The most common mistake is doing a rollover incorrectly. If you take a distribution from your 401(k) and receive a check made out to you personally, you have 60 days to deposit it into the new IRA or the entire amount becomes taxable — and if you’re under 59½, a 10% penalty on top of that. A direct (trustee-to-trustee) rollover avoids this risk entirely by moving the funds custodian-to-custodian without you ever touching the money.

Second mistake: not comparing fee structures before choosing a custodian. Gold IRAs typically carry an account setup fee, an annual custodian fee, and a storage fee charged by the depository — these can be flat annual fees or a percentage of assets, and the difference matters a lot on a six-figure account over 20 years.

Third: buying metal that doesn’t meet IRS purity requirements — collectible or numismatic coins don’t qualify no matter how they’re marketed.

Fourth: underestimating how illiquid physical metal is compared to a brokerage account. Selling gold back typically takes longer and may involve a spread between buy and sell price, unlike a stock trade that settles same day.

Fifth: treating a Gold IRA as a full replacement for a diversified portfolio rather than one piece of it. None of these mistakes are complicated to avoid once you know to look for them — which is really the point of asking these questions before rolling over funds, not after.