What Are The Benefits of a Gold IRA Account

What Are The Benefits of a Gold IRA Account?

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There are few things more important to your long-term financial health than opening a retirement account that will ensure you can live out your golden years in peace and financial comfort. This is not an easy proposition, and it requires you to invest wisely while you are still working.

Fortunately, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) can be key components of this endeavor.

By opening the right type of IRA, you can ensure that you save for the future, reap tax benefits, and have an alternative asset class to protect you from potential downturns in the market. 

So, what is a gold IRA? What are its benefits? Let's take a look.

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What is a gold IRA?

IRAs are tax-advantaged retirement accounts that are managed by a third party. They come in wide varieties and have different tax benefits and advantages, but they essentially operate the same: An IRA enables you to save for retirement by providing tax incentives and tax-free growth. 

You can use an IRA to buy a variety of financial assets, including stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, and more. However, there are also specialized IRAs available. Gold IRAs are one such example of a specialized IRA that may fit your financial needs.

Gold IRA

A gold IRA is an IRA that allows you to buy actual, physical gold. While the gold must fall in line with specific IRS regulations, you can buy multiple types of gold, including coins, bars, bullion, and more. When you need access to the funds, you can sell the gold and have the money transferred to your bank account.

Furthermore, gold IRAs allow you to buy and sell gold-related stocks, like companies involved in gold equipment and mining. This allows you a bit of diversity within your gold portfolio. 

Gold IRAs are a little more complicated than other IRAs: There are more extensive IRS regulations, and you can't simply buy your own gold and then put it in a safe deposit box.

You have to maintain the gold IRA with a third party and ensure that the storage company is IRS approved. However, within those regulations, there is quite a bit of option, and there are many competing companies that can be used to manage, store and purchase gold. 

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IRA advantages

The tax advantages of opening an IRA cannot be understated. As noted above, there are numerous types of IRAs, including a Roth IRA, standard IRA, SEP IRA, and more. All of these IRAs offer many different benefits, contain different limits, and have different specific tax advantages, including when assets are taxed.

What they do allow is for the value of your investment to grow tax-free. While a normal investment portfolio is taxed at different junctures, growth is not taxed for an IRA. As such, you can reap the gains of the value of gold without having to worry about that value being taxed. 

Diversity of asset class

One of the most important financial principles that anyone needs to take advantage of in investing is diversification. This means that you shouldn't put all of your financial eggs in one basket and instead should invest across a series of asset classes - and within those asset classes.

As such, investment advisors often recommend individuals diversify their total retirement holdings to ensure that they won't be hammered too hard if there is market turmoil within a certain sector of an economy, like another pandemic or crash of certain sectors.

Buying precious metals can help you achieve these important goals. With an investment in gold, you can take a portion of your retirement holdings and invest them in alternative assets.

Given gold's standard movement in times of economic turmoil, this is likely a wise decision, as an investment in gold can ensure that your retirement savings still grow, even when the global economy is facing difficult times. 

Hedge against inflation

Gold is commonly viewed as a hedge against inflation. The reason is simple: Gold holds its value longer than other metals and tends to hold its value for a longer time. This means that an investment in gold will often increase at or beyond the rate of inflation, enabling you to protect your portfolio from potential problems caused by an inflationary economy.

There is perhaps no greater proof of that than in today's modern economy. Over the past five years, the value of gold has increased by roughly 55%, far more than other similar metrics. This is not to say that you should buy only gold in your portfolio. 

Investment data

Like every other asset class, gold will rise and fall based on a variety of complex market conditions. However, there is ample proof that gold performs very well and holds its value for long periods, thus making it a potentially ideal investment for investors who are looking to protect their portfolios from inflationary challenges. 

Safe haven

In times of economic trouble, where do investors tend to turn? Gold. As a result of its long history as a currency, gold is typically viewed as a safe haven. Investors will often invest in this asset when economic times get tough, forcing its value higher and higher.

This means that investing in gold can help protect your portfolio and ensure that you see growth in your retirement savings regardless of the surrounding economic conditions. Furthermore, the definition of "safety" needs to be properly expanded upon.

Yes, gold tends to perform well during times of recession, but it is often a source of economic stability when there are various geopolitical conflicts. The increasingly intertwined and chaotic state of the world has pushed more and more investors into gold, making it a potentially solid investment. 

Solid growth

Gold has shown solid growth over the past few decades. Indeed, depending on the specific time you are examining, you may find that gold has outperformed the stock market. Consider the track record of growth over a few periods.

As of this writing, the value of gold has increased by the following:

  • Increase 6.75% year to date
  • 7.17% over the past year
  • 7.17% over the past year

This solid track record has continued to rise over time, leading many to believe that an investment in gold will likely result in significant returns. 

Self-directed

An investment in gold is far more creative than an investment in another financial instrument, like a stock or bond. This is because of the sheer amount of options.

For example, if you want to invest in a company, your investment is usually relatively limited: You will have to buy a share or potentially invest in a bond. In that capacity, your options are small and usually set, as you will likely have to buy whole units unless fractional shares are available.

Self-Directed-IRA

With an investment in gold, your options are far greater. You can invest in bars, bullion, coins, and more. Coins, in particular, allow individuals to truly explore some unique investment combinations, as an investment in a gold coin may carry more weight than an investment in a bar or bullion.

For some, this complexity is a problem and adds complication to investing. However, many find there to be joy in combining collecting and financial investments, as such investment allows users to grow their retirement accounts by applying their knowledge of coin collections to their investing. 

Regardless, as a self-directed IRA, YOU are ultimately in control. You decide what types of gold to invest in when to make purchases, and when to make withdrawals. As long as you are operating concerning already-existing regulations, you have a wide range of investment options. 

Ample Competition

The self-directed nature of gold means something extremely important: There are plenty of potential vendors for you to purchase gold from. Indeed, as we have cataloged repeatedly, there are hundreds of websites, brokers, and other dealers from which you can buy gold.

This is good news for consumers. With so many potential options and such high rates of competition, vendors have to work extremely hard to win a customer.

This means that vendors will often offer an array of bonuses, like rewards programs, free shipping, or bulk discounts, as part of an effort to win your business. All of this is a win for consumers: You have a chance to find an excellent gold vendor at the best possible prices.

With so many vendors out there, it does mean that you have to pay particular attention to who is selling what and what the specifics of each gold vendor are. This can be challenging, but with enough research, you can find a gold vendor to suit your needs. 

Conclusion

There is no doubt that a gold IRA can occupy an important place in your financial portfolio. 

Finding the right vendor and determining the specific allocations requires time, diligence, and consultation with experts.

Fortunately, all of this information is available for you to make the best possible decision about where to invest your money.

Remember to read our list of the Top Gold Companies.

>> Click HERE to read our Best Precious Metals IRA Companies list <<

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