Nearly everyone has heard of an IRA or Individual Retirement Account. This is an account that you can deposit sums into where it can either have the funds come from pre-tax dollars or you can use after-tax dollars. The advantage of using "after-tax is that when the funds are paid out at retirement they are paid to the recipient tax free, because the taxes on those funds have already been paid.
Within certain limits the funds in IRAs can be invested in many ways. A fairly new type of IRA is the Gold Roth IRA. This special kind of Roth IRA holds investments in precious metals. While gold may be the primary investment, the IRA must be able to invest in other kinds of precious metals.
Many people are particularly fond of the Gold Roth IRA because it is well known that precious metals and gold tend to be a very good security against inflation. There are some restrictions on the kinds of precious metals that are held on deposit for this kind of IRA and those restrictions must be very closely adhered to.
For example The IRS won't allow you to keep collectible coins and metals. Minted coins, bars and bullion is permitted, and the range that is allowed is substantial.
Silver coins that are allowed must be the one ounce variety that was struck by the US Treasury. Quarter ounce, half, one, and tenth ounce coins of gold are allowed provided they are Buffaloes, American Eagles, Austrian Philharmonics, Canadian Maple Leafs, or Nuggets from Australia. Within limits some other types of bullion is allowed. These would include forms of platinum, palladium or silver.
Of course, you can't just store your IRA gold in your home or in some safe deposit box in your local bank. The IRS states that it must be held by a qualified custodian that keeps precious metals and gold investment types. You will have to find your own custodian in order to set up such an account. Your precious metals and gold will be stored in a third party depository.
Once your Gold Roth IRA is established, it works very much the same way that a regular Roth IRA does. Therefore, the sooner you get yours established the better off you will be when retirement arrives.
