Older people have their unique way in looking at things and understanding how it works and how to prepare for a lot of stuff in life.
My grandfather would invest gold jewelry back then when he used to have extra extra money. He cited that these stuff are
worth more in the future and if emergency situations does arise, you can easily sell or pawn them to get cash.
Precious metals are also solid investments, gold and silver has always been good in the market and it's prices are very satisfactory over the years.