Fidelitrade for gold

Discussion of the Gold portion of the Permanent Portfolio

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jallenaz
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Fidelitrade for gold

Post by jallenaz »

Has anyone had experience buying gold through FideliTrade?  Most of our money is in Fidelity IRAs.  We already have some physical gold, but not enough, and not enough cash outside of IRAs to balance the PP gold allocation.  Otherwise I would probably go with an ETF.  I know that owning gold outside of an IRA is the best way from reading some FAQs here. 
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AdamA
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Re: Fidelitrade for gold

Post by AdamA »

Can't you just open a brokerage account within your IRA and buy an ETF?
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jallenaz
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Re: Fidelitrade for gold

Post by jallenaz »

AdamA wrote: Can't you just open a brokerage account within your IRA and buy an ETF?
I have a brokerage account and have bought ETF's for gold before.  But I was wondering if anyone has used the FideliTrade.  It is physical bullion and can even be delivered to you if you asked.  I would like to hear some pros and cons.  It's always better to buy physical gold and have it yourself.  But we can't do that in an IRA.  And storing it at home runs the risk of theft.  I'm not sure if it's worth it where I don't really have it in hand.
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foglifter
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Re: Fidelitrade for gold

Post by foglifter »

jallenaz wrote:
It's always better to buy physical gold and have it yourself.  But we can't do that in an IRA.
Yes, we can keep gold in an IRA. The question is why would you want to do that?... you'd still have a number of middlemen between you and your gold. Gold doesn't throw dividends or capital gains. Gold ETF is much simpler, especially from the re-balancing standpoint. Even better way is to keep gold in a taxable account (e.g. through closed end fund GTU or PHYS) and use the IRA space for high-yielding assets, like bonds. But it's highly recommended that you have at least some gold in physical possession.

BTW, if you haven't done so yet, I highly recommend reading the Gold FAQ in its entirety.
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sophie
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Re: Fidelitrade for gold

Post by sophie »

I looked into this.  You can indeed hold physical gold in a Fidelity IRA.  Nice option to have but it's not so clearly better than a gold ETF.

The fees charged at purchase and sale total about 4%.  The coins are held in non-allocated storage in Nova Scotia, for which you are charged 0.125% per quarter, i.e. 0.5% per year.  So it removes a layer of counterparty risk, for which you pay a premium.

I know this has come up before, but...with this kind of gold custodian arrangement, you know you will always have X oz of gold, as long as you can keep paying the fees.  And the deal is better yet if you can use a taxable account to pay the fees.  With an ETF, how can your shares simultaneously track the price of gold and pay the fund expenses?  It would seem that over time, the value of your shares must decrease relative to the price of gold.

Anybody have an opinion about this tradeoff?
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foglifter
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Re: Fidelitrade for gold

Post by foglifter »

sophie wrote:
The fees charged at purchase and sale total about 4%.  The coins are held in non-allocated storage in Nova Scotia, for which you are charged 0.125% per quarter, i.e. 0.5% per year.  So it removes a layer of counterparty risk, for which you pay a premium.

I know this has come up before, but...with this kind of gold custodian arrangement, you know you will always have X oz of gold, as long as you can keep paying the fees.  And the deal is better yet if you can use a taxable account to pay the fees.  With an ETF, how can your shares simultaneously track the price of gold and pay the fund expenses?  It would seem that over time, the value of your shares must decrease relative to the price of gold.

Anybody have an opinion about this tradeoff?
Are you talking about Fidelitrade or Fidelity IRA?
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sophie
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Re: Fidelitrade for gold

Post by sophie »

Fidelity IRA.  Oops, sorry.
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jallenaz
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Re: Fidelitrade for gold

Post by jallenaz »

I was listening to HB's radio show archives and he said having gold in a custodial account in an IRA would be okay if it had to be in an IRA.  The Fidelity account doesn't have your name on specific gold coins.  I think that is what determines a custodial account.  Not just that they owe you so much gold.  Any ideas on this as to whether it's a good idea or not? 

I'm thinking not because if I have them deliver the gold to me there is probably a better paper trail to me.  In 6 months when I'm 59 1/2 I maybe should move money out of the IRAs to buy physical gold.  Or get an account over seas somewhere instead.  Any thoughts on this?
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