Nov. 8--The inflation monster is sleeping soundly, snoring away, and everyone hopes he'll never wake up.

He will, of course. Not anytime soon; consumer inflation will probably stay tame for months and months. But when the inflation beast finally does awake, he just might get nasty.

This column is for worrywarts. It's for people who see a couple of trillion dollars in fiscal and monetary stimulus knocking around in the economy, amid rock-bottom interest rates, and worry that this means inflation is coming.

Worrywarts have no faith in the Federal Reserve or the administration of President Barack Obama. They think Washington will turn chicken as the 2010 mid-term elections approach and fail to withdraw that stimulus as the economy heats up again, setting the stage for higher prices and driving up interest rates.

So, let's look at some strategies for the day when prices and rates start to rise again:

-- Sit on your money. You could hedge against higher interest rates by plopping part of your nest egg in the bank, figuring that you'll grab a more interesting investment when rates are higher. The 2 percent you could get in a one-year bank CD is actually higher than the current inflation rate.

-- Troll for dividends. Look for stocks that have a long history of raising their dividends, says Carol Milius Lippman, senior portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis. They tend to hold up well in a rising rate environment.

On her list are St. Louis homies Emerson and Commerce Bank. Commerce has raised dividends every year for 40 years, she notes.

Such picks are getting fewer. This year, 566 companies have increased their dividends while 749 have cut or eliminated them, according to Standard & Poor's.

-- Gold is a traditional hedge against economic chaos and inflation. The problem is that the price is up by 24 percent this year, and it's been setting new highs.

That's partly because of a case of the inflation willies among foreign investors. It's also a reaction to the falling dollar. India's central bank bought 200 metric tons of the shiny stuff last week. There's concern that other central banks may shift foreign reserves out of dollars and into gold, pushing the price up.

Finally, ordinary Indians and Chinese are richer these days, which increases their gold purchases, and American gold-sellers have been beating the advertising drums. "Gold is one of the few commodities that has its own commercials," says Gary Thayer, chief macro strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors.