5 years in - my Gold IRA journey and current thoughts on this market
- •Hard to believe it's been five years since I first opened my Gold IRA.
- •I remember the anxiety, though.
- •I started with about $150k rolling over from an old 401k – definitely felt like a big chunk to put into one basket at the time.
Hard to believe it's been five years since I first opened my Gold IRA. I remember the anxiety, though. I'd been watching the market for a while, particularly after some volatility hit the steel industry back in 2018-2019, and thought, "you know what, physical assets make sense." Always understood commodities, but actually pulling the trigger on tangible gold for retirement was a whole different ballgame than just tracking iron ore prices.
I started with about $150k rolling over from an old 401k – definitely felt like a big chunk to put into one basket at the time. Thankfully, I was in a good spot financially, so it wasn't my entire retirement, but still, a significant portion. Over the past five years, I've seen that initial investment grow to just shy of $230k and frankly, I'm pretty pleased with that. It's not the explosive growth of some tech stocks, sure, but it has been rock solid, especially through some of the weirder economic times we’ve had lately. The peace of mind alone has been worth a good chunk of that increase.
Living here in Birmingham, you get a good feel for the industrial backbone of the country, and how interconnected everything is. When I hear talk about inflation or geopolitical instability, having that physical gold in a secure vault just makes sense to my old-school commodity brain. I even added another $25k to it last year when gold dipped a bit. Felt like a no-brainer buy. Are any of you guys feeling the same way about continuing to add to your positions?
My biggest question going forward is how much more to allocate. I'm sitting on a pretty good percentage now, relatively speaking, but with the dollar showing some cracks and all the talk about BRICS nations pushing alternative currencies, part of me thinks the real run for gold hasn't even started yet. What are your thoughts on future price action, and what kind of allocation targets are you all generally aiming for in your own portfolios?