I decided to take the plunge into a pool of gold. Now to decide where my IRA will buy the gold and in what form. Surfing the web for unbiased information can be extremely difficult with such a hot and lucrative topic as gold. There are some independent advisors, but not many. And they’re not very loud, unlike most of the gold brokers/dealers. Still, I got some basics and will decide from this list of gold investment ideas.
Gold IRA investment options:
Bullion Bars – actual, physical gold bars, these can cost ten grand, depending on the price of an ounce of gold. Of course, my IRA is buying the gold, so I’d never see the bar or hold it or store it, but the physicality of an actual bar holds much weight (pun intended) in my decision.
Coins – again, an actual physical entity, but only some kinds of gold coins can be held in an IRA. They can’t be collectible, and they don’t need to be proof. More details on gold coins can be found on the web – but make sure they’re not rare or collectible if they will be held in an IRA.
Gold Exchange-Trade Funds – derivatives that track the up and down of gold ounce value. Call me simple, but I’m never going to buy anything derivative, within my IRA or not.
Gold Certificates- essentially a document proving that your IRA owns X amount of bullion held somewhere.
Mining Company Stock/Gold Mutual Funds – Self-explanatory. I don’t want to mess with stocks right now, regardless of the company.
There are also options for what some call e-gold or digital gold. To me, they’re the same as bullion bars, as that’s what the money is going to and that is what my IRA is actually buying.
I’m directing my IRA to buy gold as insurance; essentially, I want to diversify and spread the potential losses over many investment forms. I don’t really want to pay for storage and transport of bars or coins. I don’t want to buy stocks and never will I buy,sell or trade anything derived from the real thing. I want this process to be easy and simple and I want to be able to trade at anytime with no hassle. Therefore, I’m going with online gold trading.
From what I can find, two options stand out – goldmoney and BullionVault. Gold Money has the bonus ability to be used as currency. BullionVault is giving away gold. Literally. They give approximately $30 in gold to anyone opening an account. I can’t pass up free stuff, unless I have to jump through too many hoops. This free gold was just for opening an account.
