Gold Investment Advice – Critical Success Factors

June 16, 2013 in Gold

Gold Investment Advice – Critical Success Factors

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune - Jim Rohn

An American Gold Eagle. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Gold Investment is one of the most poorly understood investment class. One of the reasons for this is because there are many of types of gold investment available from bars to bullion coins to paper gold, ETFs, jewelry and much more. This varied choice of investment products naturally overwhelms would be investors. This results in investors making simple mistakes resulting in poor investments. For example, when we talk about gold coins, there are many types of coins. There is the bullion coins, proof coins, coins or rounds produced by private mints, numismatics and many more. Some are tax exempt and some are not. Each of the types of gold product presents its own set of risks and problems as well as rewards.

It is extremely important for the gold investor to become knowledgeable in gold products and learn how to invest in gold. They need to learn what gold products to invest in, what is the potential gain or the ROI (Return on Investment), what are the investment objectives, what is the entry strategy and the exit plan? How about IRA? Can the gold that they own be transferred into a Gold IRA account? A lot of questions when it comes to gold investment. Therefore it is a good practice to learn and discover all these right from the beginning before even investing a single dime in gold.

That is what this page is about. We have been publishing articles on gold investment which is designed to help gold investors. In this page, we list the various articles on gold investment advice so that gold investors can browse and zoom in to the specific information that they are looking for.

Our hope is that beginners as well as seasoned investors would find these information beneficial and would come in handy in their gold investments. Please bookmark this page as it will updated frequently with the latest on gold investment advice. Please also share this page with your friends and colleagues who may benefit from this gold investment advice. Last but not least, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please give us your feedback on what you think about the articles presented on this page and do let us know if you are looking for a specific information on investing in gold.

Learn As Much as Possible About Gold Investment
Build Relationship with a Trusted Dealer	How to Select the Precious Metals Dealer
The 5 Best Gold Coins to Buy	The Best Silver Coins to Buy
Things to Note when Buying Gold	Things to Note when Selling Gold
Why Do You Need a Gold Calculator	The Gold Calculator

Tags: Gold, Gold coin, Investing in Gold, Investment, Investor, Precious metal
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What is an IRA Account and Why it is Important

June 19, 2013 in Individual Retirement Plan (IRA)

What is an IRA Account and Why it is Important

In this article, we answer the basic question of What is an IRA Account. IRA stands for Individual Retirement Account and it was initiated with the purpose of helping people save for their retirement years. IRA comes with tax benefits and that encourages the use of the IRA plan. The IRA is important because it helps to prepare for your retirement and it comes with tax benefits. There are a few types of IRA but the main two types are the Traditional IRA and ROTH IRA.

What is a Traditional IRA?

A Traditional IRA is the original retirement plan that was made available hence the name Traditional IRA. The Traditional IRA gives the account holder tax deductions on the amount of cash that is contributed to the IRA account. This is called the pre-tax money. The fund in the IRA can then be invested into stocks, mutual funds and money markets. The fund in the IRA grows tax free which means that the income from the investments, dividends and capital gains are not taxed. This a very good approach as it makes the fund work harder for the account holder. The tax comes in when the fund is withdrawn from the IRA and it is taxed just like normal income.

There are rules that define the eligibility criteria in order to enjoy tax deductions when one contributes to the traditional IRA. There are contribution limits as well. There are also rules that define the withdrawal criteria. For example withdrawals before reaching the age of 59 1/2 years are called early withdrawals and that will incur a 10% penalty.

What is a ROTH IRA?

A ROTH IRA was started in 1997 with a different approach to taxation. In ROTH IRA, the money that is contributed to the IRA account is not given any tax-deductions. It is therefore called post-tax money. The fund in the ROTH IRA also grows tax free just like the Traditional IRA. The difference is that when the fund is withdrawn from the ROTH IRA if it is a qualified withdrawal, it is not taxed anymore, unlike the Traditional IRA. There are criteria that defines a qualified withdrawal.

There are also rules that define the eligibility criteria to participate in the ROTH IRA based on income. There are limits set on the yearly contributions as well. There are also rules that define the withdrawal of funds from the ROTH IRA.

This is just a introduction to the IRA as we answer the basic questions of What is an IRA Account. There are a lot more to it from the rules, the tax implications, difference in various scenarios, and much more. These will be covered in their own articles as listed below. These articles as well as tools, templates, worksheets and online calculators will be published in the coming days and weeks. Do bookmark this page and visit it frequently in order to get updated articles and helpful tools for your IRA.

The Key Differences Between Traditional IRA and ROTH IRA
Advantages and Disadvantages of Traditional IRA
Advantages and Disadvantages of ROTH IRA
Traditional IRA and ROTH IRA Contribution Limits and What are the Implications
Rollover, Transfer and Conversion – Key Issues that You Must be Aware of
What is Self Directed IRA
IRA Tools, Templates, Worksheets and Online Calculators
How to Setup an IRA – Key Questions to Answer and Avoid the Major Pitfalls and Common Mistakes

Tags: Individual retirement account, Retirement Plans, ROTH IRA, Traditional IRA
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The 5 Best Gold Coins to Buy

June 17, 2013 in Gold

The 5 Best Gold Coins to Buy

In this article, we bring you the list of the 5 Best Gold Coins to Buy that are some of the most sought after gold bullion coins. These are the best gold coins to buy when you are investing in gold due to the reputation, popularity and the price that you get for the amount of gold. It is needless to say that the reputation is extremely important because you would want to get gold coins made from actual gold of guaranteed purity. These coins have that reputation as they are minted by government mints which guarantee the purity as well as the weight of gold.

The reputation naturally feeds into the popularity. Popularity is important as the more these coins are owned by investors, the higher the chance of availability of stock when you want to purchase as well as available buyers when you want to sell it. This is one of the reason why the price of these gold coins are just a few percentage points above the spot gold price which is the next item to look at.

The price of gold coins are typically about 6% above the price of spot gold for the 1 Troy oz gold coins (he percentage will increase for smaller sized gold coins). There is minting costs which the mints would charge as a premium to their dealers. The US Mint charges a premium of 3% for the 1 Troy oz Gold Eagle coin. These dealers would then add a few more percentage to cover their cost of marketing and profit. This typically is about 3%. This is the reason why price of gold coins typically cost about 6% above the spot gold price.

Remember that reputation, popularity and price are important factors when you want to purchase gold coins. The other thing to highlight is that regardless of the purity (whether 22 karat or 24 karat), a 1 Troy ounce coin will have 1 Troy ounce of gold in it. If the purity is lesser, it just means that there is 1 Troy ounce of gold plus more of other metals in the coin compared to the higher purity coins. With that in mind, let us now proceed to take a look at some of the best gold coins to buy.

American Gold Eagle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An American Gold Eagle. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

American Gold Eagle

The American Gold Eagle gold coins are one of the most sought after gold coins. These coins are produced by the US Mint and therefore, it comes with a high degree of reputation. It comes in a few sizes from the usual 1 Troy ounce to the 1/2, 1/4 and 1/10 Troy ounce sizes with a purity of 0.9167 (22 karat gold). The design is well detailed and that makes it a very beautiful coin to have.

American Buffalo (coin) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Reverse of the American Buffalo gold coins, struck beginning in 2006 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

American Buffalo

The American Buffalo gold coin is also produced by the US Mint. It comes in a single size of 1 Troy oz with a guaranteed purity of 0.9999 (24 karat gold). This is also another one of the best gold coins to buy. Notice that the weight and purity of the gold is printed on the coin itself. This is the normal practice for gold coins and it highlights the trust and guarantee of the mint on the purity and weight of gold.

Canadian Maple Leaf

The Canadian Maple Leaf is another gold coin which is of 0.9999 purity (24 karat gold). It is produced by the Royal Canadian Mint and it carries the maple leaf design, hence the name Canadian Maple Leaf. This coin comes in 1 Troy oz size as well as 1/2 oz, 1/4 oz, 1/10 oz and 1/20 oz sizes. This is also a very highly sought after gold coin and is sometimes out of stock. This is definitely one of the best gold coins to buy.

South African Krugerrand

1oz 1984 Krugerrand Transferred from en.wikipedia (Photo credit: Wikiped

South African Krugerrand is the first 1 Troy oz gold bullion coin that was produced in 1967 when the South African government wanted to market and sell gold that was being mined in South Africa. After witnessing the success of the Krugerrand, the rest of the bullion gold coins were produced by the respective governments. This gold coin is of 0.9167 purity (22 karat gold) same as the American Gold Eagle. The Krugerrand is not a very beautiful coin though. It is quite a simple design but it is popular since it was the first bullion gold coin that was produced and has its own ardent fans.

Austrian Philharmonic

The Austrian Philharmonic gold coin is another coin that is popular among a lot of gold investors. It is also of 0.9999 purity (24 karat gold). It comes in 1 Troy oz, 1/2 Troy oz, 1/4 Troy oz and 1/10 Troy oz sizes. This gold coin’s design is based on the Philharmonic Orchestra and it carries a design based on musical instruments and the orchestra. It is not a particularly beautiful coin though. Since it is not as sought after as the Canadian Maple Leaf or the American Eagle, it is normally priced below those coins. If the Canadian Maple Leaf is selling at 6% premium to spot gold, the Austrian Philharmonic might be selling at 5% above spot. This is good for investment as you get higher amount of gold for the same price compared to the more popular coins. Still it has the reputation, trust and enough popularity. What it lacks in design and beauty is well compensated by price. This makes it as one of the best gold coins to buy.

The 5 Best Gold Coins to Buy

That is the list of the 5 Best Gold Coins to Buy for investment. As we have mentioned earlier, the premium for some of the coins will be higher than others although the gold content is same. This would depend on the availability of the stock as well as the demand. When buying gold coins, always check with the dealer for the price of each of the types of gold coins. That would help to save a few percentage but when it comes to gold investment small percentages can make a big difference in the overall investment.

Do visit out Gold Investment page for more articles on this topic.

Tags: American Buffalo, American Gold Eagle, Gold as an investment, Gold coin, Investing in Gold, United States Mint
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