How has your IRA performed this year? Has its performance met your expectations? If your current retirement strategy doesn’t include precious metals, you may be missing out on an essential element of diversification. Learn how you can transfer a portion of your IRA to gold.
Opening up Your IRA to Gold
To put physical gold into an IRA, you’ll need to either have a Self-Directed IRA already or open one. This type of individual retirement account allows alternatives to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Among those alternatives are gold, silver, platinum, and palladium.
If you don’t have a Self-Directed IRA (some people also call it a Gold IRA when there are precious metals involved), you can establish one through an approved custodian. U.S. Money Reserve can help you accomplish this. If you already own a Self-Directed IRA, all moves from another retirement account should be made by your account’s custodian so you don’t run afoul of IRS rules.
Once you’ve got a Self-Directed IRA (which can be either a traditional or a Roth IRA), you can move your money one of two ways—transfer or roll over. With a transfer, you can move money only from one type of account to the same type of account, such as from one traditional IRA to another traditional IRA. A rollover enables you to move money from one type of account, such as an employer-sponsored 401(k), to a different type of account, such as a Roth IRA.
How Much of an IRA Can You Put in Gold?
Some or all of your retirement funds can be moved from one account to another. With the transferred or rolled-over money, the custodian buys gold or other eligible precious metals on your behalf in the form of IRS-approved bullion bars or certain coins. The custodian will make the purchase from a precious metals dealer like U.S. Money Reserve.
Keep in mind that if you do own gold through an IRA, you won’t maintain possession of the bars or coins. Rather, the gold will be safely stored in an IRS-approved depository. Though a separate entity from the depository, your custodian can help arrange storage at an approved facility.
Why Transfer Your IRA to Gold?
A transfer of your IRA to gold via a Self-Directed IRA can make sense for several reasons. Here are four of them:
- Gold helps diversify your retirement portfolio. Gold has enjoyed a long track record as a store of wealth.
- Gold serves as a hedge against inflation. An inflation hedge like gold can help shield your assets from reduced buying power related to a rise in the overall price of goods and services (defined as inflation).
- Gold holds intrinsic/physical appeal, as opposed to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs. Buying a “hard asset has very little downside,” writes Investing Daily. “Gold isn’t going to become worthless.” One of the downsides of the stock market, however, is that you could potentially lose all of the money you put into it. “If a company does poorly, [people] will sell, sending the stock price plummeting. When you sell, you will lose your initial [money],” explains The Balance.
- Gold prices historically have moved in the opposite direction of the stock market. That said, 2020 has been an anomaly in more ways than one. In August 2020, for the first time in history, the price of gold surpassed $2,000/oz. Meanwhile, the DOW and S&P ended August lower, but still reported their best August in 36 years.
“Strong interest in Gold IRAs has continued because of the potential inflationary impact of the Federal Reserve’s stimulus programs and a sharp increase in geopolitical risk,” says Edmund Moy, former director of the U.S. Mint.
Not sure which type of IRA you currently have or how to transfer some of your IRA into physical gold? U.S. Money Reserve can help. Bring your questions and get started with a free consultation by calling 855-889-5111.
