Disclosure: This article contains references to products from our partners. We may receive compensation if you apply or shop through links in our content. This compensation is how we fund our in-depth research. (read more)
To buy physical Gold or other precious metals for your retirement within your IRA or 401k, you must have a separate Gold IRA Plan.
A Gold IRA will allow you to buy qualifying physical gold and other precious metals in bullion and qualifying coins at just over spot price, if you find the correct provider or gold dealer.
You can then keep your gold, silver, platinum or palladium within the tax-efficient wrapper provided by an IRA vehicle.
A Gold IRA is a specialist form of self-directed IRA (Independent Retirement Account) that allows you to hold a qualifying physical gold bars, physical gold coins, and other qualifying precious metals within it.
You can open a Gold IRA even if you already have other forms of self-directed IRA plans. You can even roll over some or all your 401k into a Gold IRA.
Although we strongly recommend that you do not hold all your retirement funds in any single type of asset. We consider a better strategy is to diversify how you keep your retirement pot, maybe keep some in precious metals, some in stocks, shares and bonds, some in cash and some in other forms of physical assets such as property.
Suppose you have an existing IRA, which is not a Gold or precious metals IRA. In that case, you will need to open a new Gold IRA. To avoid tax implications, work with one of the specialists we recommend below to directly transfer the portion of the old IRA into the new Gold IRA unless you want to fund the new Gold IRA separately or from an existing 401k plan.
We have reviewed a range of Gold IRA providers and put detailed reviews on the ones we believe are best on this site. For new investors, we would recommend Goldco because we think they provide the best guidance and information for new investors in the precious metals market.
Goldco provides an excellent information pack and Gold Investment Guide, which you can request by clicking the information pack graphic below.
More experienced investors might like to consider Augusta Precious Metals. The latter is equally as good as Goldco, although there is a little less hand-holding in their approach, and you will need to be more market savvy and a tad more self-sufficient.
With Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana as its corporate ambassador, Augusta Precious Metals is one of the more prominent gold IRA companies. It partners with the Royal Canadian Mint to bring purer coins to the American public.
From the start, the broker dedicates a specialist to your account. You enjoy lifetime customer support. One of the critical drawbacks with Augusta Precious Metals is that you cannot place an online order.
The broker may be smaller on consumer education than the Birch Gold Group. Still, it does offer an impressive array of informational material covering adequate diversification, inflation protection and the benefits of owning precious metals.
You must invest a minimum of $5,000 to buy gold or silver from the broker. It costs $50 to establish a gold IRA with August Precious Metals. Annual fees include a $100 storage fee and an $80 custodian maintenance fee.
Ratings:
BBB: A+
Business Consumer Alliance: AAA
TrustLink: 4.9 out of 5 Stars based on 256 reviews
Suppose you want to compare the two companies for yourself. Why not request both information packs and see which company you favor, as your opinion might differ from ours?
When finding out how to buy physical gold either to hold within an IRA or as physical bullion or coins, please do your research thoroughly. As part of our research, we spend hours checking out every review we can find, doing cold calls to the companies we shortlist and asking them specific questions about poor reviews. We put them scenarios and see if they can give us the correct answers, and we ask for financial advice and see if they offer it when they should not provide it as they are not regulated to do so.
This is why we recommend Goldco or Augusta Precious metals if you want to find out how to buy physical Gold or gold for your IRA retirement plan.
