It has been said that everything in life is a gamble. This may have some degree of truth in the financial aspect of life, but there are a few things you put your money in that approaches fail safe investing.

Prior to 2005, the zenith of fail safe investing was real estate. Even before the sub prime bubble was created, buying a home was considered an investment that could not lose. Even in 2006 as I was warning friends not to go near real estate, they were listening to real estate agents spouting the old adage that real estate never goes down. Today, home foreclosures are slowing. This is not a sign of recovery in this sector. It is indicative of the bad loans the law should never have mandated, reaching the their inevitable ending in default. Do not invest in real estate any time soon or you will be stuck with a non appreciating asset that lacks liquidity and requires taxes and maintenance.

Today, fail safe investing first and foremost requires that you be invested in something. Do not wait until an economic recovery before putting your cash back into an investment. Cash today is like a glass of water on a hot day. Drink it now, because soon it won't be capable of quenching your thirst. Like water, the value of the dollar is evaporating.

When you look at the state of the worlds economies, there is literally only one that looks good. Of course I am talking about China. Regardless of how you my feel about China, they are the new 800 pound gorilla of wealth. There are many Chinese companies listed on the various stock exchanges, and although they have cooled and lost some value this year, this is just a breather.

Another sector that has always fallen into the fail safe investing category is food. No matter how bad of good a country is doing economically, people have to eat. In third world countries, clean water is often the single worst problem they have. Investment in water related stocks is expected to one day be a safe bet.