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A few years (months) back I had a gold IRA formed. I think this was a mistake.

What is the “plot” behind the IRA gold deal? I knew little about it at the time.

I still have the IRA. It contains American Eagle Gold proof coins. I suppose this may work over the long haul. I think I should do something different with this IRA. Any advice?

The issues for me are the cost involved with setting up and maintaing a custodial account and then having to pay storage fees because you aren't allowed to physically hold the gold yourself. I'd cancel out of it if you can. You could hold gold in the form of the GLD ETF in a regular IRA brokerage account, however, I personally have a great deal of concern with the GLD product that I won't go into and you probably already know about. My choice has been to hold physical gold not in an IRA, but just as a "regular" investment and then invest in the gold miners in my IRA. I don't like the risk involved with owning any single miner, so I use the GDX ETF of many gold miners.

Also, if you do choose to continue to use your current form of holding gold in your IRA, I wouldn't buy any more proofs, just buy bullion. Proofs have an unnecessary mark up associated with them. The markup could stay in tact, grow, or go down depending on the market for your proof coin (seperate from the market for gold itself).

I'm considering moving my 401k into a self-directed IRA. I'd like a wider range of investments that the former-employer 401k allows. Also would like to minimize counterparty risk.

Can anyone advise on self-directed IRA custodians and companies to do the IRA formation? I'll probably hold mostly mining stock in the IRA, but would like maximum flexibility

You can go to any major online brokerage company, like Schwab, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade, eTrade, etc. and open an IRA account for free. They'll provide you the paperwork you'll need to perform the rollover from your 401k and walk you through the process. It's really pretty straightforward and the brokerage companies will help you all the way through. Any of those four are reputable. You can then purchase any stock or ETF you want. You will pay commissions on the trade (usually around $10 per trade, but maybe even less). You can also purchase mutual funds through these brokerage accounts too, but not physical precious metals.

I just rolled over an old 401k to Fidelity. $7 trades and free ETF trades inside of IRA's. They limit you to several a week and they are limited but hey they are free.

If you want reasonable assurance that your PM actually exists, consider CEF for a gold/silver combo, PHYS for gold-only, or PSLV for silver-only.

CEF and some of those others often have higher premiums over NAV than coins. but if you want to keep your money inside the IRA those are good ways to go. CEF's premium recently was pretty low so its a good buy right now.

the risk imho of having a regular ira is the govt someday will require you to buy us treasury bonds. the additioanl risk of a roth is they'll change the rules and subject it to double taxation.

of course, inside an IRA you can buy and sell and not trigger taxes so there is some benefit to an IRA.

if you are going to bust an IRA, do it soon becuase rates are likely to go up.