While many are cringing through the nation's credit crunch, some are basking in the glow of financial success thanks to alternative investments.

"We're finding tons of deals, deal flow is unbelievable because a lot of people are in trouble and because we're cash buyers we can buy things with deep discounts and make big returns" said Kurt Barton, C.E.O. of Triton Financial in Austin.

The company which started in 2002 has seen a 20-percent increase in clients in just that past several months, mainly because of the credit crisis.

"We feel kind of bad because everybody's suffering so much out there and this is absolutely the best time for us" said Barton.

Triton Financial specializes in private equity and real estate.  They buy properties under market value then they refurbish them.

The company is debt free because they only deal in cash, in fact they own the office building they work out of on Bee Caves.

Those are the sorts of details which are drawing customers in droves, customers like Nancy and Jim Lyde of Austin, a retired teacher and a retired police officer who lost money in stocks after September 11th, but started investing with Triton a year and a half ago.

"We've done very well. If you're looking at c.d.'s for example, the most we were getting was about five-percent.  We've had a 24 and 32-percent return on our money." said Nancy Lyde.

Our financial expert also advises people not to follow gimmick investments, but rather go with companies with good track records who offer straight forward investing.  Those are the companies he says which pay off at the end of the day.