So I have a question for those who are serious about investing here and maybe this isn't the right place, mods if it needs to be moved, by all means..

So I have 3 different 401ks.

One has a large amount in it.. One not so much.. And one through my current company.

I thought about taking the 401k where I have a large amount and roll into my current 401k and take the one that doesn't have a lot in it, and invest in gold and/or silver.

Has anyone done this and is it worth the headache? The investing in gold and/or silver, not the roll into a current 401k.

So not financial advice....disclaimer lol.

Rolling your 401k should be seemless. I would check to see which one is performing the best though. Mine is underpeforming actually.

Whenever you cash out a retirement plan there will be a capital gains tax on what is made. Obviously, if you lost money then that can be counted as a loss. Whenever i made a cash out, I always had the company withhold the required tax so that it didn't crush me at the end during tax time.

Gold/silver are typicallly good buys, not sure what the market is looking like though. But they are normally store of values anywhay and are held for the crap hitting the fan scenario.

(10-31-2023 08:08 AM)hburg Wrote:  So not financial advice....disclaimer lol.

Rolling your 401k should be seemless. I would check to see which one is performing the best though. Mine is underpeforming actually.

Whenever you cash out a retirement plan there will be a capital gains tax on what is made. Obviously, if you lost money then that can be counted as a loss. Whenever i made a cash out, I always had the company withhold the required tax so that it didn't crush me at the end during tax time.

Gold/silver are typicallly good buys, not sure what the market is looking like though. But they are normally store of values anywhay and are held for the crap hitting the fan scenario.

Way I've understood it, if you roll one retirement into another, there's no penalty.

(10-31-2023 08:10 AM)gdunn Wrote:  Way I've understood it, if you roll one retirement into another, there's no penalty.

There isn't. As far as investing goes, I'm not any kind of expert but gold is so high right now that I'd probably wait for people to cash in their profits and the price to drop.

Gold has gone up considerably and while a recession will propel it further, you are too late to really cash in now.

Bond funds are primed now - with yield rising as much as they have, bond prices are super low. They may still go a little lower - but they are the future value play right now. I recently rebalanced my 401K holdings and I made sure I was a little heavy in the bond fund.

I've had, I think, 4 or 5 401ks from various jobs that I rolled into one IRA with an investment advisor. Made it easier to have it all in one place, imo. Now, it will depend on the type of 401ks you have, I had regular and Roth, and, obviously, those can't be combined due to tax reasons. As long as their is no distribution, rolling over 401ks is pretty seamless.

If you have gold as your currency how do you even spend it. Do you go to a middleman who will give you less of what it's worth just for him to make a profit? So aren't you defeating your purpose by buying gold? If there's no middlemen can you take it to the store and redeem it for food? I know I'm a financial guru that's why I ask these questions.

I’m a silver stacker, but as of yet no gold. Silver is thought of in the stacker community with the most potential for going way up. Traditionally Silver has had an 8:1-10:1 ratio of value to gold, but has been artificially manipulated down with all the paper silver certificates. The saying goes “if you can’t hold it, then you don’t own it.” When people start to demand their silver and they can’t get it, that’s when the silver market will shoot to the moon.

My knowledge is limited to silver and this is my comfort zone, I’m not saying that gold, platinum, palladium, mining stocks are bad or not as good, lots of stackers stack these as well. When you “invest” in precious metals you are transferring fiat currency into real, hard assets. I don’t trust the Fed or the banks, but there is personal responsibility to guard your own treasure.

A few tips if you’re new to stacking:

-buy from reputable dealers only. That would include your Local Coin Shops (LCS) and reputable online bullion dealers. There are a lot of convincing fakes that can pass the basic test, watch out for deals that just seem too good.

-stick with 1 oz. generic rounds. The difference between a coin and bullion is that coins have a face value, some people feel more comfortable buying the gov issued coins like the Morgans or Eagles, but 1 oz is still 1 oz. Also rounds psychologically look like money vs bars.

-there are many mints, get the best bang for your buck regardless of design.

-check your loose change, save your dimes and quarters from 1964 and older. It’s referred to as Constitutional or Junk silver and it’s 90% silver, worth much more than the face value.

-if you get gold, get 1 oz pieces only. You can get fractional gold, but you get much less bang for your buck.

Reputable online dealers:
SD Bullion
Monument Metals
Bold Precious Metals

Learn more, get excited, YouTube:
Silver Dragons
Yankee Stacking
Salivate Metals

(10-31-2023 03:22 PM)olliebaba Wrote:  If you have gold as your currency how do you even spend it. Do you go to a middleman who will give you less of what it's worth just for him to make a profit? So aren't you defeating your purpose by buying gold? If there's no middlemen can you take it to the store and redeem it for food? I know I'm a financial guru that's why I ask these questions.

My guess is one must liquidate the gold to be able to spend what the gold is worth.

(11-01-2023 07:27 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(10-31-2023 03:22 PM)olliebaba Wrote:  If you have gold as your currency how do you even spend it. Do you go to a middleman who will give you less of what it's worth just for him to make a profit? So aren't you defeating your purpose by buying gold? If there's no middlemen can you take it to the store and redeem it for food? I know I'm a financial guru that's why I ask these questions.

My guess is one must liquidate the gold to be able to spend what the gold is worth.

Your Local Coin Shop will give you “spot price” for your coins and bullion which will fluctuate daily or even hourly because the markets fluctuate. When you buy you get a “prememium price” which is the mark up.

If you have a broken gold chain, a gold tooth or some other junky gold or silver, the LCS will also buy it at “melt price” which will be a little lower than spot price.

(10-31-2023 07:45 AM)gdunn Wrote:  So I have a question for those who are serious about investing here and maybe this isn't the right place, mods if it needs to be moved, by all means..

So I have 3 different 401ks.

One has a large amount in it.. One not so much.. And one through my current company.

I thought about taking the 401k where I have a large amount and roll into my current 401k and take the one that doesn't have a lot in it, and invest in gold and/or silver.

Has anyone done this and is it worth the headache? The investing in gold and/or silver, not the roll into a current 401k.

I would not roll your big 401k into your current employers. Roll it into an IRA at a discount broker where you have most any investment choice available to you. Employee 401ks tend to offer a fairly limited number of investment choices compared to a IRA brokerage account. Right now, for instance, bond funds have been a pretty bad performer—-but in a brokerage account short term treasuries with an almost risk free 5.4% return have been a decent option for the bond portion of your portfolio in this rising rate environment. The ability to buy individual bonds or treasuries would not even be available in most 401k plans.