My SO travels frequently for work, so we often get upgraded. I agree it's hard to go back to 'cattle class' once you've gotten used to first... I've gotten to a point where if the cost of 1st is 2x or less the cost of coach, I just buy it. But I'm at a place in life where can afford to splurge on my...

Hal wrote:Father lived in Germany through WW2. No portfolio allocation would have been profitable. - Got out alive, he was happy.

I suspect physical gold, especially if held in another country, would have helped significantly?

This is what is supposed to happen, stocks crushed, bonds and gold are making up for it today! Not quite making up for it, but I sure feel good about selling ~10% of my stocks last week to rebalance, and finishing my rebalancing today by buying LTT during the early dip, and some gold yesterday befo...

I’m interested to know who among us plans to rebalance into LTT’s? I just did, to a degree. Felt the itch and was at about 30% stocks so sold 10% of my holdings and rebalanced into LTT, cash, and gold. I'll admit it hurts to see LTT going down right after the rebalance (feel a bit better with stock...

Don wrote:Gold: 22%
Stock: 27.5%
Cash/STT: 25.4%
LTT: 25%

That's an excellent return!

Those #s are my ending allocation, not return

10.4% here, but I continued averaging into the PP this year. Increased my allocation to PP by about 15%, mostly by buying the lagging investment.

Ending the year at:

Gold: 22%
Stock: 27.5%
Cash/STT: 25.4%
LTT: 25%

Have to say I'm happy with the overall performance

Followup if anyone is interested. I'll reveal at this point that the online agent is Expedia, because they have finally decided to step up. The key was to get to "Tier 3 Customer Service". The lower tiers just sent me form letters with a bunch of words adding up to "get lost", b...

The honorable thing would be for all 3 credit bureaus to offer free credit freezes for the next year. YEAR. Not 30 days. Absolutely agree with this. I've not frozen through Equifax yet because honestly I don't want to give them any money for their own f-up. But they absolutely should foot the bill ...

WiseOne wrote:I think it might depend which state you're in.

I believe it does. Sadly, it appears WA state does not appear have any favorable laws, so it's about $10/bureau

I went to do the same, but it really grinds my gears I need to *pay* to do that.

I think it was the Trump voters (particularly in the primary), that disrespected their fellow Americans. I'll be honest -- I have mixed feelings about responding to this, as to me it at worst looks like bait, at best is demeaning others you disagree with. I will respond to this post, but I do hope ...

I also have no love for a blowhard like Trump. But I do have sympathy for the masses of "little people" who supported him because they no longer can get a good job in this country, in large part due to insane immigration policies over the last few decades. So, another reason to support Tr...

I would have monthly bank and brokerage statements and I would have legal systems at my disposal to get back any funds that were lost or taken. For some reason I just do not have that confidence in Treasury Direct. Can anyone talk me thru this worry???! Thank you for asking this question, as you ha...

I don't want to derail the more...scientific and academic discussion on this subject, but would like to also hypothesize that simply bad/lazy parenting is possibly a factor here? As an adult with no children/no desire to have them, I can't help but be acutely aware of how rarely these days parents c...

I've dealt with a lot of ISOs and RSUs over the past few years. Yes, they are taxable when they vest. Agree with selling the day they vest -- that's what I did. Think of it this way -- if you had cash in hand now, would you buy your employer's stock? If not, it doesn't make sense to hold on to the R...

It would be fatal to their ability to borrow money at reasonable rates if the gov't decided to default on Treasury Notes. Would it really, though? How much of the purchases of gov't debt is from our central bank, or foreign central banks (with printed dollars) vs those who can't conjure money out o...

soldiers were readied to believe that they were not killing human beings;

Makes me think of the BlackMirror episode, for those who have watched the series on Netflix ("Men Against Fire"). Very relevant to this comment...

I personally reported my BullionVault account, even though it's allocated storage. My CPA wasn't overly concerned, but I opted to play it safe rather than risk the ire of the IRS (yuk yuk!).

Would love to hear if anyone has or received more definitive guidance.

I Shrugged wrote:This could have the effect of depressing demand for gold coins. Or so I would think.

So now we should buy paper gold instead of physical???

Huzzah. Thanks, Xan, for stepping up, and Craig for being open to the idea/helping with any transition. I'm mainly a lurker, but find much value in this form, both in the PP discussions and the 'open' discussions. Appreciate all the effort that has gone into hosting/maintaining the forum (including ...

It might be that you bought in at the high points, but still that doesn't sound feasible if you played an agnostic lagging asset strategy. Check your math? Also, I use bid prices for the gold coins I hold from the company I bought from (Colorado Gold) to determine their value, not spot gold. That's...

drumminj, FWIW, I think my wife's PP probably returned close to your numbers. It's mostly made up of IRAs and by the time we get her yearly contributions in, the portfolio seems to have amassed most of it's yearly gains (2014-2016 were all great in the early going). Fortunately she doesn't seem to ...

Huh. Y'all are making me feel worse about my outcome this year :-\ Mine was 2.8% with a pretty much standard 4x25 PP. I think the difference in outcomes is that I invested another 70% into the PP on top of my starting balance on 1/1/16 (been averaging into the PP over the past 2 years now), buying t...

Welcome to the PP and the forum! I can totally understand your concern, having bought in and having prices drop immediately. I'm a lurker here, but one good question I see asked here is "if not the PP, what else would you be invested in that would make you more comfortable?". Sure, it suck...

I got notice of a dividend as well. Don't recall getting these in the past (held CEF for many many years now), but my memory is also quite poor on such things