Are you about to leave your current job and need to do something with your 401k account? Or, maybe you have another reason to close your existing 401k?
You aren’t looking to stop investing toward your retirement. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. You want to move this money to a gold IRA because of the growth potential of precious metals investing.
How does the process work?
That’s the question that’s haunting you at the moment. Plus, you’ve heard that it’s a great investment. But knowing the benefits would make you feel more secure in your choice.
Regardless of your situation, just know that I’m going to tell you how to rollover a 401k account into a gold IRA.
But I’d like to add more.
Maybe you have a traditional or Roth IRA account as well. And you’d like to transfer some of the funds into your new gold IRA.
This process is relatively simple, but it could be daunting if it’s completely new to you. I’ll share details about the IRA transfer process with you as well.
Are you finally ready to protect your retirement future? Are you finally ready to move away from the US dollar toward a more secure investment? Keep reading to learn the truth about 401k to gold IRA rollover options.
Or if you’re ready, please read my review of the top gold companies in the industry right now. These recommendations are the best and brightest in the business.
How Can I Benefit from a 401k to Gold IRA Rollover?
Before diving into the nuts and bolts of the process, it’s best to look at the major benefits of opening a gold IRA now. Why? You’ll learn the precise reasons why this is such a valuable investment.
The biggest benefits include:
- Portfolio Diversity – most people maintain traditional investments like stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Their 401k is managed by someone and this person makes all the investment decisions. With a self-directed gold IRA, you can take control of your investments. You can begin investing in valuable growth investments like platinum, palladium, silver, and gold. And before long, these investments will grow rapidly and add diversity to your portfolio by protecting your other accounts.
- Retirement Account Insurance – by insurance, I mean added protection keeping your portfolio safe. I’m not asking you to open a separate insurance policy because that would be crazy. But I want you to have physical gold keeping your portfolio safe, secure, and available if the worst were ever to happen. If the United States collapsed tomorrow, the US dollar would become completely worthless. But your gold and silver coins and bars are worth a heck of a lot more than the US dollar. Gold and silver provide a much greater level of value. And owning physical precious metals provides purchasing power for you and your loved ones.
- Regain Control of Your Investments – as mentioned, a 401k to gold IRA rollover gives you complete control of your investments. You no longer have to accept what your 401k manager invests in. You are no longer beholden to this person or anyone else. And you can choose your investment strategy wisely and implement this plan with the help of your gold IRA custodian.
- Massive Tax Breaks – no one wants to pay the maximum in taxes, right? Even worse, now that Joe Biden is about to become president, he plans to tax investments to the hilt. You must make the most of every tax break available to you to circumvent his heavy-handed taxation. You worked hard for this money. And you shouldn’t have to give it to the government so they can use it for causes you don’t believe in. With a gold IRA, you’ll have a tax-free or tax-deferred account depending on how you set it up. This is massive for anyone looking to earn as much money through investing as they possibly can.
The Rules and Regulations of a 401k to Gold IRA Rollover
For starters, please note that you must have an existing 401k account to initiate this process. Otherwise, there’d be nowhere to rollover your money from one account to another. You get that, right?
Let’s assume everything is in place.
Basically, you’ll contact your current 401k custodian and tell them that you want to rollover your account to a gold IRA.
The first thing you’ll have to contend with is the 60-day rollover rule.
Gold IRA 60 Day Rollover Rule
There are limits placed on your rollover ability before suffering from taxes and penalties. As you initiate the process, your current 401k custodian will send you a distribution check. You only have 60 days to deposit this distribution check into your new gold IRA account.
If you complete this task later than the 60-day cutoff, you’ll have to face paying early withdrawal fees and taxes.
Every rollover requires you to receive a physical distribution check. But once you do get the check from your custodian, you cannot sit back and rest on your laurels. You have to take immediate action within the 60-day timeframe or deal with the consequences.
Do you understand? Make sure your gold IRA custodian has this check in his or her possession before your 60-day time limit runs out. Otherwise, you’ll end up causing more harm than good.
How to Proceed with a 401k to Gold IRA Rollover
Getting this right is critical to your success. Because as we learned, getting it wrong means facing potential penalties and other consequences.
Once the distribution check is delivered to your home, you need to take the following actions as quickly as possible.
- Contact the custodian of your new gold IRA account. Ask them about the process that you must undergo to deposit your distribution check. Follow the instructions that they give you to the letter to make sure you do it right.
- Fair warning: you only have 60 days to deposit your distribution check to complete the rollover process. Make sure you deposit the check in a timely manner. And leave yourself ample room to get it done within the allotted timeframe. Or be prepared to deal with the consequences of your inaction.
- After you deposit the funds based on the information provided by your custodian, your new account is now completely funded. Failure to make this deposit in 60 days means facing taxes and penalties.
- A rollover is only allowed to take place once per 12 months. This happens to preserve tax-deferred status. You may not attempt to initiate more than one rollover in a 12-month timeframe.
- Now that your account is funded, work with your IRA custodian to begin investing in precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. These investments will grow and evolve as you continue working toward a healthy and happy retirement in the future.
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How to Proceed with a Gold IRA Transfer
Beginning the transfer process is different than a 401k to gold IRA rollover. With a transfer, you aren’t technically dealing with a 401k account. You’re dealing with an existing traditional or Roth IRA account.
In this case, the IRA custodian will send the check to the custodian of your gold IRA account. You do not have to get involved in this process whatsoever. Let the custodians handle everything on your behalf.
But you do have to get involved in the beginning to let your IRA custodian know that a transfer needs to take place.
The process is really simple. It goes something like this:
- Talk to your traditional or Roth IRA account custodian. Tell them to transfer your current distribution to your gold IRA custodian. They will initiate the entire process.
- The traditional or Roth IRA custodian transfers the funds to the custodian of your gold IRA account.
- The precious metals IRA custodian receives the funds and deposits them into your existing IRA. Or he or she uses these funds to open a new one.
- After the process is complete, use the funds in your account to invest in silver, platinum, gold, and palladium.
Bottom Line
Depending on your account type, you’ll know whether it’s time to initiate a 401k to gold IRA rollover. Or, you’ll know if a transfer is the next a necessary step to take.
Either way, taking one of these steps is an absolute must to open and fund your new gold IRA account.
Try not to worry too much about this process. Your custodians will help you every step of the way.
And the best part?
You can connect with a reputable gold company online to help fill in some of the other missing details.
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