There's really no such thing as a safe investment any more it seems. The stock market is in the stratosphere somewhere and buying in at these levels in many sectors is asking for a big loss...energy sector you already explained (I lost some money in the Natgas market a few years back). CD's will probably never go above 2% yield again bc now most every developed country has a debt to GDP ratio of close to or greater than 100% so governments can't raise base interest rates too much or servicing the interest on the debt would be suicide in itself.

Precious metals maybe? I hold about 3-5% of my net worth in hard assets like that but then there's the security part of it (holding valuable assets in ones home or paying some depository to hold them).

Then cryptos (like you said)...the plug could get pulled by governments at any time and we'd have no recourse. Ugh.

That's a tough question. I have a lot of my money in stocks and bonds through my 401k and I have pretty mixed feelings about that. Sorry I don't have a clear, easy answer but I don't think there is one. I wish you the best of luck though :)