Here is a small piece of tax trivia that turns out to be worth a lot of money.
If you buy a gold ETF in a regular brokerage account and hold it for a decade, your profit is taxed as a collectible. Not at the friendly long-term capital gains rate that stocks get. At a higher maximum rate reserved for art, antiques, and metal.
Most people have no idea. They buy gold expecting the same 15 percent treatment their index funds get, and find out later that the IRS files gold under a different heading.
Now buy that same ETF inside a Roth IRA.
Tax on the gain: zero. Not a lower rate. None.
So the answer to the question is yes, and it is better than yes. A Roth IRA is arguably the single best place in the entire American tax system to hold gold.
Let's walk through why, and the three things to check before you buy.