I recommend for you TIPS they are Treasury Inflation Protected Securities and backed by the US Government. They are also a favorite recommendation by Bill Gross, head of PIMCO (the world’s largest bond fund company).

They pay a slightly smaller yield then a regular treasury bill, but the principal repayment is indexed to the inflation rate.

YOU ARE GUARANTEED a REAL RETURN on these T-Bills!

There is not a safer investment in this market environment.

I think Berkshire Hathaway is probably a great investment. He is well hedged against the dollar, has a ton of cash-flow generating assets that will hold their value no matter what the market does.

Go 50% TIPS, 25% Berkshire, and 25% a global world index fund and you should be good to go.

For myself, I like to speculate in numerous markets. I use exotic non-directonal option strategies for income, a market neutral us portfolio for core holdings, and I play with distressed debts and microcaps with about 25% of my portfolio. I also do some angel investing and private equity, but have not had any big winners yet…

I do plan to actively speculate on the housing futures market if it garners enough liquidity to trade. Its supposed to launch next quarter. I also think stocks like LEND will go OUT of business if their is a major housing crash.