gold and silver, and select precious coins. Learn about Gold IRAs, discover tips for making sound investment decisions in a gold IRA, and examine our selection of the best Gold IRA providers. With the right guidance and knowledge of the rules surrounding precious metal IRAs, you can make sound investment decisions that will ensure a comfortable retirement.

Erica Nicky
Erica Nicky

Hardcore twitter advocate. Evil internet fanatic. Hipster-friendly beer guru. Certified food guru. Hipster-friendly web maven. Total travel ninja.