The whole point of planning for your retirement is to reduce as many surprises as you can. In this climate of financial uncertainty, traditional sources for retirement investment like stocks, annuities, savings accounts and bonds are eyed with well deserved caution. Money represents the energy invested in society. People want to invest retirement dollars in something that counts; something that won’t lose its value because of trends or quality. What could be more stable than precious metals?
The first step towards investment in precious metals is to contact a trust company in order to set up an account. You will want to decide which investment you want to make and they will purchase your metals on your behalf and store them in a repository that is fully insured. If you already have a traditional IRA or Roth IRA, transferring them to a gold back IRA is not that complicated but often is the case that the employee must be separated from his or her employer prior to the rollover.
It is imperative that you find a reputable firm to handle your investment if you are interested in purchasing bullion bars or coins because exchange-approved refiners must manufacture these. Even so, you should know that the Internal Revenue Service only allows specific metals. Except for the American Eagle gold coinage, which is .916 net fine, the purity standard for gold is .999 pure, or 99.9 percent for silver, .995 or 99.5 percent pure for platinum and palladium or .9998 or 99.5 percent pure.
No one knows what the future holds in any one’s financial future, but investing in precious metals puts you one step closer to creating a “rock-solid” one.
Source: http://www.usagold.com/ira.html