My 5-Year Gold IRA - What I've Learned (and Earned)

• •Hard to believe it's been five years since I first opened my Gold IRA.
• •Seems like yesterday I was agonizing over custodian choices and trying to make sense of storage fees.
• •My portfolio is north of $3M now, and a pretty significant chunk of that is in precious metals, split between a home safe and the IRA.

Hard to believe it's been five years since I first opened my Gold IRA. Seems like yesterday I was agonizing over custodian choices and trying to make sense of storage fees. For those who track my prior posts, you know I'm a big believer in physical metals, especially given the current economic climate – and quite frankly, how things have been looking for the last decade or so. My portfolio is north of $3M now, and a pretty significant chunk of that is in precious metals, split between a home safe and the IRA.

I started with a transfer from an old 401k that was just sitting there, not really doing much for me. Ended up rolling over about $400k into the Gold IRA, mostly American Gold Eagles and some Canadian Maples. My primary goal wasn't to get rich quick, but rather to preserve capital and hedge against inflation. Having spent my career as a CEO, I’ve seen enough market volatility to know not to put all my eggs in one basket, especially when governments are printing money like it's going out of style. The peace of mind alone has been worth it, honestly, especially living here in Palm Beach where everyone's constantly talking about the next big market move.

So, the numbers game. Without giving exact figures, let's just say a five-year look back has been more than satisfactory. While my tech stocks have been on a wild ride (some up 100%, some down 50%), the gold has been a steady climber. It hasn't had those explosive surges, but it also hasn't had any gut-wrenching dips that keep you up at night. I think I'm up fairly handsomely on capital appreciation, but the real win for me has been the stability it's brought to the overall portfolio. It’s like the ballast in a yacht – keeps things steady when the waves get rough. Would I have made more in NVIDIA? Probably, for a while, but then you risk losing it all on a bad earnings report.

Are any of you other long-term Gold IRA holders seeing similar results? What are your thoughts on allocating even more given the current geopolitical landscape and the upcoming election cycle? I'm debating adding another $100k or so, just to really solidify that protective floor.