Gold and silver are not investments, they're speculations -- you buy them hoping someone else will buy them from you for more than you bought them for. An investment should pay you for owning. So yes, a mutual fund would be a better investment by virtue of it being an investment. The preferred version of a mutual fund would be an index fund that passively tracks a large market such as the total US stock market (the S&P 500 would be nearly as good) or the total international stock market.