Most retirement savings is still in paper markets (stock, bonds, etc)
But with a view to not incurring a tax bill, I cashed out as much as I could within those limits and took the cash directly to a dealer paying 3% over spot for silver and divied up the conversion between bars, Maples and junk. Will rinse and repeat next tax cycle. Assuming we are around for one. I now have @ 10k in metals that will weather hyper-inflation AND be in recognizable forms for barter. Not anything like a "life's saving", but a solid component on having "x amount" of "cash" on hand for emergencies and bill paying. IF I decide to exit the paper markets (now being thought long and hard on), then the specter of gold bars and coins looms... _AND_ it will be at home, in a safe, subject to theft if I can't defend it. But in hand. And real. Not dependent on anyone from the government come to "help me".
For those who follow and look at "cycles", we may well be in the final stages of a stock "melt up" which, like in similar looking circumstances cycles, culminates in a severe stock crash. Bear market. "pullback".
