Financial turmoil - help yourself.

As the global financial system is weakling day by day...I just wanted to share a thought and see if it helps. I know, most of you aware of that, the world is heading towards a slow down and the best of efforts by Government treasuries of various counties like US,UK,Germany, Russia, and some other European countries having little impact to prevent a major melt down. So, considering the best possible outcome of such efforts...we might prevent a crisis but an economic slowdown is already hitting hard on us.

Few weeks back, when all is green except some isolated fears of sub prime witch, people thought they would better off with elections rather not worry about markets. Bank after the bank indicates a profit hit, and slowly indicated a loss and then the story unfolded quicker than a possible level-5 hurricane. Balance sheets look so weak, overnight lending getting difficult and the confidence almost disappeared from the universe.

I invest in stocks, and have gained some experience with losses. So I thought I would like to share some thoughts, which might be helpful (I know it's too late....)
1) Even though stocks look terribly cheap, please restrain from temptations and avoid fresh investments
2) Real estate - anywhere in the world, may not be a right option at least for 1yr
3) Avoid hand loans, as the borrowers might see financial crisis resulting risk to your money
4) Don't lend money from banks like Personal loans, Home loans with anticipation that you can make more money. Now chances that you might loose money
5) To the possible extent avoid private banks in India. I know this is really pessimistic thoughts, but no one is too big to fail, and we can't trust the accounting practices. So I advise moving your bank deposits to Government banks.
6) Consider 1Yr - 2Yr fixed deposits in Government banks, as they give good returns (I guess in India its 9 - 10%)
7) If you have experience, consider buying gold bonds or physical gold. Economist suggests, gold is an excellent hedge during economic slowdown periods.
8) Always expect a salary decrease or job loss in mind before making any investment plans.

These are some thoughts that I would like to share to prepare for the storm. I know there are two ways to look at it. It might look shit scary and absolute pessimistic approach, But unless you have a great financial advisor this is not an easy storm to sail with respect to your investments.
I wish I will be wrong about my analysis about economy!