Whether gold is going up or down is a toss-up at this point and as the high visibility hard asset, prone to a lot of manipulation and potential confiscation at some point by the government. The underlying premise of investing in hard assets is sound and likely to remain a raging bull market for some time to come. Look at lesser metals like nickel, collectibles like stamps, coins, and high end comics, books and art. While not normally an investment avenue, they are a good hedge currently against any wild inflation that may be on the horizon. Buy top quality and vintage collectibles though, not this modern, made for the collectibles market crap.