Perhaps the best investment in your family and your future is a supply of food and necessities to last three months. This is like an "emergency fund" of sorts. Your family will be more independent and secure, as well as healthier and less stressed in the event of an emergency. But food storage is not only good common sense, it's a smart economic move as well.

Stocking up on necessities will help you to mitigate inflation. This is an investment, as the rate of inflation is actually your rate of gain. During inflationary times, the price of goods goes up. Stocking up on things that you know you'll need is a good strategy because otherwise, you'll have to buy them later at a higher price. Therefore, spending now will save you money later.

If the inflation rate is 8%, you'll earn the same return as if you invested in a mutual fund that gave you an 8% gain. With your supplies, you'll also have very little risk of loss. Store your supplies properly and include them on the list of valuable items in your house for insurance purposes and your risk is nil.

Cash

Having a stash of cash is could be important during a disaster or other emergency. If the power is out, ATM machines can't give you your money. The way to get around this is to make store cash as a part of your emergency supply. Stock up on small bills ($1, $5, $10, $20) so you can make your own change. For maximum safety from the unexpected, try to build up your emergency cash reserves to $500, but any amount you can put away right now is a good start.

But this is about using your emergency supply as an investment, which brings us to:

Precious Metals

Precious metals are in. During times of economic uncertainty, precious metals tend to do well. This is because they are real money. Paper money is based on the promise that it will be paid back. Precious metals value are based on the value of the metals themselves.

The best precious metals for emergency storage are circulated silver coins because they are very spendable in an emergency. This is referred to as "junk silver" at your coin shop, but only because the coins have no numismatic value. These are 90% silver coins from 1964 and earlier. The price is based on the price of silver when you buy. The amount you'll buy is based on the face value of the coins. You can get bags of up to $100 face value at your local coin shop or online.

Investing in Gold

Since the beginning of the bull market in gold, many ways have been created for the regular person to invest. There are ETF's (Exchange Traded Funds), which you can invest in as easily as you would any other fund. You can also just go down to your local coin shop and purchase gold and silver coins and bullion.

My local coin shop no longer has more than one or two of the gold bullion coins that I'm looking for. Besides, they charge $20 per 1 ounce coin for their trouble. I've found another way to purchase gold bullion, and that is online. Bullion Vault lets you buy gold bullion directly and store it in their vault. You can get gold bullion at the best price, and it is very liquid and safe. Check them out.

Once you have a Bullion Vault account, keep your password in a secure place! This is important. In the event that you need to reset your password, BV will temporarily suspend your ability to immediately withdraw your gold for security reasons. This is a good thing that protects your account. Just keep your password so you never have any delay to access your gold.

STRATEGIES

Investing in your home and family. Invest in your families ability to survive by stocking up. Buy gold and silver. Invest in your home, land, home repairs. Invest in your children's future. Invest in the future of your family.

RESOURCES

Bullion Vault

Nitro-Pak.com

Urban Survival