KenJackson
Fly on the Wall
Greetings.
I'm thinking about BullionVault. Here are my considerations. Am I missing anything?
They charge a minimum of $4/month for storage, so it makes sense to store at least the break-even amount, which at 0.01% is $40,000. But there's a 0.5% transfer fee too. So the minimum most-efficient amount to transfer (including a year's worth of storage fee) would be:
($40,000 + $48) / (1 - 0.005) = $40,249.25
The $4/month storage fee really offended me until I realized that's a total of 3% over 25 years while inflation has been knocking down the dollar by at least that much each year.
That's the low end. But there's the question about IRS Form 8938, which I might have to file if the balance goes even momentarily above $50,000. However, the help comment points out that the IRS guidance doesn't define what "directly held" means, so maybe I don't need to file it. And it's not clear what information FATCA would require them to file about me directly to the evil-doers at the IRS.
Therefore, setting an upper limit of $49,999 would be convenient to reduce the probability of becoming a red flag. But, of course, if the value of gold suddenly takes off or even "sky rockets" as some are predicting, I won't complain about the fees or any extra hassles.
Does anyone have experience with BullionVault?
Are my assumptions valid?
Are there any unexpected fees?
I'm assuming I can use ACH to transfer funds for free instead of wiring them for $30. Is this a valid assumption?
I'm thinking about BullionVault. Here are my considerations. Am I missing anything?
They charge a minimum of $4/month for storage, so it makes sense to store at least the break-even amount, which at 0.01% is $40,000. But there's a 0.5% transfer fee too. So the minimum most-efficient amount to transfer (including a year's worth of storage fee) would be:
($40,000 + $48) / (1 - 0.005) = $40,249.25
The $4/month storage fee really offended me until I realized that's a total of 3% over 25 years while inflation has been knocking down the dollar by at least that much each year.
That's the low end. But there's the question about IRS Form 8938, which I might have to file if the balance goes even momentarily above $50,000. However, the help comment points out that the IRS guidance doesn't define what "directly held" means, so maybe I don't need to file it. And it's not clear what information FATCA would require them to file about me directly to the evil-doers at the IRS.
Therefore, setting an upper limit of $49,999 would be convenient to reduce the probability of becoming a red flag. But, of course, if the value of gold suddenly takes off or even "sky rockets" as some are predicting, I won't complain about the fees or any extra hassles.
Does anyone have experience with BullionVault?
Are my assumptions valid?
Are there any unexpected fees?
I'm assuming I can use ACH to transfer funds for free instead of wiring them for $30. Is this a valid assumption?