Placing your money under the bed won't help you now!

Placing your money under the bed won't help you now, you should have done it before when this lady did as then the banks would have had less to lend recklessly . I have been asked by friends and my brother if they should put the funds they have in the bank into gold. Well i think gold will go up in value to $1200 US dollars an ounce by January 22nd simple because of supply and demand for a safe place to park funds. With President Obama installed on this date it should stabilize the money supply as this alone will bring confidence. Gold may well fall before then as the betting on the race firms in his favor. Now putting your money into gold will help you with a 25% increase in value but it will take money out of the cash flow of the world economy which we need the most just now. During the last financial crisis of this magnitude gold jewelery was sold to get income and because it was transportable between regions and a recognized stable currency. This is because in our distant past money or coins were actually minted with gold and it is in our genetic memory. Now as gold has no extensive use in the production of necessities accept computers and even that you can't eat. Then if the crisis gets worst gold may have the same value as manure although manure has its practical uses in fertilizers and methane production as used in China for their lighting and cooking in over a million homes.
I would not recommend you invest in gold as it only takes dollars out of the system, instead i would recommend you spend on things that will reduce your long term energy costs . I bought a solar hot water system a little over a month ago which was $4376 less government subsidies of $2426 so costing me a total of $1950. After receiving my first energy bill it has saved me 30% off or $60.65 for the month. This is $727 per year or 37% return on my money per year.Then with many solar hot water systems lasting more than 30 years especially with energy costs expected to increase by 70% within a couple of years according to state politicians . Electricity is already subsidized by state governments and that won't last forever. You will notice on the stock markets that the utility index's are holding their own. So this should dollar for dollar be a better investment than gold. This investment provided work for a plumber and his apprentice for half a day as well as an electrician and his apprentice for 2 hours. Now that is what will keep the world going round. Then don't stop there the government is offering huge rebates if you add solar power to your house. You can also buy very economical diesel cars now and build your own bio fuel plant converting local vegetable oil waste to run your car. This information freely available on the net. For 10,000 dollars or so you can convert most cars to run on batteries with a 100 kilometer range so with the right investment you can be self reliant and alleviate future energy costs.
There are a couple of other things to remember in this type of investment when compared to other investments is firstly you are guaranteed returns as you are the consumer. It's not like you will change brands or switch from a company you might have invested in. Secondly for ever dollar you reduce your expenditure by is more than if you had earned that dollar from an investment. That is you don't have to pay tax on it like other investment earnings and the money you would have had to earned to pay your electricity or gas bills would have had to have tax paid on it. What is more there is a cost to actually going out to make those dollars to pay the bills.