Pretty happy with my gold IRA after 5 years (and some thoughts on silver)

• •Just hit my 5-year anniversary with my Gold IRA, and honestly, feeling pretty good about it.
• •I got in back in early 2019, right before things really started to get interesting globally.
• •Parked about $350k of my retirement savings in physical gold, mostly American Gold Eagles and some Canadian Maples.

Just hit my 5-year anniversary with my Gold IRA, and honestly, feeling pretty good about it. I got in back in early 2019, right before things really started to get interesting globally. Parked about $350k of my retirement savings in physical gold, mostly American Gold Eagles and some Canadian Maples. Figured it was a good hedge given all the uncertainty, and honestly, the stability just sounded good to a guy who’s spent 30 years dealing with milk prices fluctuating like a yo-yo. You learn to appreciate steady ground.

My initial motivation was purely diversification and inflation protection. Being in the dairy industry my whole life, I’ve seen enough economic cycles to know that betting it all on one horse, even a good one, is just asking for trouble. So, after doing some research and talking to a few advisors (and let's be real, reading a ton of forums just like this one), I decided to pull the trigger. The process itself was smoother than I expected, rolled over a chunk from an old 401k without too much fuss. Custodian handles the storage down in Delaware, which gives me peace of mind.

Returns-wise, it's been solid. I haven't done a precise CAGR calculation, but a quick glance at my statements shows that $350k is now comfortably over $520k now. That's a roughly 48% jump in five years, which isn't going to make me a billionaire overnight, but it's kept pace with or even outpaced some of my other investments during a really volatile period. More importantly, it feels like actual wealth, not just numbers on a screen that could vanish with the next market hiccup. I'm sitting here in Madison, looking at a pretty healthy account, and just feel a lot more secure about my eventual retirement.

Now, about silver. I dipped my toes in a little bit with some silver coins in a separate, non-IRA account a few years earlier, mostly eagles and some junk silver. Those have done okay, but nothing like the gold. I've often wondered if I should have allocated a small percentage of my Gold IRA to silver too, for the industrial demand angle. Or is it just too volatile for a "set it and forget it" retirement asset? For those of you with both, how do you balance the two in your IRA? Any regrets going heavier in one direction over the other?