Precious Metals IRA Accounts: The Next Smart Investment?
One of the qualities that precious metal investors appreciate is the lack of volatility as compared to stocks, bonds or other types of investments out there today.
By including gold or silver, they are able to establish a fund that can hedge against global market fluctuations and make sure that their retirement fund has a bit more protection. Silver American Eagle coins are a popular choice as well as platinum bullion coins. These three types of precious metals, along with palladium, are allowed in the IRA account.
The easiest way to look at your potential choices in precious metals investments is to consider coins by country.
American Coins for an IRA Retirement Account
For your precious metals IRA, you can select coins from America such as American Eagle gold coins, non-proof Buffalo Gold Uncirculated coins, American Eagle silver coins and American Eagle platinum coins.
Canadian Coins in an IRA Retirement Account
Canadian Maple Leaf gold coins, Canadian Maple Leaf silver coins and Canadian Maple Leaf platinum coins are all eligible for a precious metals retirement account.
Mexican Coins in an IRA Retirement Account
From Mexico, there are the Mexican Liberated silver coins.
Australian Coins in an IRA Retirement Account
From Australia, you may choose Australian Kangaroo gold coins, also called Australian Nugget gold coins, as well as Australian Kookaburra silver coins or Australian Koala platinum coins.
Isle of Man Coins in an IRA Retirement Account
From the Isle of Man you may choose Isle of Man Noble platinum coins.
Austrian Coins in an IRA Retirement Account
From Austria you may select either Austrian Philharmonic gold coins or Austrian Vienna Philharmonic silver coins.
In addition to these coins, you may choose bars or rounds that are produced by either a national mint or a manufacturer accredited by LME, NYSE, LME, ISO-9000 or Nymex. Bars must have a fineness of at least .995 for gold, .999 for silver and .9995 for either platinum or palladium bars. Anything other than that is likely to be unacceptable for an IRA involving precious metals. You must very carefully evaluate any choices that fall outside these guidelines to ensure that your IRA is meeting acceptable standards.
The reason that investors go through the work to get an IRA like this put together is fairly easy to understand. To cite one example, if a person had put $25,000 in gold bullion coins into their IRA three or four decades ago, it would be worth over half a million dollars in today's currency.
If, instead, that same investor had chosen investment grade coins to put into their IRA, then the same initial investment would be valued at $1.3 million. This is quite clearly no small sum and goes a long way towards explaining precisely why investors are so enthusiastic about these types of IRA accounts.
The next time you are considering diversifying your investments, consider the value that precious metals can bring to your IRA. They have unique qualities that make them attractive, as long as you follow the guidelines regarding which coins, rounds and bars can be used in an IRA. If you do, you should find that they are an excellent hedge against the fluctuations of the global market.
