When times get tough, investors look for safe havens to help protect their assets. And with everything going on in the world today, it’s no wonder that investors are flocking to safe haven assets in a way that they haven’t in years. No one wants to be left holding the bag when inflation skyrockets or stock markets plummet, so more and more investors are taking steps to protect their hard-earned retirement savings. One of the traditional safe havens that has seen renewed popularity is gold. Gold has a history of protecting investor assets against loss, inflation, and currency devaluation. Through crisis after crisis, gold has remained stable, maintaining its value when other assets fall by the wayside. But not everyone knows how easy it can be to invest in gold. Even if you understand the many advantages of investing in gold, putting your knowledge into action can seem daunting. That’s why Goldco has created this guide to help you buy gold for retirement. If you’re looking to safeguard your retirement savings and ensure that they’re there for you when you need them most, this guide has all the information you need to help you get started with buying gold for retirement. Why Invest in Gold You may already know that gold can be a solid investment and one that can help you protect your assets. But if you don’t, or if you have a general sense of gold’s abilities but haven’t ever seen gold’s benefits articulated, here are a few reasons you might want to invest in gold. Diversify Your Portfolio One benefit of investing in gold is to diversify your investment portfolio. All too often, investors think that by investing in a variety of stocks and bonds they have come up with a well-diversified investment portfolio. But in the event of a major financial crisis, both stocks and bonds could lose value, as we saw in 2008. Real diversification means holding assets in numerous different asset classes, including investments in alternative assets such as real estate, agricultural commodities, and precious metals. Hedge Against Inflation Gold has also acted as a traditional hedge against inflation. While the value of paper currencies such as the US dollar loses value to inflation every year, the value of gold keeps pace with inflation over the long term. Gold’s performance during times of high inflation can also be quite dramatic. During the 1970s, for instance, gold’s average annualized growth rate was over 30%, at a time when inflation peaked at 11% and stock markets were nearly flat over the decade. If you’re looking for an asset to protect your wealth against high or growing inflation, gold could be what you need. Protect Against Market Crash Gold also has a reputation for performing well when stock markets aren’t. That’s why you’ll often hear gold referred to as a countercyclical asset. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, gold nearly tripled in value while stocks were still struggling to regain their pre-2008 levels. Many investors whose stock investments lost big in 2008 saw gold’s performance and vowed that they would be invested in gold the next time such a crisis was on the horizon. Is now the time? Grow Your Assets Of course, it isn’t just during times of economic weakness that gold can deliver asset growth. Over the long run, gold tracks well when compared with stock exchanges, and over the past 20 years has outperformed them. Since 1971, gold has grown at an annualized rate of 7.84%, versus 7.78% for the S&P 500 and 7.48% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. And since 2001, gold has grown at an annualized rate of 9.80%, versus 5.76% for the S&P 500 and 5.66% for the Dow Jones. With stock markets showing signs of weakness and potentially on the verge of a major correction, gold’s performance versus stock markets could end up being even greater in the coming years. That’s one reason more and more investors are choosing to invest in gold. How to Invest in Gold Now that you know the advantages of gold, you may be wondering how you go about investing in gold. There are two primary options that are available today if you want to invest in physical gold coins or bars. The first is investing in gold through a gold IRA. The second option is to make direct purchases of gold coins or bars, which you then can store at home, at a bank, or at a depository. What Is a Gold IRA? A gold IRA is, as it sounds, a tax-advantaged IRA retirement account that allows you to invest in physical gold coins or bars. It offers the same tax advantages as any other IRA account, and can be either a Traditional gold IRA account or a Roth IRA account. A gold IRA is a popular way for investors to protect assets they already hold in 401(k), 403(b), TSP, IRA, or similar retirement accounts. And a gold IRA is subject to the same rules and regulations as any other IRA account. Gold IRA Rules Before opening a gold IRA, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the rules affecting gold IRA accounts. While a gold IRA is subject to the same rules and regulations as other IRA accounts, there are some special restrictions that you’ll want to be aware of before you invest, so that you don’t inadvertently expose yourself to tax consequences or penalties. Be sure to consult with your tax advisor or financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Types of Coins The primary limitation on a gold IRA is the types of coins it can invest in. Like any other IRA, a gold IRA cannot own collectibles. The definition of collectible is clearly defined within the Internal Revenue Code. This means that some older gold coins, like St. Gaudens $20 gold pieces or South African Krugerrands, are not eligible to be owned in a gold IRA. If your IRA were to purchase a collectible, that would be considered

During times of political and economic uncertainty, people often flock to the safe haven of gold. Gold, unlike most other assets, has stood the test of time, maintaining its value regardless of the goings-on of the world around it. Many people trust gold as a hedge against difficult economic times and seek to hold a portion of their portfolio in gold. Whether it’s buying a handful of gold coins to use as currency in a natural disaster or survival situation, or buying gold through a gold IRA to diversify a retirement portfolio, gold continues to be one of the top assets investors trust to protect their wealth. Paper financial assets may rise and fall in value, even becoming worthless when the companies that issue them go bankrupt, but when was the last time you heard of someone going bankrupt owning gold? As much as central banks love to deride gold as a barbarous relic and as much as they downplay its importance to the world economy (even while they buy tons and tons of gold each year), gold is as close to a risk-free asset as it gets. When you own an ounce of gold, you own an ounce of gold. That gold is an asset, it isn’t someone else’s debt, or a claim to a partial ownership of a company. That gold is yours exclusively, and no one else’s. Gold also appreciates in value over time because its supply is relatively limited. Gold mining is capital intensive, so annual mining totals don’t add significantly to the overall gold supply. With an increasing population and growing demand, that leads to each ounce of gold continuing to gain in value. As one of the assets of first resort for investors in the event of financial crises, gold maintains its value throughout economic turbulence. Many people who understood the importance of gold during the 2008 financial crisis benefited from holding it in their portfolios. Many who didn’t buy gold back then learned from their mistakes, and are buying gold coins and gold bars today to ensure that their assets remain protected in the coming months. If you are interested in learning more about how to buy gold, continue reading this gold IRA rollover guide. What Is a Gold IRA? To begin the gold IRA rollover guide, let’s begin by discussing how a gold IRA differs from other IRAs, and a few reasons you might consider starting a gold IRA. A gold IRA operates differently from other IRAs in that it allows investors to hold their IRA assets in the form of physical gold coins or bullion. Rather than owning paper assets such as stocks and bonds, or paper claims to gold funds such as shares in a gold ETF, a gold IRA actually holds physical gold that you can touch. That allows you to benefit from the same tax advantages of conventional IRAs while still benefiting from the protective status of gold. Buying gold through a gold IRA can offer you numerous advantages. These include diversifying your portfolio, providing a hedge against inflationary monetary policy and devaluation of the dollar, and offering the potential for asset growth even during tough market conditions. Portfolio diversification with a gold IRA can help alter the risk exposure of your retirement accounts. A portfolio heavily weighted with stocks and bonds can leave you subject to the ups and downs of Wall Street. But gold is an asset that often performs well even when stocks and bonds don’t. Gold can also protect against inflation as it maintains its value over time. While an ounce of gold still buys just as much in terms of real goods as it did at the beginning of the 20th century, the dollar has lost 97% of its value since then. Someone who had held a $20 gold coin since that time would see that coin worth well over $2,000 today, whereas someone who had held a $20 checking account balance since that time would see it worth just $20 today. Using a Self-Directed IRA to Buy Gold Gold IRAs are a form of self-directed IRA, in which investors themselves are fiduciaries and are responsible for choosing their investments. That requires a little bit of knowledge of the IRA process, particularly when funding a gold IRA through a gold IRA rollover. Setting up a gold IRA will require a new IRA account to be set up that will house your gold assets. In order to fund that new IRA account, you can roll over funds from an existing 401(k), IRA, or similar retirement account into your gold IRA to buy gold. Those rollovers can be done tax-free by transferring those funds directly between accounts. It isn’t too difficult, but if you have questions or concerns then you may want to consult with your tax advisor to make sure that you don’t accidentally incur any tax liabilities. Self-directed IRAs allow investors to invest in a wide array of assets, but among the most popular are gold, silver, and other precious metals. You’ll also have to arrange for storage of your gold coins and bullion, as you can’t hold them yourself. Your gold IRA assets will be managed by an IRA custodian and stored at a bullion depository. Your custodian and bullion depository will help you monitor your assets and keep them stored safely and securely against theft. If you want to learn more about how to start a gold IRA and execute a gold IRA rollover, the experts at Goldco can help answer your questions about the gold IRA rollover process. We have helped thousands of our customers go through the process of setting up a gold IRA, selecting a gold IRA custodian, and making their first gold IRA purchases. Transferring Funds Into a Self-Directed IRA Account The process of funding a gold IRA is made much easier if you already have retirement assets ready to roll over. The gold IRA rollover process can be quick and simple. Funds from a 401(k), 403(b), TSP, or other

The stock market bull run of the past few years has created more than a few 401(k) millionaires. But with economic headwinds increasing, many investors are getting nervous about just how long they’ll remain 401(k) millionaires. Investors who have made lots of money in recent years are aware that a stock market crash could wipe out their wealth just as easily as the bull market grew their wealth. And many of those who remember 2008 are worried that the next crisis could be just as bad as 2008, or even worse. The financial crisis saw many people lose significant portions of their savings and investments, investments they had worked years or even decades to build up. Many lost over half their savings as markets plummeted as a result of the financial crisis. Those investors don’t want to see a repeat of 2008, and they want to do anything they can to avoid making the same mistakes. But with so many investment options out there, what’s the best way for investors to protect their 401(k) assets from losing value in the coming years? Here are three things to think about when it comes to protecting your 401(k) assets. 1. Don’t Stop Contributing to Your 401(k) Many people who contribute to 401(k) accounts may think that cutting off their 401(k) contributions during a crisis might help them financially. But that isn’t necessarily the case, so if you’re still working and contributing to a 401(k) plan, it’s important that you not stop contributing to your plan, with a few caveats. We’ll assume that, like many Americans, you have employer matching contributions. We’ll also assume that your 401(k) plan offers investment options that aren’t limited just to funds that invest only in stocks. Because of employer matching contributions, you essentially get free money to invest. In many cases that can double the amount of money that you’re investing in your 401(k) plan. By pulling back on your 401(k) contributions you could be putting those employer matches at risk, costing yourself a lot of money that you could be profitably investing. You would essentially be leaving money on the table. Most 401(k) plans offer a variety of investment options in funds that invest in stocks, whether that be large-cap, mid-cap, or small-cap funds. But many will also offer investments in bond funds, money market funds, etc. If your 401(k) plan offers those, especially money market funds, those can be a useful place not only to store your existing 401(k) assets until you decide what to do with them but also to place your future contributions, at least temporarily. Many people have a tendency to buy high and sell low. It’s one of the types of behavior that you see a lot during speculative manias, stock bubbles, and then stock market collapses. People get sucked into the market when prices are nearing all-time highs, thinking growth will continue forever. Then when the collapse comes, they get disillusioned, think they’ve made a mistake, and sell out at the bottom. What they need to do is get out at the top and get back in at the bottom. But that’s easier said than done, and it requires both diligence and control over fear that not many people have. That’s why continuing to contribute to your 401(k) but placing your assets into safe havens is comparatively easier. In doing so, you can miss out on big losses, maintain your wealth, and position yourself to come out safely during the upswing. 2. Reduce Exposure to Volatility Market timing is notoriously difficult, and in many cases picking both the top and bottom of a market cycle has more to do with luck than skill. And that’s why reducing your exposure to volatility can be helpful. Many investors start seeing stocks decline and think that they’ll recover. Only when it’s abundantly clear that markets are in a nosedive do they finally accept the reality that their stock investments won’t recover. And then they make the mistake of selling at the bottom, locking in losses and missing out on the gains that occur from a rebound. The temptation to wring every last penny of gains is a great one. But sometimes you have to know when to minimize your risk and your exposure to volatile financial markets. Sometimes sitting things out or remaining on the sidelines can be the better choice. And when things start to look risky, as is starting to happen today, that could be the right time to start thinking about reducing your exposure to volatility. 3. Diversify Your Portfolio One way to reduce your risk exposure is to diversify your portfolio so that you aren’t overexposed to one particular company, sector, or region. In other words, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. For many people this has traditionally meant that they invest in a mixture of stocks and bonds. When stocks are booming they increase their holdings of stocks, and when stocks decline they increase their holdings of bonds. But what happens when both stocks and bonds decline? We saw that most recently in 2022, as both stock markets and bonds markets saw large declines. With the performance of financial markets being highly dependent today on what the Federal Reserve ends up doing with regard to monetary policy, investment decisions have to take that into account. And with the Fed now having to decide between cutting rates or keeping them elevated for longer, no one really knows how markets are going to react or perform over the next few months, let alone the next few years. That uncertainty about the future is alarming to many Americans, and understandably so. And that’s why so many people are starting to diversify their portfolios with gold. Gold has a long history as a safe haven asset and store of value, as well as a reputation for maintaining value through both good times and band. Millions of people rode out the 2008 crisis watching their 401(k) balances plummet, all the while watching