Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, CD’s, all of these investment types are ones most of us know something about. Lately however, these investments make us nervous. Either a low interest rate return or a loss on our investments encourage us to look for other opportunities. You never know from one minute until the next what is going to happen to your portfolio. I have decided that further diversification from my tried and true investment strategy is something I need to consider.

I wanted to diversify my investing in something I would buy and hold (like I do my real estate). I don’t know about you, but when I was in the stock market, I would constantly be looking at the newspaper to see if the market is up or down and drive myself crazy because my timing might not have been perfect.

I was interested in something that will always have value and won’t go out of business. I decided to visit the precious metals front and see if this would be an area of interest to me. Precious metals can be tracked daily, but at least the rise and declines have not been as severe as the stock market. After some research, I narrowed it down and dccided to explore investing in Gold.

There appears to be a lot of confusion on Gold. Some believe that Gold will be the future currency of the world, that it will be the only asset you will ever need. Some believe this commodity can be used to trade for items such as food (should everything else in our world go down the tubes).

Many investors buy Gold as a hedge against inflation and add as a stable “currency” to their portfolio mix.

Others look at it on speculative terms, buy low, sell high just like every other investment.

Gold comes in different forms. Bouillon, certificates, funds, stocks, etc. In addition to Gold, Silver is also a popular investment metal.

I decided if I were to invest in Gold I wanted to own the real metal, not a certificate. With that decision, I needed to have a few questions answered. How would I actually buy the Gold? Would I ever want to take possession of my Gold should I buy any? And finally, if I buy Gold and don’t take possession of it, how do I know I own any?

To get answers to these questions and others, I recently visited with the team at Gold Money. I was able to learn where the Gold is stored, how much of it is there, how does one make the right decision on whether Gold or Silver is the better investment for your portfolio and most importantly, how can I buy Gold in my IRA?

As with any investment, you must do your due diligence including checking out both the provider and the investment. If using a self-directed IRA you are in charge of making your own investment decisions. Neither I nor any IRA administrator recommend what investors should or should not buy. That’s why it’s called a self-directed account.

What appealed to me was the “hold strategy” that gold was not going to go out of business and that with the economy what it is, there was a good chance Gold would go up (of course no one has a crystal ball to predict what any investment would do but it makes sense to me).

Using my IRA to invest in Gold was a good decision because:

1. I don’t need my IRA in the short term, so I can give it time to grow.
2. The amount I set for myself was reasonable so if in the event Gold went down I could afford to lose the difference if I had to sell.
3. I am diversifying my IRA investments, which is something I want to do.
4. It makes sense for my particular investment strategy.

I am not suggesting that you rush out to buy gold. This like any other investment is one that can be taken into consideration and could make sense to the right investor. What I am suggesting is that investing with your IRA could reap profits (tax-deferred or in the case of a ROTH IRA, tax-free) if Gold goes up.

Again, neither I, nor Entrust recommend investments. That is the beauty of a truly self-directed IRA!

I am not a risk taker; I do things methodically and never want to be in a position where I lose money. Who knows how my Gold purchase will do in profit, but my IRA is investing for the long term in something we can all still believe it. Go Gold!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under Self-Directed IRA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.