Looking to Invest

My oldest brother's youngest daughter is about to graduate from law school. That means that after her graduation, he can start investing some of his earnings already because he no longer has to pay tuition for his kids. He mentioned when we were there that he wants to visit us here as soon as his youngest graduates. That means he and his wife may be here as early as later this year or by next year. Maybe he can buy gold coins here to start his investments when they come for a visit. He wants to buy more real estate properties but those are quite expensive and there are a lot of paper works to be done. At least with gold coins, he doesn't have to worry about all those paper works anymore. Aside from that, gold's value does not deteriorate unlike real estate. I'm just worried that he may be spending a small fortune buying those pieces of properties now then be shocked down the road when the value of those properties keep going down. I think a couple of them is enough for now. He has to invest in different things so as to make sure he's not going to lose his retirement money.