What is the best investment?

With Wall Street always being questioned, the European Union flailing, the DOW jumping up and down, oil prices ricocheting all over the charts, real estate markets making a feeble recovery, and gold prices creeping ever higher, the question remains...

"What is the best investment in today's economy?"

Here is my philosophical/economical answer: None of the above!

Now, let me explain why I feel none of these areas are the best place to invest.  First off, you have to understand that there are too many factors at play in our world for anyone to ever know exactly how each of these investments is going to shake out.  Just last week we thought that the European Union was going to come together and hold hands once again, which made Wall Street happy, and the stock market did a little dance.  Then those Scandinavians vetoed some measures, and the music stopped...again.

With all the chaos going on in the markets and the dollar price falling, people turn to commodities and consumables because there is inherent value in these items.  However, just because the value of gold goes up doesn't mean that it truly does.  Consider this: the value of one troy ounce of gold has approximately quadrupled in the past 30 years.  However, the value of the dollar has decreased nearly 60% in that same time.  So, is gold really worth that much more now than it was then?  In other words, can the same amount of gold today buy you four times what it did 30 years ago? No, but it can buy more "stuff" in general.  Gold is a safe haven for investors who fear the currency markets. Perhaps someday it will reign again as the true standard of wealth and value, but neither you nor I know with certainty when that will happen.

Let's take real estate as a choice for investing, given this is a Real Estate website. Is it the best investment? All you have to do is ask those people on Bigger Pockets who lost their shirt in the recent 2008 Financial Crisis to find out what they think.  On the other hand, people who understood the driving forces of the markets they were in probably did quite well.  Regardless, it has also been the largest detractor of wealth...EVER! The crisis wiped out $3.4 Trillion (with a "T") worth of wealth in just over a year.  (granted this was really phantom wealth and we just thought of it as being there when it really wasn't)

Now what is my favorite investment? Stocks? Hardly! Real Estate? Getting closer, but not entirely.  Businesses (private)? Yes and no.

Ready for Barnes' revelation?!?

My favorite investment is in the people who know as much as there is to know about these various areas.

I will invest time and money over and over again in the "experts" in each of these areas to guide me down the path.  Then, I will use that knowledge to determine for myself which route to take.  Sometimes I settle on real estate as a good cash flow opportunity.  Other times I settle on business startups (my own included) because I believe in the cause and the potential upside of the company.  Other times I do buy gold/silver coins (mostly because they're pretty), but also because we just never know what is going to happen.

Now let me know what your thoughts are?  What do you find to be the best investment and what has or hasn't worked out for you?