One of the trendiest topics we are seeing in the personal finance industry right now is the ever so mysterious gold IRA. At first glance most people have no idea what in the world a gold IRA even is, yet alone how it could potentially greatly improve their quality of life over the long term. Even so, many astute investors are now making the decision to create a gold IRA, and even convert their existing IRAs into gold IRAs, for a variety of important reasons.

Gain the Protection Your Hard-Earned Cash Deserves

Many investors have discovered the hard way that a traditional IRA may not provide the degree of protection they desired. You would think that simply setting aside a certain portion of your income each month to purchase reliable stocks and bonds would be enough to save up for retirement, but in practice, we have seen that it's just not that simple.

Stocks and bonds are prone to fluctuate significantly over the span of an investment period, and this can potentially have a dramatically negative impact on the value of a portfolio over time. Some people have invested heavily in the stock market throughout their careers thereby accruing a small fortune in preparation for retirement. Unfortunately, I have seen that many of these individuals have also encountered significant drops in the value of their holdings just before reaching the age of retirement. This unexpected reduction in the value of their retirement portfolio naturally resulted in their needing to extend the amount of time for which they must work prior to leaving the workforce behind once and for all.

This is precisely why so many people are now turning to gold IRAs in particular, because these portfolios allow for investors to mitigate the risks of heavily investing in the stock market. Gold is well known for frequently trending in the opposite direction of other asset classes. What this means for you is that you may now invest in gold knowing that it is likely to outperform other assets in your portfolio in times of market distress. The end result will very likely be far less volatility in your investment portfolio so that you may sleep easy at night knowing that you are protected from wild swings in the marketplace.

An IRA to Compliment Your Retirement Plan

The best part about a gold IRA is the fact that it doesn't have to completely replace your present retirement portfolio. A gold IRA can actually be used in unison with an existing retirement portfolio to further diversify your investment holdings. Even so, there also exists the option to rollover your existing IRA into a gold IRA so that you may reap the full benefits of investing heavily into precious metals that have consistently held their value through the years.

A gold IRA isn't limited to only containing gold related assets either. That's because these portfolios are designed to also hold other types of precious metals like platinum and palladium. This further provides investors with additional opportunities to diversify their investment portfolios over time.

A traditional IRA isn't designed to contain any precious metals whatsoever unless you were to purchase electronically traded funds that track the prices of these valuables. You can also purchase mining stocks to give your traditional investment retirement account exposure to these markets, but such options might not be suitable for all types of investors.

Some people find the act of physically owning precious metals to be far more advantageous than only owning an ETF or a gold mining stock. When you own physical precious metals, you can take pride in your holdings knowing that you are stockpiling a fortune of beautiful gold bars and coins. Such investments also give investors peace of mind since they then know their fortunes are safely contained within the precious metals they hold rather than being just a number on a screen. Instead, their investments exist in the form of valuables they can touch and feel that are highly sought after by other investors.

It's Now Easier Than Ever to Setup a Gold IRA

Historically, it has proven to be quite challenging for the average investor to establish a gold IRA. There are certain requirements that have been put into place by the IRS in order for an IRA to contain precious metals. You can't just throw precious metals you bought from a store into any old IRA. In fact, you have to specifically establish an IRA that has its very own custodian to keep track of every purchase and sale affecting your account.

Not only that, but your precious metals must also be stored at a depository that meets stringent storage requirements in order for your IRA to qualify. Failure to satisfy these requirements could potentially result in your IRA being declared invalid by the IRS down the line. This is why it is so important for investors to partner with a fully licensed custodial service that can help them manage all of these details on their behalf.

There are now companies in existence that can serve as the custodian of your investments while also identifying proper depositories for your gold that meet all of the legal requirements. These custodians are especially useful for novice investors since they also track down some of the best precious metals for you to buy as well.

The IRS has established certain purity requirements in order for a precious metal to qualify for a gold IRA. Only the finest of specimens are allowed to be added to an IRA of this type. Plus, they can only consist of gold, silver, platinum, or palladium. This places fairly specific limitations on the types of investments that may be added to a gold IRA portfolio, but there is room for customizing your selections to meet your unique requirements.

Customize Your Portfolio to Suit Your Personality

Many investors feel perfectly comfortable just adding pure gold to their portfolios to benefit from the price increases that arise in this precious metal, but other investors seek out additional opportunities to further leverage the power of investing in specially minted coins. While you can indeed just simply add some bullion to your portfolio and call it a day to minimize the complexity of your investments, you also have the option of adding specific types of coins to your holdings. In this way, your portfolio may benefit from the addition of rare coins that are likely to increase in value alongside any degree of appreciation in the price of the metals they contain.

The rarer the better too, because collectors will be more willing to pay a premium in the future for coins that are difficult to procure. Thus, your custodian may offer you the opportunity to purchase coins that had a limited minting to further optimize your portfolio. To guarantee the future liquidity of your portfolio, it might also be a good idea to limit your purchases to only the most sought after coins in the industry. American Gold Eagle coins for instance have historically proven to be highly desirable and very easy to liquidate since just about every investor and coin collector would be happy to add such coins to their portfolios.

Partner with an Expert in the Industry

Once you have made a decision concerning which coins you are interested in buying, you can simply place your order with the custodian of your choice who will then handle the rest of the transaction on your behalf. These professionals handle everything from the procurement of your coins to their storage to make it as easy as possible for you to manage your IRA.

Many investors would typically shy away from establishing something like a gold IRA simply because the whole process sounds too confusing. What they don't know though is that these companies have evolved extensively in recent years to optimize the transition from a traditional IRA account to a gold IRA. While there are certain legal requirements that must be met in order for your IRA to satisfy the stringent limitations put in place by the IRS, your custodian can easily walk you through these requirements to ensure you take all of the appropriate steps to establish your account according to current regulations.

For instance, some people might think that they can simply start buying gold and other precious metals on their own and store them at home to establish an investment retirement account. While you are certainly allowed to purchase all of the precious metals you desire and store them in your own personal vault at home, these investments would likely not qualify as an IRA by the IRS since they would not meet the storage and custodial requirements that have been put into place.

The IRS wants every transaction affecting your IRA to be tracked by a third party. They also want all of your precious metals to be stored in a secure facility that has numerous security measures in place to ensure your investment's protection until retirement. These requirements can only be satisfied by partnering with an established company in the industry that has gone to great lengths to obtain the appropriate licensing and registrations that are needed to engage in such activities.

On top of finding a company that satisfies these requirements, you will also want to find a company that has the appropriate bonds and insurance in place to properly protect your investments in case a mishap ever arises throughout the duration of your investment. In this way, you can sleep easy at night knowing that not only is your portfolio stuffed to the brim with highly valuable precious metals, but you can also be confident that the company who is responsible for securing your precious metals is itself financially secure as well.

One of the greatest challenges you will encounter when establishing your gold IRA actually has nothing to do with the technical complications involved in the process. Whichever company you choose to go with should be able to seamlessly establish your account and allow for you to immediately start adding valuable precious metals to your holdings. Even so, you will soon discover that the specific company you choose to partner with could potentially have lasting impacts on the value of your investments. There are certain factors you will thus want to take into account prior to committing yourself to any one custodian to manage your holdings.

First and foremost, you will want to look at the fees that are charged by each organization. Since all of the most well established companies in the industry are likely going to provide you with high-quality services that are perfectly secure and able to satisfy all of the requirements that have been put into place by the IRS, it all comes down to the fees associated with the management of these accounts that will matter most.

It's really the fees associated with such accounts that play one of the most important roles in establishing a gold IRA. Other IRA accounts have proven to be more affordable in terms of the fees that are applied to the investments they contain since they do not require the physical purchasing and storing of precious metals. For this reason, you should expect to pay handsomely for such services since your precious metals will be stored in a highly secure location that comes with around the clock security.

This security extends throughout the purchasing process too. Thus, your investment will require plenty of security covering every step of the process from its purchase to its final retrieval from the vault in which it's stored. Due to the high costs that are associated with such services, it is more important than ever that you choose to partner with a company that has taken steps to minimize these costs on your behalf. Companies that make these fees perfectly transparent will likely prove to be the best companies for you to partner with since you will then be able to accurately predict exactly how much these services will cost you in the long run.

Another factor you will certainly want to take into consideration prior to making a commitment to any one given company are the markup fees that are applied to your purchases. While it is indeed incredibly convenient to purchase precious metals directly through a dealer that handles every aspect of these transactions on your behalf, these companies are essentially businesses when it comes down to it. Thus, they are not simply helping you establish an IRA for your benefit alone, but they actually earn substantial profits through the sale of various precious metals.

When you purchase a coin through one of these companies for example, it is likely that you will not be paying for only the amount of gold, silver, or palladium they contain. That's because these companies will actually charge you just a little bit more for each purchase to generate a profit from the sale.

While these companies will adjust their prices to reflect changes in the values of each precious metal, the prices for which they ultimately sell precious metals are always just a bit higher than the going market rate. In this way, you will certainly be finding yourself paying a little bit extra for the various coins you purchase than you would pay were you to obtain them on your own, but the additional convenience provided by such services and the fact that they qualify as a legally established IRA makes them well worth the additional cost.

Since these services greatly minimize the hassles associated with the management of an IRA containing precious metals, you will undoubtedly find the process of adding additional capital to your portfolio as easy as can be when using them. This could potentially spur on greater savings activity over time since you will not encounter any obstacles along the way.

Furthermore, while these companies do charge fees for their services, they just might also help you maximize the value of your portfolio in the long run. Some companies will track down the best coins for you to procure so that you will be able to easily make wise decisions when adding additional bullion to your portfolio. By tracking down some of the rarest and most sought after coins on the market, these companies will give you access to the best coins available for a precious metals IRA.

Since the rarest and most desirable coins are the most likely to appreciate over time, you can expect these coins to generate appreciable returns over the life of the investment. In this way, the companies that offer their customers the best selection of high-quality coins will be able to mitigate the costs associated with their services to the greatest extent possible.

Fortunately for the most novice of investors, these companies have gold experts on staff who can guide you through the entire process from beginning to end. These professionals can help you better understand the entire process covering everything from rolling over your existing IRA into a gold IRA to the actual procurement and storage of your coins. They can also guide you towards the best coins to buy to further enhance the quality of your purchases.

Do Your Homework Prior to Creating a Gold IRA

As you might imagine, the quality of the company you choose to partner with will be essential to creating a satisfying experience as a gold investor. To ensure your satisfaction with your purchases, it is important that you only partner with the most reputable of companies in the industry today. By doing so, you will gain access to a world of high-quality services, but perhaps far more importantly, you can also be confident that you are in fact receiving the assets being purchased.

It is not unheard of for some disreputable companies to mislead their customers into thinking they are providing them with a highly secure investment in precious metals without actually doing so. By partnering with a reputable company within the industry, you can be certain that they truly do retain ownership in the precious metals you buy. You can also be certain that your investment will be properly insured in case of theft too.

Your investment is also guaranteed to be backed by the gold which you are procuring if your purchase is made through a reputable dealer. If you were to hand over your cash to someone, but the precious metals being purchased were not procured by the company with which you have partnered, your investment portfolio would not be nearly as secure. By ensuring the company you partner with indeed does retain ownership of every coin you buy, you can be certain the value of your portfolio will remain intact until the time comes to cash out.

So, if you are ready to start saving money like never before through the acquisition of valuable precious metals, then you should consult with a reputable gold IRA custodian today. The process of establishing a gold IRA is a simple one indeed. Just fill out a few forms and transfer the funds from your existing IRA into your new account to get started.

Establish an IRA Designed for Precious Metals

Traditional IRAs are not eligible for holding physical precious metals, but once you have a gold IRA in place, you will be able to instantly start adding these valuable assets to your portfolio. The best part is that you can keep your existing investment retirement account and still establish a precious metals retirement account.

That's right, you can have more than one IRA to diversify your assets. By choosing to take this route with your investment portfolio, you may greatly reduce the exposure your portfolio has to the stock market since gold typically goes up when the stock market goes down. The benefits of opening a gold IRA don't stop there though, because you will also gain access to a world of additional benefits that could potentially greatly enhance the overall value of your investment portfolio.

When you make an investment into a gold ETF, or a gold mining stock, your gains are typically limited to the overall value of gold in general since these investments usually closely follow trends in the going market rate for gold. By choosing to purchase valuable collector quality coins instead though, you will instantly give your portfolio exposure to changes in the price of gold, but you will also gain access to changes in the value of individual coins. In this way, you can generate even greater returns from your investments by wisely choosing the coins you buy.

By simply adding the most sought after and rarest coins to your portfolio, you will immediately begin to benefit from the scarcity of these items. Due to this scarcity, the value of these coins is practically guaranteed to rise over time alongside a rising gold price. This effect could potentially generate remarkably lucrative returns for investors that will surely have you hooked on gold investing in no time.

But that's not the only attractive aspect of adding physical bullion to your retirement portfolio. As many other investors have discovered, there's nothing quite like owning precious metals in their physical form. These lustrous materials are absolutely gorgeous to look at, and they can provide you with plenty of entertainment and personal enjoyment. Thus, by making the decision to start procuring physical bullion for your personal coin collection, you will not only be establishing a lucrative investment portfolio that will very likely increase in value over time, but you will also be gaining access to a fascinating hobby that could potentially provide you with endless entertainment and fun.

There are numerous gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins being sold on the open market today, and these coins are issued by governments around the world. Many of these coins feature interesting details and amazing works of art that you simply won't see anywhere else. Investors frequently flock to coin collecting simply to attempt to collect them all. This can prove to be quite the challenge too due to the immense value of these collectibles, but the end result will certainly be worth the effort.

Make Saving Money Fun Again

In the end, you will find yourself with a vast fortune consisting of numerous rare coins. You can collect various coins in a multitude of forms as well. Some coins are cast in gold, but many are also cast in other metals so that you will have a variety of options to choose from. This can even make it more challenging for you to collect them all since you would have to procure every different kind of coin that's available to complete your collection.

If you are like most precious metal investors, you will soon discover that the intrigue of these valuables is more than enough to fuel your passion for adding to your savings. When you have a traditional IRA account, you might find yourself struggling to make the maximum contributions you are allowed to make each year, but precious metals will have you yearning to make those contributions like never before.

Save Like You've Never Saved Before

It's difficult to save money when it's just a number on a screen, but when your portfolio consists of valuable rare collectible coins that are highly prized by collectors around the world, you will soon discover a whole world of mystery and intrigue that's certainly irresistible to even the most astute investors. Whether you are a seasoned investor looking to try something new, or brand-new to the world of investing, you will definitely find the unlimited world of possibilities found within coin collecting circles to be a wonderful way to add greater value to your investment portfolio today and well into the future.