How2Day: The Best Things to Invest In

Some investments are much more stable than others. Tooga/Photodisc/Getty Images
You want your investments to be put somewhere that they will earn high returns, but still be secure. The thing that makes the investment game interesting is that these two factors work against one another. High returns correlate with high risk, while high security correlates with lower returns. The best places to invest your assets are the places that lie within the optimum window that sensibly balances high returns with low risk.

Gold has historically been a stable hedge against both inflation and economic collapse, and continues to be a stable place to park your wealth. Rachel Benepe of First Eagle Gold fund says that gold is a safe place for your money no matter what the current threat to the economy: inflation, deflation, or a sagging dollar. Since the severing of the U.S. dollar from the gold standard by the Nixon Administration in the early 1970s, the value of an ounce of gold has continued to climb, and as of 2010 stands at around $1200. How high it can go is the subject of ongoing debate in investment circles.

As of 2010, real estate markets in the United States are continuing to suffer from the collapse that began in 2008. Foreclosures are running rampant, and prices are sagging badly in many parts of the country. What this means for the future of real estate depends on who you talk to. If it's a permanent collapse, keep your money in gold. If it's a major sag that will be followed by a recovery, 2010 may prove to be an optimum time to invest in real estate, which can be acquired quite cheaply in some areas. The fact is that, unlike some investments, real estate is, as its name implies, real. People will always need a place to live, and thus houses will always retain some level of use value, if not the inflated value that they sometimes assume.

There is a growing conversation in the public sphere about the future of fossil fuels. The most important fact about this conversation is that nobody is denying they will be depleted; it's just an argument about when. Renewable energy investments are already doing quite well. When oil becomes less dependable, there will be an explosion of interest in wind, solar and other alternative energy systems, and those who have gotten into the game early stand to do quite well. The tricky part is that, in this explosion, competition will increase, and not all companies or purveyors of these technologies will survive. Doing sufficient research to identify which companies will last and prosper could prove to be time well spent.

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