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Many people change their job position several times before they retire. When they leave a job, their 401k often remains with the previous employer instead of rolling over to the new employer's account. After many years, you find you have three or four old 401k accounts that are just doing nothing except accruing fees for management.
What is the best solution? Rolling over these old accounts into a gold IRA. A gold IRA will give you the diversity and stability you need for your retirement savings.
Protect Your Wealth & Get Huge Tax Saving!
What Is A Gold IRA?
A gold IRA is a type of Individual Retirement Account considered a self-directed account. This means that you can hold other assets as part of your retirement savings in addition to stocks and bonds. With a gold IRA, you can add gold, silver, platinum or palladium to your retirement assets. Most people prefer investing in gold, which is why they have earned the name of "gold IRA."
A gold IRA falls under the same restrictions as any other IRA. You cannot withdraw from the account before age 59.5, and taxes are applied the same way as a standard IRA. The only real difference is that you can expand your investments instead of just relying on the stock market.
Why Invest In Gold?
Gold has always been a sound investment. Owning gold protects your investments from the ravages of inflation and provides stability when the stock market fluctuates. Savvy investors always own gold because it is a way to diversify their investments in a way that protects their interests.
Gold has historically performed well because demand continually remains high for this limited asset. You cannot produce gold; it must be found, mined, and processed. This keeps it in limited supply and high demand. Gold has always been associated with wealth.
Gold prices also perform very well when the market has problems. People look to gold because of the stability it provides and the protection it gives to their investments.
Gold investments have also increased in popularity because it is a physical item that is being held in your account, not just a paper stating that you own a stock. If anything goes wrong with the stock, that paper is worthless. You will always have the physical gold.
What Types of Gold Can You Invest In With A Gold IRA?
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has strict guidelines about the types of precious metals you can hold in a gold IRA. These standards benefit the investor because they mean that the gold and other precious metals you own will be of the highest purity.
Under IRS regulations, any precious metals you own as part of your retirement savings must be 99.5 percent pure or higher. The only exception is the American Gold Eagle coin. This coin is approved for retirement accounts.
Gold and other precious metal coins and bars must be from approved mints. These mints include the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Switzerland. The South African Krugerrand is also included in this list of approved coins.
Gold Ownership
When you hold gold or other precious metals as part of your gold IRA, you must keep the coins and bars in an IRS-approved storage facility. You can take possession of the gold or sell it when you turn 59.5, or begin to make withdrawals from your retirement account.
If you purchase other gold or precious metals, you cannot add them to your IRA account. The purchases you make must be through a gold dealer and they must comply with purity and storage regulations.
Establishing A Gold IRA
Combining your outstanding 401k plans into a gold IRA is much easier than you may imagine. The first step of the process is finding a company that offers gold IRAs. There are several gold brokers that work with management companies that handle gold IRAs. Working with one of these companies significantly streamlines the process.
Once you have selected a company, you will complete the paperwork to establish a new gold IRA account. This can be completed online and will only take a few minutes. Once this is completed, a customer service rep should contact you about funding your account.
You can roll over your old 401ks into the account at this time. By rolling over the accounts directly into your new gold IRA, you eliminate the potential for penalties for making an early withdrawal from your retirement account.
In most cases, your new gold IRA will be funded within two weeks. Some management companies will roll over your account quickly, others may take the full two weeks to complete the transaction.
Once your money has been transferred, you can purchase the gold and other precious metals you wish to hold as part of your account. Investors usually choose between 10 and 20 percent of their balance to invest in gold. Once you have selected the coins or bars you wish to purchase, your gold broker will complete the transaction.
Once your transaction is complete, the broker will send your purchase to the chosen storage facility. You will receive a receipt for your purchase and the shipment. By sending it directly to storage, you avoid IRS penalties for "holding" assets that are part of your retirement account.
When you retire, or at the age of 59.5, you are eligible to remove the gold from your account. You can sell the coins and bars, or you can take legal possession of these items at that time.
It is that easy to roll over your old 401ks into a gold IRA. Protect your retirement assets by investing in gold and other precious metals while eliminating multiple management fees from all of your old accounts. It is a win-win solution for your retirement savings.
Prefered Gold Brokers Who Offer Gold IRAs
Augusta Precious Metals (WINNER)
Headquartered in Wyoming, Augusta Precious Metals has been ranked as the top gold IRA provider by several financial experts. The company has been providing gold IRA services for over a decade and has a five-star rating on all of the major review sites like TrustPilot and Google Business. They also have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
Augusta Precious Metals has superior customer service reps that will help you through every step of establishing a gold IRA. Whether you are funding a brand new account or rolling over an old retirement account, they can help. Augusta has extensive educational materials for clients to use so that they can always make an informed decision about their gold investments.
Augusta Precious Metals specializes in gold and silver bars and coins. You can find a good variety of IRS-approved coins and bars to add to your retirement account. They also work with several storage facilities, making the process of investing in gold much easier.
#2. Goldco
Goldco is a California-based gold brokerage that offers gold IRAs and sells gold coins and bars. The company has served clients for over ten years and continually ranks as one of the best gold IRA companies. Goldco continually has 5-star ratings from its clients across all of the major review sites.
Goldco was founded to help people protect their retirement assets with precious metals. Specializing in gold and silver, you can also purchase platinum and palladium from GoldCo when available. The company offers many different coins and bars for retirement savings.
American Hartford Gold is headquartered in California and has offered gold IRA services for over a decade. Many celebrities promote American Hartford Gold because of their excellent customer care and large variety of gold coins and bars. American Hartford Gold also offers silver and other precious metals for purchase.
The company has exceptional educational materials available for consumers and works with s few management companies and storage facilities so that their clients get exactly what they want from the gold IRA.
