First time buyer advice, especially with capital gains – anyone?

• •Okay, so I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and finally pulled the trigger on a gold IRA a few months back.
• •I'm a nurse here in Seattle, and with all the uncertainty lately, I just wanted some extra security for retirement beyond my 401k.
• •Ended up putting about $60k into it – felt like a decent chunk without over-extending myself.

Okay, so I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and finally pulled the trigger on a gold IRA a few months back. I'm a nurse here in Seattle, and with all the uncertainty lately, I just wanted some extra security for retirement beyond my 401k. Ended up putting about $60k into it – felt like a decent chunk without over-extending myself. The process itself was fairly straightforward, not nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be, but now my brain is going to all the future "what ifs."

My biggest concern right now is thinking ahead to when I might actually need to take distributions. I'm still a good 15+ years out from retirement, but I'm trying to get a handle on the tax implications, especially capital gains. I went with a traditional Gold IRA, so I know I'll be paying income tax on distributions down the line, but what about the actual gold's appreciation? If the value of the gold itself shoots up significantly, how does that factor into the overall tax picture when I start taking money out? Is it just treated as regular income, or is there a separate capital gains tax component layered on top?

I stumbled across this Tax Calculator tool the other day and have been playing around with it, trying to get a rough idea. It seems pretty comprehensive for figuring out the standard income tax part, but I'm just wondering if anyone has personal experience with significant appreciation in their Gold IRA and how that was handled tax-wise. Did you get hit with extra capital gains, or is it all just rolled into the "ordinary income" bucket?

Any insights or personal anecdotes would be super helpful. Just trying to be as prepared as possible and not get blindsided down the road. Is there anything else I need to be aware of when it comes to the tax side of things for a traditional Gold IRA?