Rollover tax stress... anyone else?

• •Okay, so I've been doing my due diligence on getting my old 401k moved over into a Gold IRA.
• •I've got about $75k sitting there from my previous district, and since I started at Little Rock Central, I've just let it sit.
• •My financial advisor (who I'm honestly starting to question) recommended it, but the whole tax implications thing is really making my head spin.

Okay, so I've been doing my due diligence on getting my old 401k moved over into a Gold IRA. I've got about $75k sitting there from my previous district, and since I started at Little Rock Central, I've just let it sit. My financial advisor (who I'm honestly starting to question) recommended it, but the whole tax implications thing is really making my head spin. I teach financial literacy to high schoolers, and I feel like a hypocrite not being 100% on this myself!

Specifically, I'm worried about the 60-day rule for indirect rollovers. I mean, my current pension isn't enough to retire on comfortably from just teaching, and with inflation eating away at everything, gold and silver just seem like a no-brainer for diversifying. But if I somehow mess up the timing, that 20% federal withholding plus the 10% early withdrawal penalty (I'm not 59.5 yet) would just absolutely decimate that $75k. That's retirement money, you know? It's not like I have another $75k laying around to just "oops" with.

Has anyone here done a direct rollover into a Gold IRA successfully? Or even an indirect one without a hitch? What's the biggest thing to watch out for with the tax stuff? I'm almost leaning towards just finding a new custodian who handles direct rollovers for IRAs into precious metals from the get-go, just to avoid the headache. Is that a common practice now?

I feel like I've read a million articles, and each one has a slightly different take. Any advice from people who've actually gone through this, especially with similar amounts, would be a huge comfort right now. Just trying to secure my financial future without accidentally handing a huge chunk of it to Uncle Sam before I even get to invest it.