Investors tend to be careful about the assets that they put in their portfolios and, despite all of their carefulness, they can still wind up losing on their investments. While they can influence what goes in and out of their portfolio, they definitely cannot influence the world trading scene and the economic changes and turmoil we’re all experiencing. Those changes and turmoil, naturally, can lead to the assets they own flopping, making them lose faith in their investing skills and in traditional investing at all.
If you’re losing faith too, you’ll want to protect at least a portion of your assets from crashing. While you can’t influence the market, we’ve already explained that you have a say in what goes in and out of your portfolio, and that’s the power you can and should use so as to actually secure your portfolio. People nearing retirement, but also those who’ve just started saving for it, are most interested in this type of protection, and most of them do it through investing in precious metals, including gold. This is why they invest in it.
Should You Actually Invest In Gold?
Hearing that other people are doing this, though, is not enough to encourage you to do it as well. As a serious investor, you want to know the facts before you put your money into any asset at all. Fortunately, the facts regarding gold all speak in favor of owning it, and once you get to know them, I’m sure that you’ll become interested in investing in it right away. So, let’s state the facts before giving you a precise answer to the above question.
Fact #1 – Gold Has Always Been Valuable And Stable
You have to know how a specific asset has behaved, how it is behaving and how it will behave before deciding if you want to own it. You can check the past and the present, but you can only try your best to predict the future. Luckily, predicting the future of gold won’t be difficult, since both the past and the present show great value and price stability. This stability means that losing on this investment is next to impossible, even though some short-term fluctuations in value could happen. There are, naturally, risks to be aware of, as with any other investment, but the stability in value definitely minimizes those risks.
Fact #2 – It Can Shield Your Wealth Against Inflation Risks
Inflation and the rate at which it progresses, i.e. the rate at which money tends to lose value year after year, can definitely kill your investment portfolio, so to speak. That is, of course, unless you stock it up with the right assets, and gold is definitely one of those. This precious metal won’t behave the same way as currencies, and it will actually keep increasing in value whenever the inflation rate increases. Furthermore, if the stock market crashes due to inflation or other factors, you can expect gold to remain stable and valuable, which is a very big deal.
Fact #3 – There’s No Doubting Its Liquidity
When you invest in something, there is a chance that you’ll want to sell it sometime in the future. That’s just how the investment game works, isn’t it? What happens, though, if you can’t find buyers? Well, if you can’t find buyers, you can’t sell, and this can only happen with assets that are not that liquid, i.e. that aren’t in demand. Gold, however, is always in demand, and there’s no doubting its liquidity, meaning that you’ll get to sell at any point, should you decide to do so, and you’ll sell at a profit.
Fact #4 – Diversifying Is Always A Smart Move
When you put all your trust in one asset and it disappoints you, you can get left with nothing, which is especially frightening for people investing in their retirement. Diversification is always the smartest move, since you will be relying on more assets instead of just one or two. And, of course, gold is the perfect diversifying asset, thanks to its stability, its liquidity, and its ability to safeguard you against inflation. So, do diversify, but diversify with the right assets!
How To Do It?
You must know that things are not that simple when gold investments are in question, because you won’t be able to hold this asset in any of your retirement savings accounts. Instead, you’ll need a specific one that is known to be self-directed, basically meaning that you have complete control over the investments you’ll be making through it. This self-directed IRA is actually the only account so far that allows for alternative investing options, including precious metals. Thus, setting it up is your first step towards actually owning gold and boosting your retirement portfolio with it.
The second step, of course, requires you to involve other people into the whole story. And, when I say other people, I am referring to experts in the industry, companies that can not only sell you the gold, but also help you set up the aforementioned account, fund it and basically do everything that’s necessary before actually buying the gold. Of course, they also help you buy it correctly. All of this means that finding the right company should be your main goal, and in order to do that, you’ll have to check them out in details and read reviews about them. For instance, when considering the Patriot Gold Group, reading a review on it will identify its strengths and help you decide if that’s the firm you want to work with.
After you’ve read enough reviews on different companies, and after you’ve chosen the perfect one for you, proceed towards funding the account and do a rollover if necessary. A rollover is when you transfer the funds from, for example, your 401k to your new IRA. Once funded, the account will be ready for holding gold, and other precious metals as well, so start buying.
