Gold And Silver Moving Up Tonight

Nothing wrong with that, that I can see. Most PM owners like having more than a single metal in their stack.

Earle, we're definitely in this together and on the same track. I too am working on my silver pile and have not bought any gold yet. I would like to own some for sure, mainly because I don't want to store a huge amount of silver. Gold is a lot more expensive, so takes up less room for the same dollar amount. If we have a good program for buying PMs at regular intervals it can pay us to keep track of the Gold / Silver ratio and do some trading. Over time, we can end up owning more ounces that way and that is a good way to increase our holdings.



Yes, that would be blasphemy to an investor for sure. Diversification is a powerful tool that even us small investors can use to good advantage. I would not recommend an "all in" approach to ANY investment, even PMs. That said, it is up to each of us to find out how much, if any, PMs we want to own as part of our savings / investments. Some feel comfortable with no PMs at all while others want all but a small amount, for daily living expenses, in PMs. I would feel comfortable having up to 25% of my wealth in PMs, although I am quite a bit below that now.

As to having gold and silver in your IRA, YES, you can! There are ways to do that. Some brokers have their IRA offerings set up in such a way that PMs can be added directly to the IRA. Others have arrangements with metals IRA companies that a customer funds with either cash or via roll-over from an existing IRA. The only problem that some would have with this approach is that they do not hold the metals. They are usually kept in a secure vault by a 3rd party in a dedicated account so that if you buy certain coins for your IRA, those are the exact same coins that you get when you make a withdrawal or sell some of them. Never use a "pooled account" for this since doing that commingles the assets from many IRA owners into a single large account. I am not sure if this is even legal but if it is, avoid it, as it is not a good idea, especially if you want to invest money in proofs or coins with high numismatic value. After the MF Global fiasco, it would be difficult for my to put a lot of my money into a segregated account of a company that I did not know VERY well. The GoldMoney company seems to have a pretty good rep, so might be good for this purpose.



Oh, the pain! If their IRA is substantial and they are under age 59.5, they could end up losing 45% of it to taxes and penalties. I understand their thought on this, though. They believe that either / or the US economy / dollar will collapse and that half of something beats all of nothing. I can agree with that reasoning but the odds seem long to me... and you are 100% right, Angel, this IS a HUGE step in one's personal financial life.

Maybe a good compromise would be to withdraw some IRA money, especially if over age 59.5, and invest that in PMs. If under age 59.5, then a better plan might be to do a direct custodial transfer from a standard IRA into a PM IRA. By doing one of these, one could prepare for fiat currency problems without going "all in" on it and taking a BIG tax hit. No one knows when or even if such problems will finally boil over but they have been simmering for a long time now.

We started to look into transfering some of our IRA to a PM IRA. I'm sure you wouldn't be surprise at how the company who has the IRA discouraged that move due to the volatile nature of the PM market. Yeah...becuase you don't get that in the stock market or mutual fund market riiighht?

The decision that is right for us is to purchase PMs and keep them in a safe location that we have access to without going through a 3rd party to obtain them. If you're just getting started like we are - it might be worth cashing in a CD or even to take a small distribution from an IRA. I would never encourge anyone to take the whole distribution, however the tax and penalty on a small amount *might* be worth it. That's a judgement call on each individuals situation.

I have never sold any PM. How do you keep track of the sales/exchanges for capital gains? Just the paper receipts from the dealer.

I keep a spreadsheet with similiar information. I track the shipping and handling as well in a seperate column. It's all part of the cost.

that's a lot of work! I lost my track half a year ago, I just hope I won't forget where all my coins are

Thanks Ed. I guess if it ever gets to selling them! Had most since the early 60s picking them out of change!

BTW where is the guy that guaranteed $24 or low silver last year? Like I said if he keeps predicting the price at $24 he will get it right some day.

Predicting $24 silver has all the attributes of a stopped clock... yes, it is right... twice a day.