RHSPort

Your question is slightly confusing. I take it your employer allows your personal 401k contributions to be Roth or Traditional? My firm does this as well, but we cannot set our personal contributions to both Roth and Traditional at the same time (ie split the percentages) which I thought was pretty typical. It sounds like your employer allows this?

In any event, since my employer's contributions are Traditional by default, I set my personal allocations to Roth. In this way the end result is a 50/50 split between Roth and Traditional contributions. Furthermore, my employer doesn't match but instead does a flat contribution percentage regardless of what we do. Because of this, I can just up my Roth contributions if I ever wanted to even out the Roth/Traditional balance ratio and catch up with the Traditional half's better compounding performance.

I usually browse this board periodically and had forgotten my account, so I made a new one to chime in on this.

In the US the strongest government-minted gold coins (i.e. the most liquid, sought after, and therefore easiest to sell) are usually (in this order):

1. American Gold Buffaloes
2. American Gold Eagles
3. Canadian Maple Leaves (your "Elizabeth II's")

The age of the coin is not a consideration for what percent of spot you'll get - only the type of coin and the condition. You say yours are perfect condition.

In a decent seller's market (I'd say we are in a decent enough market right now), I would be somewhat reluctant to sell Buffaloes or Eagles under spot. Find someone willing to pay spot for your eagles if you have the time. It is not uncommon at all to get spot for Maple Leaves in perfect condition too and just depends on the buyer. Show an air of confidence/understanding and don't be afraid to walk away. Unfortunately a lot of gold dealers have a bad reputation, because seller/buyer ignorance is a key factor they exploit to make those 10-15% margins. I've heard good things about Causeway Coin in Metairie, and it's always had good reviews online.

Additionally, one of the most important parts to all of this is something others have mentioned: commercial dealers are only required to report any single-day transaction over $10k. I put emphasis on the "single-day" part. Do with that information what you will.

Lastly, my advice (as with any appreciating asset) would be to only sell if you feel strongly that you need to or if the cash is going to another appreciating or productive investment. Good Luck.