Gold Rounds - Been a long haul but definitely paying off

That's awesome to hear about your patience paying off! You mentioned diversifying – I'm curious, what percentage of your portfolio did you initially allocate to gold back in 2017?

Glad to hear it's working out for you! I've also been in gold for a while, but sometimes I wonder if I should've diversified into other precious metals or even some real estate instead of going so heavy on just gold. The returns have been decent, but there are definitely other options that have seen some pretty wild growth lately too. Not complaining, just always looking at the "what ifs."

Totally feel this! I got into a Gold IRA around 2018 when I was getting a bit antsy about the market. It felt like a slow burn for a while, but man, seeing how things have played out, it's definitely been a relief. Similar boat, glad I did it.

Awesome to hear about your success! It's definitely reassuring to see these long-term strategies pay off.

For anyone else considering a Gold IRA, it's super important to understand the storage aspects. There are specific IRS-approved depositories you have to use for physical gold in an IRA. I found this list of IRS-approved depositories really helpful when I was setting mine up. Good luck to everyone else on their precious metals journey!

Definitely feeling that, u/PreciousMetalsPro. I started diversifying into gold IRA accounts a few years back, initially just for the precious metals exposure but really seeing the payoff now, especially with the 401k rollover I did last year. The tax advantages alone are huge for my retirement savings, and having tangible assets adds a peace of mind that volatile stocks just don't.

Great to hear you're seeing those gains! I've been mostly in bars for my physical gold, appreciating the lower premiums on larger amounts. For those who've gone the rounds route, have you found liquidity to be as good as bars when it comes to selling, especially if you're talking about anything over, say, 10-20 ounces at once?

Glad to hear it's paying off for you. Personally, the whole "rounds" thing feels like a bit of a distraction for an IRA. While I appreciate the lower premiums for some, I'd rather stick to recognized sovereign coins or bars for their undeniable liquidity and easier valuation when it comes time to rebalance or, dare I say, liquidate a portion. That peace of mind, especially with a significant chunk of my retirement, is worth the slightly higher premium to me here in Portland.

I've personally found tracking the premiums on rounds to be a bit of a headache, especially compared to their sovereign coin counterparts. While the initial buy-in might look attractive, when it comes time to liquidate pieces of my 401k rollover, I'm always thinking about that wider spread. For my portfolio in Providence, that difference can really add up over time.

Yeah, 2024 has been good for gold, no doubt. I started diversifying into precious metals back in '21, mainly physical but definitely some through my IRA. Coming from Detroit, I've seen enough economic uncertainty to know you need real assets. When I was first setting things up, trying to figure out the best balance of coins vs. bars vs. rounds for my Gold IRA, I got a lot of conflicting advice. What really helped me cut through the noise and zero in on what made sense for my specific portfolio goals (around the $750k mark at the time) was taking the Gold IRA Quiz – it matched me with the right strategy for my situation. Made the whole process a lot clearer.

Gold rounds, huh? I get the appeal for smaller bites, but honestly, I've always seen them as a slight premium drain for something that essentially performs the same function as a bar. I’m sitting on close to half a million in my Gold IRA now, all in bars from Orion a few years back, and I sleep pretty soundly in San Diego knowing I'm not paying extra for novelty. Just seems like a slight inefficiency, even if it's "paying off" in this current climate.

@Janet Cook, I totally get where you're coming from on the premium headache with rounds. I learned that lesson the hard way back in '21. I was eyeing some 1 oz Buffalo rounds from a new dealer, premium was like 5% over spot, looked *great* on paper compared to the ASEs at 8-10% at the time. Bought 50. Fast forward to early '23, needed to liquidate about half that to cover some unexpected home repairs on my Chicago brownstone – furnace decided to nope out in February. The dealer I bought them from was offering a decent buy-back, but their competitor, even with a slightly better offer, still knocked me for an extra 1.5% premium haircut compared to what they were offering on Eagles or even Maple Leafs. Ended up losing an extra ~_three hundred dollars_ just on that premium spread, which definitely stung. Now, I stick almost exclusively to sovereign coins for anything I might need to liquidate quickly. The liquidity and narrower spreads are worth the slightly higher entry premium for me.

@Thomas Walker, I hear you on the premium point, especially if we're talking about generic rounds versus bars. From my perspective here in Savannah, it really boils down to your exit strategy and potential future market. While a 1 oz bar is a 1 oz bar, rounds, particularly government-issued ones like Eagles or Maples, can sometimes offer a slightly better bid price from local coin dealers or even private buyers down the line, due to their recognizable assay and fungibility. It's not a massive spread, but on a $100k-$250k portfolio, those percentage points add up over time. Plus, if I ever needed to liquidate a smaller portion for unexpected expenses, selling a few rounds is much simpler than trying to break off a piece of a Kilo bar. I actually used the Best Gold IRA Companies comparison on this site to find a custodian that had favorable round pricing for their inventory, which made the decision easier.

@Donald Nelson Totally agree on '24 being solid. I'm up here in Minneapolis, and after seeing the craziness with tech stocks for a few years, decided to really ramp up my Gold IRA allocations around late '22. Ended up putting about $150k in, mostly in 1oz American Gold Eagles. It's been a much smoother ride than my other accounts, that's for sure. My tip: don't chase the dips *too* hard for a Gold IRA; focus more on dollar-cost averaging and picking a solid custodian with transparent fee structures. I learned the hard way that a few percentage points in obscure admin fees can eat into your long-term gains more than you'd think.