First Gold IRA - Need Some Vegas Wisdom!

• •Alright, so after years of watching the table and seeing the ups and downs, I'm finally looking at getting into a Gold IRA.
• •I've got about $150k I'm thinking of rolling over from an old 401k – just sitting there, not doing much.
• •I’ve always been good at risk management in other areas, but physical assets like this are a bit new to me.

Alright, so after years of watching the table and seeing the ups and downs, I'm finally looking at getting into a Gold IRA. I've got about $150k I'm thinking of rolling over from an old 401k – just sitting there, not doing much. I’ve always been good at risk management in other areas, but physical assets like this are a bit new to me. I've been doing some research, and the idea of having something tangible feels a lot more secure given the way things are going.

My main concern right now is navigating the initial setup. What are the biggest red flags people have encountered? Are there specific companies anyone here in the forum can recommend (or warn me away from)? I'm based in Vegas, so if anyone has local insights, that would be a huge bonus, but honestly, any advice is appreciated. I want to make sure I’m not getting hit with hidden fees or crazy markups on the precious metals themselves.

I'm also trying to get my head around the long-term implications, especially with future distributions. I stumbled across this RMD Calculator (rmdcalculator.goldirablueprint.com) which seems pretty useful for figuring out those required minimum distributions down the road, but I'm curious if anyone has practical experience with it. Does it give a realistic picture? Are there things it doesn't account for that I should be aware of?

Basically, I'm looking for the street smarts perspective on this whole process. What do you wish you knew before you started your Gold IRA? Any seasoned investors out there willing to share their wins and losses?