Precious Metal Investing For the Beginner

If you’re an avid cable television watcher, you may already be familiar with the extensive lineup of programming designed to help you navigate the tricky world of financial investments.

Although there are shows running nearly around the clock, virtually all of them are geared towards people who are interested in making investments in the stock market. For the interested potential investor who wants to learn more about precious metals, there is very little information available.

If you’ve found your way to this article, chances are that you’re one of the aforementioned interested investors. In this article, we’re going to discuss some things you will want to know before you begin on your investment journey.

What Qualifies as a Precious Metal?

Before you can get started investing, it’s important to know what, exactly, it is that you’re looking into. These are metals that are deemed rare or otherwise hard to find. These metals are often used in jewelry because of their fine appearance and because they represent something valuable, which is the perfect message to send when you’re giving a gift. 

Gold is the number one metal categorized as precious. It has a long history with wealth and has even helped to shape the face of our country. In the 1800s, many an adventurous soul decided to pack up their belongings and head west, to the land added to our borders in the Louisiana Purchase. 

This was a historic moment for American society. It was the single largest acquisition of land for the United States to this date. The president knew that he had managed to get a very rich return on his investment, but he was not sure exactly how profitable it was going to be.

He sent out a research party to help survey the land and determine just how much of it there was and what natural resources were to be had. Although Lewis and Clark were able to travel across the land and create a map to help guide future generations, they were not able to explore every aspect of the new land.

It would have been impossible. There were millions of acres of land all waiting to be turned into valuable assets by American farmers and prospectors. Once the border was extended, it wasn’t long before the government was offering low-cost land to entice people to help settle and develop the land.

Soon, gold was discovered. The discovery of this precious metal caused a mass migration of people looking to get rich quick by discovering gold buried deep in the rocky terrain. Many were successful in their claims, but many more were disappointed and left broke and despondent. Click the link:  for more information about this moment in American history.

Where to Start

Of course, today we have access to a wealth of information the early pioneers could only dream about. Now we can query the internet about anything we want to find. But sometimes that wealth of information can be as much of a drawback as a benefit. That is because there is so much information that it can be impossible to sort all the way through it. 

How can you determine what is important and what is not? Only dedicated research can do that for you. But here are a few pointers to help you along your way.

There are a few ways to begin your investment journey. You can choose to work with a financial advisor to help you find precious metals and broker the transaction. This person can be found by contacting an investment firm. All of these brokers are involved in one way or another with an investment firm and you should only work with someone who has the backing of an entire company behind them.

You can choose to invest any liquid capital you have, or you could choose to rollover any existing retirement account that you may have. A 401k is a common type of retirement account that can be easily transferred into a gold IRA if you so choose. You can either withdraw the funds yourself or allow your advisor to do it for you.

What Can You Expect?

It is difficult to predict where the market will turn, even for qualified professionals. Beware of anyone that promises you guaranteed returns, because they are almost certainly trying to fleece you. Instead, you’ll want to find a company to help you that as good reviews from their clients.

Many sites promote these positive reviews, and they can be a great place to start your research into an individual company. There are other sources that you can choose to look for. Google is often a place for people to leave reviews that cannot be edited by the company in question.

That does not mean that they are not susceptible to corporate influence. It is possible to pay to have negative reviews removed. Remember the old adage that you can please all of the people some of the time of some of the people all of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Keep that in mind as you read reviews. 

If there are absolutely no negative reviews anywhere to be found, that should send up a red flag for you. It doesn’t mean that the business is necessarily not trustworthy, but it should be something you keep in mind as you continue your research.

Once you select a company, you can contact them in a few different ways.  You can choose to conduct your business online or over the phone. Many people have a definite preference as to what way they like to communicate and that is just fine.

Once you make a connection, you’ll be introduced to your financial advisor. This is the person who will facilitate deals on your behalf. They will be responsible for finding you the best possible return on your investment as well as making sure the physical investment itself is shipped and stored safely.