Using Your IRA to Invest In Precious Metals: A Quick Guide

Posted on by
Reply

Whether you’re an amateur or a seasoned investor, you need to understand the importance of asset diversification to maintain a healthy portfolio and a secure retirement. When you own a self-directed IRA, your investment options are practically limitless.

Investing in precious metals is one of the many investment options you have with a self-directed IRA. Unlike the typical stocks, annuities, bonds, and mutual funds, precious metals like gold and silver don’t pay you any interest, but they have historically grown in value over the long term.

Including precious metals into your retirement portfolio may help in the following ways:
>>  Minimize investment volatility and risk
>>  provide a tax-efficient shelter for potential gains, and
>>  Serve as a hedge in the event of an economic downtown.
However, you cannot hold the physical precious metal in your regular individual retirement account (IRA); there are specially designed precious metal IRAs for that.

If you are interested in using your IRA to invest in precious metals, this article is for you. Read on…

What Is a Precious Metal IRA?
A precious metal IRA is a form of self-directed individual retirement account specially designed to allow you to invest in a wide variety of unconventional assets, including real estate, art, and precious metals.

What Precious Metals Can You Invest in for Retirement?  
You can invest in gold, platinum, silver, palladium, and other precious metals, but IRS has set specific purity standards that the precious metals have to meet:
>>  Gold (99.5% pure)
>>  Silver (99.9% pure)
>>  Platinum (99.95% pure)
>>  Palladium (99.95% pure)

Options for Using IRA to Invest in Precious Metals
>> Physical IRA investments in precious metal coins and bullion
IRAs are allowed to own certain precious metals, but you’ll need an IRA trustee or custodian for that. You will have to find an IRA trustee who is willing to set up a self-directed IRA and facilitate the physical transfer and storage of precious metal assets.
>> Indirect IRA investments via precious metal ETFs
If you don’t want to deal with the issues surrounding the physical ownership of precious metals, you can consider buying shares of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the precious metal’s value.
>> Indirect IRA investments via precious metal mining stocks
Another option of investing in precious metals is to buy common stock shares of mining companies with your IRA. This idea doesn’t attract any federal-income tax-law problem.

How Much of Your IRA Should Include Precious Metals?
It depends on your financial situation. However, most financial experts recommend investing not more than 5% to 10% of your retirement funds in precious metals. Why so low? That’s because experts believe that:
1.    The portfolios with diversified assets minimize the risk associated with market fluctuation. Investing more in one type of asset (precious metals, in this case) makes you vulnerable to market volatility.
2.    Precious metals are easily accessible to you in times of trouble. In a way, they are as volatile as stocks. Also, when prices rise during market fluctuation, their value may fall once stocks recover.
3.    Although precious metals are known to have historically held their value over the long term, they are not as dynamic in performance as other asset classes, such as stocks. If you invest too much in precious metals, you may restrict the growth of your retirement fund.

How Do You Make a Withdrawal From a Precious Metal IRA?
You have 2 options:
>> Depository Purchase: In this option, you can choose to have the depository purchase the precious metal from you and give you the value of the investment.
>> In-Kind Distributions: In this option, you have the actual physical precious metal shipped to you after you make the distribution.
Whichever option you choose, you’ll need to have a custodian initiate the transaction for you. And always remember that the same rules apply to your precious metal IRAs as normal IRAs.

About the author:
Rick Pendykoski is the owner of Self Directed Retirement Plans LLC, a retirement planning firm based in Goodyear, AZ. He regularly writes for blogs at MoneyForLunch, Biggerpocket, SocialMediaToday, NuWireInvestor & his own blog for Self Directed Retirement Plans. If you need help and guidance with traditional or alternative investments, email him at or visit www.sdretirementplans.com.

Business Name Generator – Generate Unique and Cost Effective Business Names

Posted on by
Reply

In today’s tough market it’s important to generate a catchy, unique and attention-grabbing business name for your business. A great name can propel your business to the top of the business listings on the iPhone App Store and in the Google Play Store. It is one of the most important business decisions you will ever make. It allows potential customers to quickly remember your business name and the products and services you offer. With a poor name for your business can easily fade into oblivion. Here are some tips for creating a great mobile marketing campaign:

o Think outside the box – Mobile users are trending the way they want to receive messages. They are more likely to open an app if the message it contains is bold and stands out. Try using a business name generator to come up with exciting new company names. A good app name generator is an easy user magnet that makes it easy to locate your brand in the mobile app marketplace.

o Use the most appropriate tools – As mentioned before, mobile users are much more likely to open an app if it displays the right information. In order to create an app that stands out and is easy to use, consider the right tools. One option would be a naming tool that allows you to generate brand names by entering a short, unique but short keyword. Another option would be a business name generator. This type of tool allows you to select from a variety of categories that will help you generate unique and memorable business name ideas.

o Increase your domain availability – If you want to take advantage of brand names with low cost but limited availability, consider all your options. You can still use your current domain to create branding, but you may have to go a step further to increase the availability of your domain. One option would be to register your domain in multiple names with different extensions. Another option would be to take advantage of free domain names. The best branding experts recommend that you register your domains in multiple names until you have exhausted the first one, at which point you can use one of your free domain names.

o Find out if there are any existing websites with those names you want – Another great idea for increasing your domain availability is to request that a website owner give you their website’s URL. In the past, many businesses would purchase these URLs and never use them, since most of them had been registered by people who failed to follow through with the plan. Today, there are some innovative hosting companies that encourage website owners to give their URL so they can have a presence in the business name generator marketplace. This is a great way to get your URL without having to spend money that you don’t have.

The potential business names with which you choose will depend on your specific goals. If you are creating websites to promote a product or service, then the names you come up with will likely be geared toward that product. If, however, you’re looking to brand your company as something more than just an online store, then you’ll be able to come up with more creative names. Regardless of what you end up choosing, however, you can be assured that it will be easier than ever to come up with names for your website with a business name generator tool.