So, you’re ready to save for retirement and you’re looking at all of your options.
You’ve probably already considered things like gold and other precious metals and even the U.S. dollar, the stock market, mutual funds, bonds and a whole lot more, right? But now you’re considering Bitcoin retirement account options.
You want to know if cryptocurrencies (digital currency) is going to be a good option, a hidden fountain of wealth for your retirement funds or just another black hole that all of your money seems to sink into, yes? Well, then you’ve come to the right place to find out.
Retirement with Bitcoin
Bitcoin IRA
The first method you can use to include Bitcoin in your long-term investment retirement options is to start a Bitcoin IRA. These are still relatively new, but they’re definitely starting to take off in popularity and they’re starting to prove more and more profitable for a lot of people.
These systems can work in the same ways that a regular individual retirement account (IRA) would, including Roth IRA, traditional IRA or 401(k) IRA. That means you’re going to have a whole lot of options and you’ll definitely be able to accomplish some great things with them, just like with the regular individual retirement account you already had before.
With these IRA options, you actually have all the same rules and benefits. What you’re getting as a bonus is a slightly more secure system. That isn’t to say that your money is guaranteed or anything like that.
What you’re getting is a system that stores your money in an offline way, which means that it’s less susceptible to hacking or theft than a lot of other types of accounts. You’re also getting a system that’s secured with passwords and other security features to keep you in control of your money but keep other people out of it.
Bitcoin Mutual Funds
Your second option is to invest in a mutual fund that uses Bitcoin as one of its investments.
If you’re investing in a mutual fund you may not have as much say over what type of investments it does or doesn’t invest in, but you’re definitely going to notice some great benefits with this long-term investment because it’s going to do all of the work for you.
There’s no need for you to worry about buying and selling any virtual currency at the right times because the mutual fund will do all of that hard work for you. You just sit back and relax. You may not even know if you’re actually investing in Bitcoin though.
With these types of funds, all you can do is look for a fund that will invest in Bitcoin (not all of them will) but maybe not one that’s investing there right now.
You never know where money is going to be allocated with this type of fund, after all, and you may end up with different investments from one month to the next or one year to the next. It all depends on what those operating the virtual currency believe are the best options.
Fees for Investment
If you’re going to invest in anything you already know that there are fees involved. If you have a mutual fund or a broker already you know that you pay them for the transactions that they make on your behalf.
You pay each person that’s involved in helping you with your account and your investments and that means that every time you make a profit you’re getting a little bit less than you would if you went about everything on your own. It can be a little frustrating, right? You just want to keep the profits for yourself, after all.
Well, with some options for Bitcoin you can actually start cutting out some of those people in the middle.
You’ll be able to create a self-directed platform that uses something called ‘checkbook control.’ That means the account is set up by a company, but once it’s been created you have complete control over everything that’s done.
There’s no one in the middle that takes orders from you and then does the work and then charges you for it. You write out the checks when you want to do something and then it gets done, giving you more of the profit.
The Risk Involved
You’re going to be investing in an entirely new currency when it comes down to it, which means you’re going to have some risk involved. You’re betting on something that’s entirely new and has had a lot of volatility when it’s come about in the past (new currency, not cryptocurrency).
Remember, this is your retirement that you’re investing, so you want to make sure that you have some balance to the accounts and that you’re weighing out everything you know. There will be a risk, and just how much risk is something that no one really knows, so make sure it’s a calculated one on your part.
Is it Right For You?
Should you be investing in Bitcoin? It’s really difficult to tell.
If you’ve been investing in markets that have moderate to high levels of risk then you would probably feel comfortable investing in Bitcoin as well. If you prefer to have a very minimal risk then you may want to look into it a bit more before you jump on the bandwagon.
There’s definitely going to be some risk involved when you’re jumping into something as new as this, especially when it’s an entirely new currency and not just a new company.
There’s no telling what could happen with the digital currency and the cryptocurrency market in the next few months just as we saw there was some volatility going on over the last few months. The currency itself has a whole lot going on and though experts say that this is normal, there’s really no telling what will happen next.
Investing in anything is going to have some risk involved and if you’re not careful you could end up taking on far too much risk for yourself. You want to make sure that you’re looking at the pros and cons and how they really relate to you, after all.