Quantitative Easing is causing inflation. Savings accounts pay insufficient interest especially after tax and the stock market is swinging more than a hippy in the sixties.
Most financial experts say that at between 10% to 15% of your portfolio/assets should be in Gold.
This can be in collectable gold coins, Krugerrands or physical gold funds such as ETFS Physical Gold and ETFS Gold Bullion, where every share is backed by a physical amount of Gold sitting in a bank vault.
Gold bars may be available, but owning Gold in coin form is more practical. Bullion bars especially the smaller ones, tend to be 30% more expensive than the value of the gold they contain.
Gold bars are more difficult to value as the purity has to be assessed. A Krugerrand on the other hand is readily identifiable and has a known value.