For people wise enough to plan for retirement early on, there is a good chance that they have started investing within an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). These are some of the best investment tools that people can use to help prepare for their golden years. For many people, a traditional IRA works well for them as it offers a tax efficient way to invest in your golden years. Investing in the Best Gold IRA Companies is always a good decision.
However, there are some people out there that feel limited by the types of assets they can hold within a standard IRA. For those individuals that want to invest in gold, they may feel like an IRA is not the best option for them because standard accounts do not allow you to invest in precious metals like gold. With that being said, there are ways to put gold in your IRA when you use a self-directed IRA.
If you want to hold gold within your IRA, here are all the things that you will need to know before you decide that a gold IRA is a proper investment for you. A Gold IRA Handbook will be helpful to understand the basics, though.
You Need A Self-Directed Account
If you want to invest in gold for your retirement, you will need to create a self-directed investment account. The good thing is that these accounts are generally easy to set up at your local bank and you should be able to create an account within a couple of weeks or even days. Once you have a self-directed IRA, you will be able to take control of your investments and you will have more opportunities when it comes to picking what you want to hold within your IRA.
Custodians Need to Watch your Gold
Once you decided that you are going to invest in gold for your IRA, the next thing to do is find a custodian to watch over your gold. You will need to make sure that the custodian you want to store your physical gold is approved by the IRS, as only those with approval can legally watch over and store gold. You will be required to pay your custodian fees in exchange for their services.
Generally, the fees associated with having a custodian are not too high, but you will want to do your research to make sure you are not paying too much. Hiring a custodian may seem a bit of a hassle, but a little research can go a long way. Often time, credible custodians are easy to find through word of mouth from reputable retirement planners that promote this type of IRA.
Financial Planners Are Hesitant to Set Up Your Self-Directed IRA
Another thing that you will want to consider while setting up your self-directed IRA account, is that many financial planners may not want to help you. According to IRA Investing, the reason behind this is that your financial planner will not earn a commission on these investments. Since your gold will be held by a custodian and since the asset itself is simple to manage, your financial planner will not be able to charge you a yearly maintenance fee on your gold assets. It is important to consider this before opening your IRA account because some financial planners may be biased towards investments like mutual funds and other complex investment packages.
Think about Buyers Premium
When you are thinking about putting gold into your IRA account, you will want to consider something called a buyers premium. This means that when you first buy your gold, you may have to pay more for the precious metals than what they are actually worth. This is due to the general business practices of buying and selling gold. When you look for someone to buy gold from, you will often need to pay a premium in the form of a commission. While this can seem like a bad thing at first, it is important to remember that you normally pay additional fees when your financial planner buys and sells investments on your behalf. Also, there’s the irrefutable fact that gold will never lose its value.
Upon thinking about putting gold in your IRA to help prepare for retirement, then it is important to consider these essential factors first. Investing in gold can be a good option and it is definitely possible to put gold in your IRA.
But, before you make any decisions regarding your retirement, it is very important to do your research and speak to professional investment and retirement planners as they will be able to provide you with a retirement plan that will work best for your personal situation.
