The new possibilities for a gold IRA have drawn the attention of people with a wide variety of retirement plans. Gold has not been an acceptable alternative in many such plans but there has been rising public pressure to change this. The pressure is due to the public’s perception that gold is outperforming every other investment.
Unreal Earnings on Investments
If you have been invested in the market since the turn of the century and have invested in index funds that generally follow market-wide earnings, then you may have earned 30% or better on your investments. You are fooling yourself, however, if you think this is even a modest gain. At best, your funds are standing still.
How can this be?
You have to take into account inflation. The government has been through more than one round of money-printing to deal with the economic struggles that ensued after the crash of 2008.
That is why some people remain perplexed about the high stock market values when the world is gripped in recession.
The values are given in inflated dollars.
If you compare the purchasing power of those dollars to the dollars of the year 2000, then market is actually down.
The Real Value of Gold
If you want a retirement fund that will be set on a firm foundation, you cannot do any better than a gold IRA. Gold has made huge gains during the same time period in which the rest of the market has virtually stood still. The reason for this is gold’s immunity to inflation.
Gold is priced in US dollars. The US dollar, for better or worse, is just a piece of paper or even a digital expression of currency. The government can make more just by tapping a few keys. They have done so in the last few years, spilling a flood of dollars into the economy. As a consequence, each dollar lost value.
Gold, however, is a limited resource. You cannot simply make more. It retains its value due to this limited supply. Compared to the weakening dollar then, gold appears to be making huge gains.
The value of gold is apparent when you realize that you would pay less for a gallon of gas today than you did ten years ago if you paid in gold. Gasoline has only tripled its cost at the pump. Gold is worth five times as much as it was back then.
Can I Open a Gold IRA?
Anyone can open a gold IRA. Even if you have your retirement money locked up in a 401k, you can do a rollover into an IRA that permits gold investments without suffering any penalty.
Your only real concern is finding a custodian for the gold IRA that handles gold purchases with its funds, and you do have to take a withdrawal from your 401k. Once you do that, the process is simple.
How Does a 401k Rollover Into a Gold IRA Work?
While one IRA can transfer into another IRA that handles gold without much work on your part, you cannot do that with a 401k or any other pension plan. Instead, you must withdraw the funds yourself. If you know anything about tax laws, this might concern you.
However, you can rest easy. As long as you take the entire amount and submit it to a gold IRA within 60 days, you will not pay taxes on the funds or suffer any early withdrawal penalties. Then you can wait until you retire and watch how wonderfully your portfolio performs.
Upon reaching retirement, most people simply start receiving checks from their retirement accounts. Since your IRA bought gold with some of the funds, you will actually receive the gold itself and be able to hold it in your hands.
Still confused? You can learn everything you need to know about Gold IRAs from sites like IRA Investment. This is a great place to start if you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of investing in gold and understanding how it works. They have a wealth of information on the subject, including articles that explain all the ins and outs of owning this type of IRA.