Thinking about minimums for my Gold IRA – worth it for smaller investments?

• •The family’s always been pretty traditional with investments, lots of timber land, naturally hard assets are something we understand.
• •My question is, are these Gold IRAs even worth it for someone with a smaller portfolio, say if my kid cousin wanted to start one with like $10-20k?
• •I know some places have minimums as high as $50k, but I’ve also seen some advertising lower.

Okay, so I've mostly been in the game a few years now with my Gold IRA, rolling over a good chunk from my grandfather's old accounts a while back – we're talking a solid low to mid six-figures in there right now. The family’s always been pretty traditional with investments, lots of timber land, naturally hard assets are something we understand. My question is, are these Gold IRAs even worth it for someone with a smaller portfolio, say if my kid cousin wanted to start one with like $10-20k? I remember the minimums being a sticking point when I first looked into it, and honestly, the fees then just seemed to eat up too much of anything under $100k to make it feel worthwhile.

I know some places have minimums as high as $50k, but I’ve also seen some advertising lower. Are these lower minimums genuinely viable now, or are you still just paying through the nose on storage and admin fees proportionally if you don't have a hefty sum in there? My advisor out here in Spokane gave me some pretty conservative estimates for asset growth versus fees for lower amounts, and it made me pause. I’m thinking long-term here, not trying to get rich quick, obviously. It’s more about preserving wealth through generations, something my family has drilled into me since I was a pup.

Another thought that pops up too is the RMDs eventually. This stuff is ultimately going to be passed down, and I've been poking around with this RMD Calculator I found online to get a better handle on what those distributions look like for various balances in the future. It's a neat tool, but it also highlights how important that initial investment base is for compounding. So, for a smaller starting amount, are we just setting ourselves up for disappointment with these types of accounts, or have providers really adjusted to make it more accessible and cost-effective?

What are your real-world experiences with Gold IRA minimums? Have you seen good returns on smaller initial investments, or do you feel like you really need to hit a certain threshold to make the fees negligible? I want to give my younger family members solid advice, not just tell them what always worked for the old guard.