Friday, December 13, 2019

Using Precious Metals in Your Self Directed IRA

A Unique Way to Invest in Your Retirement
Here’s something your broker probably won’t tell you. Or even if they do, they might not go into a lot of detail about it. But the secret to successfully managing your own tax-advantaged self directed precious metals IRA is just that: precious metals.
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Think about it this way. If you have an ordinary IRA, you can store anything in it. You can use paper assets like actual cash, bonds, stocks or mutual funds documents. However, no matter how strong the paper currency you keep in your IRA, it can and will still decline in terms of purchasing power. The only item that won’t go wrong is bullion.

That’s right. There really is no other way about it. Keeping a precious metal such as gold in your IRA is a good and sensible choice if you want to reap max benefits. Gold can survive drastic price highs and lows even in volatile and unpredictable times such as these. The best thing is that not only can you keep and sell real gold in your tax-advantaged IRA, but you can also withdraw is whenever you want. It’s always in your possession according to the regular IRA distribution guidelines.

Is Gold the Best Choice?
Here’s what you’re probably thinking: if gold and/or silver are such a great choice for my self-directed IRA, why hasn’t my financial advisor told me about it? You’re not alone in asking this important question. It will interest you to know that there are a handful of investors in the United States who keep even low quantities of gold or silver bullion in their IRA. this is because there is a general lack of awareness, which can be blamed at the door of their financial advisors.

Traditionally, financial advisors tell their investors to stick to the more conservative paper assets options. This means that investors only keep ‘diverse’ items such as paper money, bonds, and stocks. Brokers do this because, in this way, they won’t have to lose out on any potential fees for transactions and/or management. They have their own shining stake in the whole process. Brokers don’t actually encourage their clients to opt for true diversification, which would be the addition of precious metals to their IRA.

This is why it’s much better to invest in a self-directed IRA. At least you can take full control of whatever kind of portfolio you want to build. You can also invest directly in other, much more diverse options. Some of these are private companies, estates, and properties, among others. The way to do this is to open your self-directed account and deposit gold/silver bars and coins into it.

Think of it as instant protection from devaluation, which you would have to face, had you invested in paper currency or assets. This also works out because you can physically possess your metals at any time through the IRA distribution process. You don’t have to worry about currency denominations or asset depreciation in any way.

How Precious is Precious?
If you’re looking to hold gold in your IRA, the IRS dictates that it should be around .995 pure. In the case of silver, you’re looking at a cutoff of .999 or higher. There is an exception for gold American Eagles, which were made by the United States Mint and are only .9167 pure. 

The IRS has its own rules but other depositories and IRA financiers have still more guidelines. For example, many IRA custodians require that any bars you want to keep should have a mint mark or some sort of certification to show that they have passed ISO 9001 quality control. This is only a protection method and ensures that you’re not investing in fake or cheap metals.

If you’re interested in keeping precious metals in your self directed IRA, make sure to do proper research and study. You should be able to understand not only IRS guidelines, but the ones that your dealer has as well. If you need help, you can always check the Secretary of State’s website in your state. This will give you key info such as the firm’s health and credibility. If everything checks out, you’re good to go!

Entrepreneur and Author Tim Schmidt, who wrote the bestselling book on Entrepreneurship, Amplifying Average, is one such person who believes in this retirement strategy.  In fact, he set up a website talking all about how to do this, called IRAInvesting.com.  

The only good way to go about this is to purchase your precious metal, find a custodian and set up a self-directed tax-advantaged IRA that you can have full control over. There really isn’t a point in going with various dealers who will try to cut corners or handle your account for you. You’re your own best judge!






1 comments:

Brian said...

Hey, I know Tim! Great to see his name make his way around the blogosphere. :)