Put Gold and Silver In Your IRA or 401k

“It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.” George Carlin

In my opinion, any consideration about investment income right now is a big mistake. Your NUMBER ONE CONCERN should be protecting the purchasing power of your money.

Buy gold and silver coins and keep them in a safe at your home. Then, with your retirement accounts, transfer your positions in money markets, bonds, mutual funds and stocks into gold and silver.

Do you remember the old rule of thumb about investment income? That is, if you could get only 5% interest on your money, and you had enough assets, you could live on the interest and not touch the principal.

So, using this rule of thumb, a person with $1,00,000 in an IRA or 401k could receive $50,000 per year in investment income without touching the principal. That was achievable…not so long ago.

But today’s investor has watched the value of their retirement accounts dissolve over the past five years. The investor has also watched as return on investment has slowed to a drip, and interest rates on savings instruments has evaporated down to about 1%…if you’re lucky.

Many people who were already retired, living on their investment income, have seen it evaporate. Many have had to go back to work.

So, in order to receive $50,000 in income from one’s investments now, an investor would have to have assets totalling $5 million. How many people do you know that have an retirement investment portfolio of $5 million?

So, how does a person protect his wealth today?

Smart investors are placing physical gold and silver in their Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). With the global economic collapse becoming more and more certain, gold and silver have become a rapidly growing choice for IRA, 401k, 403b, and Pension Plans.

A precious metals IRA is known as a “self-directed IRA,” so you control the investments in your IRA.

Gold and silver in a retirement investment account are the ultimate assets. Precious metals have NEVER been worth nothing, but most currencies have inflated to collapse over history. They are the purest form of money. They are the best form of wealth preservation and capital preservation known to man. Gold and silver are accepted real money the world over.

Back in early 2000s, gold prices were about $350 per ounce. Today, the price is about $1,500 per ounce. And the price of gold is projected to drastically escalate as the economic situation deteriorates. In the same time frame, silver traded at about $8.50 per ounce. But today, you can buy silver at about $17.00 per once. So, you can buy a lot more silver per dollar than you can buy gold. A good mix of the two precious metals could be best for your retirement account.

How To Place Gold And Silver Into Your Retirement Account

If you have an IRA now, and want to shift your assets to gold and silver, you can do it easily. But if you take physical possession of gold or silver, that transaction qualifies as a distribution. So to avoid IRS penalties and taxes, you’ll want to have your gold and silver stored at a depository. The depository provides safe keeping for your precious metals and also provides easy access when you do finally need to take possession of your precious metals.

If you want to open a new precious metals IRA, simply work with your financial advisor to compete the necessary paperwork to set up your new IRA. Your precious metals dealer should be able to help you ship the coins or bullion to the depository. Then, any time you wish to deposit more precious metals, the dealer can do that shipment also.

Depositories customarily have storage fees. Find out those fees before a transfer.

Note that only 24-karat gold bars are permitted in a precious metals IRA, and each must have a NYMEX/COMEX-approved refiner/assayer hallmark. Same 24-karat requirement for gold coins. However, one exception is the 22-karat US Gold Eagle coin. 18k or 14K gold does not qualify for an IRA.

You may also add silver coins or bars (0.999+ fineness only) to a precious metals IRA. You can even include platinum or palladium bars or coins (90.9995+ fineness only).

Please realize it’s more difficult to transform an employer’s 401(k) plan while you’re still employed by them, but it is possible.

Act Today

Don’t wait until it’s too late. If you are unfamiliar with precious metals IRAs, talk to your favorite investment advisor. But don’t be surprised if they try to talk you out of creating a precious metals IRA. They might be losing commissions if they help you. Best to speak with an advisor that doesn’t earn commissions on your IRA transactions.

© Copyright 2010, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.