Is there such a thing as an IRA where you buy gold/silver and hold it yourself? I know there are ones where others hold it for you, which doesn't sound real wise.

I like the idea but the companies I have looked at left me concerned about what happens to my PMs if SHTF.
It would be nice to go to a vault and withdraw it from my account if i needed to and have the stuff in my possession as opposed to paper that would vaporise.

There are areas of the IRA law where you can open a self managed fund.  And that fund be made up of physical metals.

Then as part of that fund can be set up to pay administrative costs out of the fund to the pay the admistrator ( I.e. "You" ).

But by the time you pay the premiums to get the metals to fund the account, set up the account and pay the admin fees;  you are physically losing money.

People only do this if they want to have physical control of their money and not worried about the year over year return.

yes but its not worth it because the fees and

PMs are stupid for "investment" which is what a IRA is.

If your getting a IRA, you are counting on growth for certain time, then using that money. You're not using it to prepare for SHTF, you are preparing for a known event on a known timeline and a known amount.

PMs are held for the unknown and only really "gain value" when there is uncertainty.

Trying to use both for one function is dumb.

Get a IRA invest wisely for your timeline.

Get PMs if your worried about wealth after a unknown/untimed event.

The dispersion will depend on your confidence of the future

Yes, supposedly this can be done and there's at least one firm out there that'll help you go that route. I view PM's as insurance rather than an investment. Having said that, I have no problem in having physical metal in my own possession as part of an insurance component of my IRA.

As for myself, I have not gone the route (yet) of taking physical possession of "my" own IRA assets in the form of PM's.  I have considered taking, say, $5K-$10K of my IRA assets and going this route as an experiment. Alternatively, since I am almost 60 YO I could just nab my some of my IRA funds, pay the tax, and buy PM's...which I have also considered.