A Gold IRA – don’t go that way

Another tactic to avoid is a gold IRA. Many gold bullion dealers will try to persuade you to roll over your regular IRA into a gold one. They make you believe that it is something special, that it is a hedge against inflation. That simply is not true.

A gold IRA is like any other paper investment. It is a piece of paper stating that you have some gold stored somewhere. Most of the time they try to get you to convert your IRA into American Eagle numismatic proof coins that they claim are non-confiscatible. The truth is that they receive huge premiums for American Eagle numismatic proof coins, and that is why they want you to convert your traditional IRA into a gold one. They make a lot of money on the conversion.

In the first place, the only gold you can legally hold in your gold IRA is gold bullion, and American Eagle proofs are considered bullion. Look at the face value of any American Eagle. What is it? It is $50. Why? That is the confiscatible value of that coin regardless of what you paid for it.

Therefore, if you convert your regular IRA into a gold one, you end up being a three-time loser. First, you lost the flexibility of your regular IRA. Secondly, you converted your money into bullion gold coins, which are confiscatible. Third, your gold is stored in a bank somewhere in the country so you cannot access it quickly.