[Jnana]

If I were to get super serious about this (and I'm not) I would get a storage building and fill it with small, durable, tradeable items such as: soap, toilet paper, bandages and medicinals, gloves, socks, rope, wire, aluminum foil (super handy for cooking over a fire), MREs, etc., etc. Use your imagination. Anything that would become very valuable and easily tradeable if the stores shelves were empty. You'll also have to secure and defend your cache.

Gold and silver will only work as an investment if your view of the future is that we will muddle through these economic problems with society pretty much intact and functioning, and at some point we will be back to business as usual so you can trade you metal back in for whatever the currency is at that point. If it all falls apart, all such bets are off.

Also, you're betting that the government won't make special laws regarding gold and silver "horders" as it did during the first depression. With so many people pushing gold as an investment right now, I'm thinking that the trap has been set and will be sprung in the near future.