Question about physical gold IRAs

[Unobtanium]

Hello Bugs. Long time, no post, but still hanging around.

Wanted to get some opinions about gold IRAs.

I have been sporadically stacking since 2008, but am now faced with an interesting option now that I have reached 59.5 years old, and still employed.

I am now able to take distributions from my fiat IRA, although I hadn't planned to do that until a number of years from now.

As one who is not crazy about fiat, I do now have the option to roll some of the fiat IRA over to a physical gold IRA, where the physical gold would be held in a reputable secure depository in Delaware, where it would not be allocated for any other purpose other than my personal gold IRA account, and it would have a self-directed IRA equity firm as the custodian. $225 a year for custodial fees.

I would be able to get delivery of the gold, or the current market price of the gold in fiat, at any time in the future, whichever I would choose.

However, as gold bugs, we strongly believe in the motto, "If you don't hold it, you don't own it".
So there lies the dilemma.

Option 1)
Don't do anything. Leave all the fiat IRA funds in the current account as fiat.
Right now the majority of the funds are in a very low risk funds at very low interest rate, generating little gain, and I intend to keep them there unless there is a large market crash like in 2008, after which I would roll some over back into higher risk, higher interest rate equities.
Con: Fiat assets.
Pro: Not growing much at the moment due to allocation in low-rate, low-risk category.


Option 2)
Roll over some of the fiat IRA funds over to the physical gold IRA without any tax penalty.
Pro: Gold assets.
Pro: Would likely grow faster than the low-rate fiat IRA if the gold bull market continues (looking likely).
Con: Buying gold at all-time highs.
Con: I would not hold the gold, although I could get delivery at any time.


Option 3)
Withdraw some of the fiat IRA funds, with a tax hit, to personally buy more gold, that would be in my possession.


I am leaning toward Option 2, but I don't have any experience with self-directed IRA equity firms and secure gold depositories.

Has anyone else gone this route?
Any insights, experience or thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[searcher]

No experience with PM IRAs so I can't give any advice except dyodd.

In case you haven't already see this..........

A couple more PM IRAs were exposed to be rip-offs

Most of us here know better: If you don't hold it, you don't own it. But still, I hate the idea of companies like this taking advantage of people (especially the elderly).

www.pmbug.com

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[pmbug]

Hey @Unobtanium , good to hear from you again. I also don't have any first hand experience with gold IRAs, but I do read a lot and there seem to be a lot of bad actors in the gold IRA space. If you go that route, make sure you are getting gold bullion in your account and not graded numismatics. That seems to be the most common scam that I see reported.

 

[WinkWink]

 

[Ttazzman]

my opinions ...having faced the same decision a very few years ago

what i did/doing

first off i have more than enough physical metal on hand so no push my strategies are all just wealth preservation and legal tax optimization

#1 in my opinion PM IRAs like any wealth in the "system" are at risk so pick your poison ....since its a poison pill i see no reason not to try to maintain and grow paper wealth in what ever form you deem best

#2 i chose to closely monitor my income against my write-offs etc to bring funds out of the ira on a annual basis and thru the tax system at the very best tax position i can work , there is in my opinion absolutely no reason not to take taxable funds out of your ira as long as you dont jump yourself up in tax brackets etc ....depending on how the election goes tax strategies definitely could change

#3 the funds that come out each year i at that point decide if it needs to be pms or some other asset class etc

but you are at a inflection point at 59.5 and its definitely the time to start remove funds from the system as tax free as possible ......i am assuming from your post your IRA is a std and not a roth

obviously my answer is very simplistic but in reality the issue is simplistic to me

 

[nickndfl]

I would wait until the election. If Trump wins the stock market will boom. I would continue to buy more Au & Ag with any spare funds and probably avoid trading stocks outside of your IRA. Others would say to keep contriburing. IDK for sure.

 

[Casey Jones]

I went through this a long time ago, and turned my small IRAs into stacks. Not Gold IRAs, but literal stacks.

The tax liabilities in my case was minimal, due to a variety of factors. That probably won't work exactly the same for you.

But then, I did that before the gold market came alive. I've had about a 50-percent growth in dollar value in what I converted - which may or may not have done as well as my M-funds in the IRAs. I haven't followed.

But paper gains are paper gains. The S&P/DOW/NASDAQ are going up because dollar value is falling and because we're back to interest rates below inflation, encouraging speculators to invest borrowed or leveraged funds or credit.

You pays your money and takes your choice. I'm pleased I got out when I did, but if there's further erosion of owning hard assets - such as prohibitions on gold ownership or sale - I won't be in a good place either.

 

[Unca Walt]

I hold about 50-50 gold and junk silver. Prohibition on gold ownership is a dead horse. <--They shot that horse already -- only liberal assholes will turn in gold so the gummint can give it to a foreign country so that country can buy missiles and shit from the US.

Who gives his gold to the gummint gives it to DuPont/Boeing/etc.

 

[Casey Jones]

^^^^^^^^^^

Facts support this prediction; but as we've seen with COE-Vidd, the masses are @sses. Or, to quote Toby Rogers, a new pundit who appeared on Substack some months back...he posits that about 60-70 percent of the population are NPCs. He points at the illogic they continually display - medical "professionals" administering, and endorsing, a "treatment" with zero-percent statistical benefit and a huge risk exposure to heart and neurological disease. Teachers, including veteran teachers, inviting or tolerating Drag Queens to do Story Hour. And teaching their children self-loathing (for whites) connected to racialist superiority.

On to voting. It was obvious four years ago that Diaper Man was impaired. Yet the NPC vote was enough that the fraud could do the rest.

How is that gonna translate to Comrade Kameltoe's plans in the months ahead, to tax "unrealized" gains (I wonder if she has any CLUE what that means) and with it, maybe, ban gold.

Nope, I'm not turning my gold in. But once that law passes, I can't sell it, either. I go from middle-middle-class in assets, to destitute. Stroke of the pen, cast of the future.

 

[Unobtanium]

Thank you everyone for the inputs and comments. I am going to hold off on converting some of the fiat IRA dollars into a physical gold IRA, at least for now. Just don't quite feel settled about that yet. One reason, among others, is that the phys does not go directly into my hands.

 

[Unca Walt]

^^^^^^^^^^

Facts support this prediction; but as we've seen with COE-Vidd, the masses are @sses. Or, to quote Toby Rogers, a new pundit who appeared on Substack some months back...he posits that about 60-70 percent of the population are NPCs. He points at the illogic they continually display - medical "professionals" administering, and endorsing, a "treatment" with zero-percent statistical benefit and a huge risk exposure to heart and neurological disease. Teachers, including veteran teachers, inviting or tolerating Drag Queens to do Story Hour. And teaching their children self-loathing (for whites) connected to racialist superiority.

On to voting. It was obvious four years ago that Diaper Man was impaired. Yet the NPC vote was enough that the fraud could do the rest.

How is that gonna translate to Comrade Kameltoe's plans in the months ahead, to tax "unrealized" gains (I wonder if she has any CLUE what that means) and with it, maybe, ban gold.

Nope, I'm not turning my gold in. But once that law passes, I can't sell it, either. I go from middle-middle-class in assets, to destitute. Stroke of the pen, cast of the future.

(*sigh*) Wrong again, my ole bud. D'yknow how those with gold fared in Germany when other people were freezing (unless they burned stacks of NotGeld notes)? Those holding gold lived in luxury, with those without gold working for them. They purchased automobiles from previously rich people for a pfennig on a mark.

 

[Unca Walt]

Thank you everyone for the inputs and comments. I am going to hold off on converting some of the fiat IRA dollars into a physical gold IRA, at least for now. Just don't quite feel settled about that yet. One reason, among others, is that the phys does not go directly into my hands.

I would advise you (trying not to scream) that neither of those paths make sense in the world of today. They did make sense while the USA still had a stranglehold with dollar diplomacy/imperialism.

Those days, @Unobtanium are sealed, and about to be delivered. If you have someone else "holding your gold for you" and you have a loverly sooper kewl authentic signed receipt for every milligram...

...You aint got shit. You don't even have shit <-- That can be used for growing things.

You have a "loverly sooper kewl yada" piece of poorly designed toiled paper.

WHAT will you do when you find out all the ounces of gold being safely held for you were lent out 235 times to other people/groups?

I will tell you what you will do: You will do what so many others already have done -- You will sit there broke, with your head in your hands with not a hope of ever seeing any of your stash again -- and say to yourself:

"They told me and TOLD me that if I did not actually hold the gold, I did not own the gold. I figured I had time, and it was inconvenient to insist on actually taking physical possession on it."

Turn in the PAPER and get handed GOLD. Put the gold in your pocket and go home. NOW you have saved your wealth. No Other Way. This is not 1980 anymore, Toto. Stop playing by 1980 ideas.

OH -- And as the "price" of gold goes way up, you WILL pay taxes on the paper receipt. You will NOT have to pay taxes on the gold at home. Ever.

 

[searcher]

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• searcher