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Coffee and tobacco.
And of course, ammo.
Good question. My shortlist includes farmland, basic skills (like motor repair), used tools including guns ammo, high yield stocks of companies in bed with gov’t and strong overseas earnings, and eliminating all variable rate debt (which is hard to pull trigger on when HELOC rates are 3%.
Step 1 is to understand and come to terms with the fact that our rulers are deliberately pursuing policies to make you poorer.
Study those policies with an eye to avoiding this. Your only advantage is they are totally predictable.
5.56, 7.62x39, .308, .45ACP, 12GA, .22 and 9mm.
If you still have money left then maybe income producing properties or equipment or convert it to assets in another country such as Canada, Australia, Norway and etc.
If you have real gold keep it somewhere you can get at it. If you have paper gold, sell it, even at a loss, and buy real gold, but not with all of your money. Buy goods that have value no matter how bad conditions are. Thus food(non perishable items), ammunition, firearms. Tools of all types stored and preserved against rust etc. Books that tell you how to do things such as build a generator, a simple radio transceiver(or a separate transmitter and receiver), build a cottage or simple shelter, black smithing books, books on how to cut wood(axes would be among the tools to buy), how to build fires without matches. You get the picture.
Despite the ongoing efforts that seem destined to destroy the dollar, you need ready cash to function in society. There are means to scrub off dollar risk without tying funds up too badly.
You need to take a very hard look at the soundness of financial institutions that offer them, but there are certificates of deposit in fairly short term to long term, denominated in other currencies, and backed by the FDIC.
The interest rates on these are quite clearly tied to risk, with some offering a zero rate of return, in stable currencies from Switzerland and such, to fairly high rates of return in less stable currencies from, for example, Mexico. There are also CD programs in Chinese Renminbi, programs in a “basket” of currencies, etcetera.
If you choose to get into one of these, awareness of exchange rate trends is crucial. You don’t want to buy in when the dollar is at an historic low. The opportunity to do this is during one of the periodic panics we’ve been experiencing over the past two years, wherein there is a flight to safety in the dollar, driving it up. Then, you can benefit from exchange rates in addition to interest, if any, as the dollar falls again.
One financial institution that does this is EverBank. Purely online, no brick and mortar branch locations at all. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. I have some money in their currency CD offerings myself. Their rating is decent, four out of five stars, last I checked. I have no other ties with EverBank whatsoever, and am not speaking for anyone but myself and am offering my personal opinion, here.
Having a reasonable store of nonperishable food is practical and rational in this environment, but going nuts over it and laying in years worth of MRE’s or something is not likely to be of benefit. Being able to defend yourself, within reason, is also a good idea, but then again, going nuts over it isn’t going to do anything but draw the wrong sort of attention to you.
It’s a hard thing to contemplate, and I hope it’s all for naught, honestly. But, preparation does seem necessary to me and to many others. Go with your gut.
Bad money drives out good money. Countries that experience hyperinflation has plenty of paper cash but the coins disappear from the currency as the metal they contain become worth more than their face value.
Maybe the simplest hedge against inflation is to save your change. Like Argentina the banks offer much more than the face value for change during shortages. Buy rolls of quarters and place them in a safe place. If I am wrong then you can either spend the change or exchange it for paper bills. Gold may lose half it’s value but a penny will remain one cent no matter what.
My theory is if you don't know what to do, do nothing.