(FORTUNE Magazine) – In the early years of this new millennium the price of gold has made a remarkable comeback, soaring to a 16-year high as of early December. The reasons for the increased worth of the ancient currency are many--an uncertain U.S. economy, geopolitical unrest--but the message for investors is simple: In today's chaotic world, don't underestimate the importance of enduring values. With that idea in mind, we present the 2005 edition of our annual investing guide.

There is nothing more basic to successful investing, of course, than buying stocks selling for less than they're worth; we offer an assortment of such bargains in our first story. Not surprisingly, a common trait among many of the picks was one very oldfangled notion: a generous dividend payout. The importance of finding high-yield investments in a low-return world was also a major theme when we gathered an elite group of strategists and economists for a roundtable discussion about the market's overall prospects. And the significance of dividends is central to the thesis presented by renowned market historian Jeremy Siegel in an excerpt from his new book. Siegel studied nearly 50 years of market returns and came up with this advice for would-be stockpickers: Growth stocks can be great companies but are often bad investments.

Stocks, however, aren't the only path to wealth. And we found a group of five highly pragmatic and hugely successful real estate investors to prove it. Then there's investing legend Jim Rogers, who's spent his career scouting out profitable investments in the unlikeliest places. Right now he's bullish on China. But he's just as excited about oil, soybeans, nickel, cocoa, aluminum, rubber, orange juice, and, yes, gold. According to Rogers, a bull market in commodities is underway, and profiting from it is not as difficult as you might think.

So no matter what your own investing values, you're likely to find at least several opportunities here that will work for you.