Alright, perhaps I've been exposed to a few too many overenthusiastic colleagues who hype a new shitcoin every day. At least a few of those have already lost large-ish sums due to this and it has given them significant worry that I would not wish on anyone else. OTOH, finance is indeed an interesting topic so why not.

FWIW, my short term obligations (mortgage, food, etc for the upcoming few months) will be met with cash since I work as a freelancer and income is "lumpy". For the long term, stocks in companies with a long term competitive advantage (strong brand, technological know-how, etc) is where I think it is at. They will be able to raise their prices in the face of inflation and maintain profitability. Investments that I would stay away from are most forms of fixed-rate bonds and companies with capital-intensive/low margin activities because the rising costs of inventory and depreciation will eat up a significant chunk of their free cash flow.

As you can probably tell from the previous paragraph, I am personally a firm believer in investing in economic activity of some sort, either purchasing a share of (the earnings of) a company or lending out money to a company or government and therefore I stay away from "inert" investments that don't generate income by themselves like currencies, gold, commodities and/or crypto. That's just my preference though, and plenty of people would advise gold or bitcoin as an inflation hedge. Some of them have even done well, though a similar amount of people have done poorly in gold or BTC so buyer beware.