The rise in gold prices over the last few years is a clear sign that Americans are looking for protection from economic turmoil. Individual retirement accounts now have the option to include gold and other precious metals in their portfolios thanks to changes made by Federal statutes governing IRAs. Millions of Americans have made the decision to invest at least part of their IRAs into gold, and they have watched their account values soar. Gold IRAs offer the security of gold, while still staying within the overall retirement account structure buying physical gold in an IRA.
It’s also known as diversification
To make sure your investment in gold IRAs is successful, you need to keep your account well-diversified. While many people are tempted to go for extremes in their portfolio balance, such as choosing to hold too many stocks or too many CDs, the idea is to manage your account so that you get equal amounts of safe growth and higher returns. Certificates of Deposit provide security and growth but at a lower rate than with riskier investments like stock buying. A gold IRA can give you that additional element of security and growth for your overall fund portfolio.
Gold is stable
One of the greatest benefits of a gold IRA is that it guarantees that most of gold’s value will be retained. Although gold’s value will always fluctuate according to market forces, there is a limit below which it can not be expected that it will fall. This makes it much safer than the average stock investment, and also allows for ample growth in times of rising gold prices. Therefore, a gold-backed IRA is one of most secure ways to plan for retirement.
Which kind is acceptable in gold?
As you might imagine, not all forms of gold can be used within a gold IRA. According to IRS rules, gold cannot be owned within an IRA account unless it is of a specific quality. The fineness of gold bars must be greater than 0.995 and the fineness of gold coins must be higher than 0.9999. There are some gold coins that cannot be included in a IRA plan for gold, such as the Gold Eagles (and other foreign coins).