If there is one thing that is true about the world of investing, it is that nothing is ever going to work one hundred percent of the time or be entirely fool proof. Each and every year, I think that it is very important for us to reconsider where we have put our money and examine whether it remains worth it. Really, you could do it more often than that, but I do my best not to be overly anal about it.
The fact remains, though, that we should be conscientious about our investment portfolio. Certain assets go in and out of style over time. While it is probably not the best idea to only follow what is trendy (crypto currency, I am looking at you), there is certainly something to be said about what investors are flocking towards. Usually, there is a reason for that.
For anyone wondering about the relevancy of such things, I do think it is important to remember that many people’s retirement funds have taken a hit in the past few years. Whether borne from financial need to withdraw funds early or the depletion of resources thanks to high inflation rates, something really needs to be done.
While I (amongst many other folks, I am sure) would love if we could lean on the government more reliably for such a thing, I acknowledge that by and large this is not the case. Therefore, we need to take it into our own hands and find ways to recuperate what we have lost. Today, I will be covering one of those methods.
Individual Retirement Arrangements: An Explanation
Retirement is a funny thing, isn’t it? We spend most of our lives looking forward to that time of our lives and put a lot of time and energy into preparing for it. Yet, the fact remains that it takes a frankly obscene amount of money to truly live comfortably throughout the entirety of our golden years. A few things contribute to that.
It is hard to deny that the fact that life expectancy has risen significantly in both the United States and in many parts of the world has played a large role in this. As you can see on this page, https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/, as more and more citizens end up living into their eighties, nineties, and even one hundreds, both their social security money and retirement funds end up stretched thin.
One way that some folks have been mitigating this (or at least trying to) is by retiring much later than the government-allowed sixty-five. I think that most of us can agree that this is not desirable, but unfortunately it has practically become necessary for many people. Likely, most of the young workers in my age group will have to work well into their seventies unless things change significantly.
Another method is to create additional IRAs – otherwise known as individual retirement arrangements. With the interest of offering you some full transparency, I would like to note that this will likely require having some more money in your adulthood. Despite this, I would hardly label it an inaccessible way to start saving more for retirement.
IRAs have limits established by the federal government in terms of what you can contribute to it in a given year. Typically, this is limited to around five-thousand dollars. This is likely due to how nice the tax benefits are for when you deposit. Depending on the model that you opt for, you will either be utilizing your current tax bracket to charge immediately upon deposit, or the tax bracket that you will have during your retirement when you withdraw.
Those are some pretty nice perks, right? So, it does make sense that these are such a popular way to start preparing. Most of them are dedicated to paper currency, but I would like to highlight one of the other kinds. As you may have guessed from the title, that will be the precious metals IRA.
Getting to Know the Precious Metals IRA
Finally, we arrive at what the introduction hinted at! Let us discuss in detail whether these are worth it. I think a lot of it will come down to whether precious metals (those being silver, gold, platinum, and palladium) are worth your time right now. Some of them do with quite the hefty price tag, after all.
For starters, you could learn more about investing in gold here before you go much further. Having additional background information can be really helpful in cases like this. With that being said, I can shift gears to focusing entirely on the retirement aspect of it.
By now, I think that most people are aware that they should be keeping their investment portfolios as diverse as possible. Unfortunately, it does not seem like they take the advice to heart when it comes to saving for retirement, though. Trust me when I say this: you absolutely should be keeping your retirement savings diversified as well.
What I mean by that is to invest your money into several classes of assets. Even your IRAs can be spread out, especially since self-directed ones allow you to include commodities such as gold in them. Of course, there are some slight stipulations, but they are easy enough to follow.
For example, you cannot put collectibles made of precious metals into them, even though the purchase of all gold is classified as buying collectibles (and taxed as such). You can only put bullion and specific kinds of coins into one. Despite these rules, though, it is hard to ignore the utility that a gold IRA brings to the table.
Achieving enough net worth to have a comfortable retirement is a tall order, and a daunting prospect to say the least. Hopefully, you have gotten at least some helpful advice out of this article and can see that there is still a glimmer of hope for our golden years – even if it may not seem like it!
