Shift From 401k To Physical Silver?

I would not. Physical metal does not pay dividends. your 401K may recover

The advice I'll give (and I work in finance) is:

Never ask for financial advice on a web forum, Especially one not dedicated to financial advice.

100% this. You need to find someone with a fiduciary duty to you.

@TheForce.... Not to be a downer, but the reality is.... the economic pain is still not over. The Federal Reserve still has 2 more interest rate increases to implement prior to years end, the anticipation of lower/missed earnings for publicly traded entities, analysts not yet being in complete agreement whether or not we're currently in a recession (btw, we are), production cuts in oil, Russia/Ukraine conflict, +7% on the 30 year fixed, inflation, the probability of a "Hard Landing", etc.

Precious metals are supposed to be a hedge against inflation.... but silver & gold have done nothing but tank w/ the, Nasdaq, S&P & Dow. My question: Why would you want to substitute a losing trade/investment, for another losing trade/investment? My personal opinion.... just stay the course. 100% of the time, the market recovers its losses. It may take quite awhile this time around to rebound but its nearly a guarantee the market will recover. Well, unless Putin starts dropping nukes & we enter a period of uncharted history, but.... that probably wont happen, hopefully.

Some misinformation here.

1. Premiums are not completely lost in the sale of physical silver. It's like stocks, depends when you buy, when you sell. I bought ten 10 oz silver bars in 2016 at $170 each. JM Bullion buy back price today is $188 for these. Not a good return, but I would not loose money. I don't buy silver/gold to try to make money flipping in quick sales, I am in it for the long haul.

2. Silver/gold have not crashed like the stock market. Silver has tanked but gold has done better than stocks, down about 9% currently. For thousands of years humans have valued gold as a store of wealth, used as real money rather than fiat currency. In some years precious metals have outperformed the stock market.

Some financial advisors suggest having about 5%-8% of your assets in precious metals.

There are YouTube channels encouraging people to buy gold/silver because current problems, national and world debt, inflation, Ukraine war, banks using trillions of dollars in risky derivatives that could fail like the crash of 2008, the Fed printing trillions of dollars of paper money. Recently the Bank of England had to bail out their pension funds. During the Great Depression banks closed. Don't know if it will happen again but I think it's wise to have some cash at home just in case. IMO it's unlikely in USA but there could be a collapse of society. Having silver/gold to barter/trade, stored food, ammo, etc. would help you get through.

On the other hand every bear market in history has eventually recovered, but sometimes it's taken years.

I have a stack of gold/silver bullion. It's part of my overall net worth and I enjoy holding it more than looking at my 401k statements. If a person can afford it, fund your retirement plan and also stack some silver/gold.

Yes we've been in a long bull market which won't last forever. Physical silver/gold to me are not good investments. They are wealth protection in case of bad times. If stocks go down over 50% and don't recover for years, gold/silver will have some value. They are also a hobby for me. Some spend lots on golfing, hunting, fishing, casinos, season tickets for their favorite team etc. I buy silver/gold.

A couple of points to reiterate from above.

If your 401k has matching, you MUST do this. This is FREE money. Up to you to decide how to invest it.

Skipping 401k contributions and buying PMs? You get no tax deduction! PMs have huge transaction costs. Stock market transactions are essentially free.

Default position is you are 100% invested in the stock market all the time. Yes, -24% is painful, could get worse but that is the only way to be there when it takes off again. Timing the market can't be done. Doesn't work. Never seen it work.

IF -24%, -34%, -44% etc. is too much to bear then just dial back your stock market exposure to say 70% stock/ 30% cash. A -24% drop in your stocks results in only a -17% drop in your portfolio. But again, when the market takes off, you'll lag behind. A typical advisor would say put that 30% in bonds. Guess what the YTD return is for the Vanguard long term bond fund? MINUS 31%, so you can lose a lot in bonds too.

For the vast majority of investors they are best served with some combo of an index fund and cash (even though interest is basically zero).

Matching kept me in the black (compared to what I put in alone) during those times when the market was tanking. Long to the short, after 25 years I am way ahead where I would be had I bought PMs instead.