Everybody is ranting and raving about the value of gold these days, and with good reason since the U.S. is printing money at an alarming rate.

Setting politics aside along with the argument over whether we need the large influx of fresh bills or not, a natural consequence of President Obama’s policies - and President Bush’s to a lesser degree before him - is going to be inflation, and possibly even hyperinflation.

That’s part of the reason why gold is mostly heading north these days. Yeah, there will be pullbacks along the way, but overall, don’t expect gold to slump anytime soon.

That foresight might give all the reason in the world to buy gold, but it opens up a whole new can of worms in its place. For example, should you invest in gold bullion? Gold coin? Gold mining stocks? What are the risks of each? And what are the potential rewards?

Here’s a rundown of some of the more common ways of investing in the hot commodity…

• Jewelry: While jewelry investing in Europe is fairly popular, it isn’t so much in The States, and there is a very good reason to support that trend. American “gold” jewelry often times doesn’t have a high content of the material it’s sought for. Either gold-plated, or mislabeled, the jewelry you find in an average store probably isn’t the 20 karat gold you think it is. Also, jewelry’s value depends on the craftsmanship, designer, and rarity, all of which make each individual piece worth something… or nothing. Sometimes deciding which category a gold design fits into isn’t worth the hassle.
• Junior Mining Stocks: Yes, you can make a heck of a lot, but you can also lose the same or more. And the truth is that the odds are against you. That’s the game you play though when you select a mining company that is banking on finding gold, but doesn’t actually have it yet.
• Senior Mining Stocks: Obviously an established company with its own gold-laden mine sounds like a good choice, but the mining industry is a very dangerous one. It might not be where it was a century ago during the Industrial Revolution, but that doesn’t mean that accidents don’t happen. All it takes is one bad flood or cave-in to do serious damage on the individual stock.
• Futures and Options: Betting on the probability that any particular stock will do not only well or poorly, but at what exact price it’s going to hit is risky business to say the least. Especially when there’s always somebody or something like a corporation on the other end dangling the price in front of individual investors.