Well to put it very simply precious metals are always a good store of value. they are never good investments. now i will explain.

gold and silvers value doesnt really ever change. A few decades ago you could buy a gallon of gas for one silver dime. Today you can still buy a gallon of gas for one silver dime. The only thing that has value that changes is fiat currency. Another example gold used to have its value controlled in respect to the dollar. 1 ounce of gold was worth 20 dollars. at that time you could buy a brand new car for about 300 bucks or 15 ounces of gold. Today an ounce of gold is worth exactly the same. 15 ounces of gold at the current fiat exchange rate will still get you one brand new car.

So if you were to buy a bunch of physical gold you would have the value of it stored. regardless of what the exchange rate does your value would remain the same. if fiat currencies decline further then you would think to yourself well now my gold is 5k an ounce and what a wonderful investment it was. The truth would be that your 5k would have the same buying power as your 1700 does right now. The same would hold true if fiat currencies gained value so your 1 ounce of gold is only worth 500 an ounce. That 500 dollars would have the same buying power as your 1700 does now.