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Perhaps gold gets it’s reputation as a great investment because it is shiny; but up until very recently, it’s been a pretty disappointing investment overall, for pretty much long as anyone can remember. But now, a weakening dollar is beginning to  jack up the price of gold to turn it into a super strong investment opportunity. Are you too late to the party to get in on the ground floor? Not really. It’s easier than ever before to invest in gold now. Even if mutual funds that deal in gold like StreetTracks Gold Shares have always traditionally bought up gold mining shares and not the metal itself. This mutual fund has benefited from an 8% price rise over the past couple of months alone. If you are wondering about how to buy gold to invest in, start with a mutual fund like this. In a world that’s filled with news of financial catastrophe, this is an investment that’s priced exactly right.

If this seems a little too adventurous for your taste, an ETF or exchange traded fund is just the right kind of investment opportunity for you. It will help you buffer yourself against the ups and downs of volatile market in mining stocks. Expert stock analysts usually have no time for gold as an investment opportunity. They see the yellow metal is great for jewelry and little else. If you’re wondering about how to buy gold to invest in, you need to pay attention to how the price of gold, after having stayed stagnant for quite a while suddenly rose to $700 an ounce over just the space of a month last year. And for the most part it’s kept its value there. Does this make it a good investment opportunity? You bet it does, and here is why.

Gold essentially, works out of a very strong base. The world’s largest gold producing mines, companies like Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining are finding that the higher price of oil is driving up costs of prospecting for and mining for gold ore. And labor costs are up too. Not to mention the fact that gold ore is harder to come by today. All of these make for higher priced gold. And that makes it a good investment opportunity.

If you’re wondering about how to buy gold and time it correctly,the technical factors behind why gold is compelling as an investment today are even stronger. No matter how the price of gold fluctuates today, even the lowest prices it is capable of are pretty high. The mean price of gold has risen. Usually, when the price of gold is about to rise, gold shares seem to anticipate this and rise in price practically six months before. That hasn’t been the way they’ve risen this time around though. There was a recent article published that said that gold could rise to as much as $8000 an ounce. If that seems too ambitious, most experts predict that it should rise to about $3000 an ounce without a hitch. The price of gold is set to rise. How  and when you decide to buy in is entirely up to you.

The way the banks have run their credit card businesses all these years, no matter how wonderful your credit score or your spending and repayment record, you could never tell when they would go and cut your spending limit or raise your interest rates. If they gave you the required two-week notice period, they felt justified in forcing you to go along. With the new credit card laws in effect now, some of these unjustified behaviors will cease. But others will continue – with rules that have only improved a little bit. For instance, to raise your interest rates, they’ll need to give you a six-week notice period now. And they can only raise interest on future purchases, and not ones you’ve already made, like they could do in the past. But even the best credit card deals out there today keep trying to pull one over you with convincing-looking schemes that can still be partial to their interests. Let’s look at a few of these now.

Consider the new best credit card offers that you hear of from Citi and Amex. Citi offers you balance transfer promotions that you can personalize your tastes. You get to put down the interest rate you are willing to pay and the rewards program you are comfortable with. Amex’ Zync charge cards can be customized for different kinds of needs – they have benefits and rewards for different kinds of lifestyles and desires. Discover has a customizable credit card builder tool too. You just go to their website and use their CardBuilder tool select the exact rewards programs, interest rates and promotional terms that make the most sense to you.

It is undoubtedly an improvement over what we used to have, to be given credit cards that offer personalization in their choices. Your chances of finding the best credit card deals around do increase with such a scheme. But when none of the major credit card forums FlyerTalk or FatWallet recommend these very highly, you do have to wonder. The general feeling in the air is that the terms offered are no different than any other standard card around; while these do offer you a certain amount of flexibility, these are far from the best credit card deals you could get.

Businesses looking for the best credit card deals should find a degree more satisfaction with these customizable offers than individual customers do. For instance, a business that makes use of Zync gains access to a forum at Amex that lets them make suggestions that they know will be heard. Basically, customizable credit cards are for the more involved customer. That’s why these cards don’t come with a lot of fanfare. Add to that the fact that these cards charge between 10% and 20%, and you do begin to see how it could be hard to push this product.

If you are in the market for a home, getting a mortgage, you probably feel, is the best way to go about it. What makes this a good idea is that right now, we happen to be enjoying some of the best mortgage rates we’ve seen in decades. But have you ever considered the difference it can make to the mortgage you end up with, to go through a mortgage broker or to go through a bank loan officer?

Walking up to a specific bank and dealing with its loan officer can be a good idea as long as you know a lot about the products on offer with different banks and lenders. You’ll know enough about which bank you want to walk up to. If not, dealing with a mortgage broker who is a freelance agent with links to hundreds of banks and lending institutions, can be your best bet in finding the best home mortgage rates the market has to offer. It’s quite the way it can be going to a website like Travelocity for the cheapest airline tickets versus directly going to the American Airlines website.

To find the lowest mortgage rates, your search needs to be relentless and it needs to deal with the way the system works. You need to hunt for the lowest interest rates and processing costs, the best points and the most favorable adjustment features. No attention needs to be paid to where the mortgage comes from or what kind of relationship you have with your current bank. It’s pretty certain that before your mortgage term is up, that the owner will have sold your mortgage to someone else – and you’ll find yourself dealing with a new party anyway.

When you finally decide on the kind of mortgage you want and the lenders you’ll be working with, take a look at the good faith estimate, the GFE, that they give you (you did get one as you have a right to under the law, didn’t you?). Make sure that the interest rate they quote you is guaranteed for certain. Ask for what your window of opportunity with rates is. If it appears that the best mortgage rates you worked so hard for are at risk of rising, ask for a lock-in and get it in writing. Sometimes, they’ll give you a lock-in with a floating option. What that means is, that you don’t have an absolute lock. If rates rise of more than a certain amount though, you have protection against that.

The closing costs on a mortgage may be 2 to 3% of the price of the home you are going for. And it’ll include all kinds of costs – an origination fee, appraisal and survey costs, transfer tax in attorney’s fees and so on. Make sure that you know what your closing costs are. And of course, on top of all this, your lending institution will want a separate credit report fee for pulling your report. And this isn’t included in those closing costs. Make sure that you are prepared with name of the employee in the lending institution are dealing with in case you are not clear about something down the line.