Well, it looks like the allocations may have changed. In the "Road to Ruin" book he advises Gold and Silver - 10% Cash (some in physical notes) - 30% Real Estate (Agricultural or income producing)-20% Fine Art Fund- 5% Angel and Venture Capital 10% Hedge Funds 5% High Quality Sovereign Bo...

all i can say is if i followed that model ,except for possibly the prime land doing well , odds are i could never have had enough to retire . Yes, it's a very defensive portfolio that won't generate much income during normal times. I think it's more of a wealth preservation strategy. as far as my o...

Hello eufo, some questions that you might know :-) : "20% Gold (physical only, and not stored in a bank)" Stored where? At home? That's one possibility, yes. The idea is that it should be readily available instead of tied up in a secured location you may not end up having access to during...

I've been listening to a couple of James Rickards' audiobooks recently. They're pretty damn interesting... lots of history on global finance, currency exchanges, central banks, etc. He is not fond of sovereign debt of any kind... leaving out treasuries. He also doesn't like financial stocks, emergin...

It's always a little bittersweet when gold and bonds are strengthening. I'm currently overweight both in my long and slow transition from PP to semi-GB. Days like today feel pretty good in my brokerage account, but at what cost? I really hope peace prevails. Would be interested in what GB per cent ...

It's always a little bittersweet when gold and bonds are strengthening. I'm currently overweight both in my long and slow transition from PP to semi-GB. Days like today feel pretty good in my brokerage account, but at what cost? I really hope peace prevails.

I think you'd be doing your friend a favor if you talked him into selling half of his EM allocation, and buying gold. It's an OK portfolio, if he's younger. If he's over 50, he's going to have trouble when the 60% stocks and REIT lose 1/2 or more of their value in the next bear market. Indeed I wou...

He picked a portfolio I don't particularly care for Was it Sheltered Sam? No. Though I'm not fond of that either. He never gave me the name of the allocation, but it went something like this: 30% Total Stock Market 20% Total Bond Market 20% Inflation Protected Bonds (TIPS) 15% REIT 15% Emerging Mar...

This post isn't about the Permanent Portfolio so much as active vs. passive investing, which most of the posts in this thread (and many others) are really about. My brother has long been a staunch believer in market timing with stocks as the best way to invest. He's also become increasingly busy, b...

INTP here. Very interesting results.

dualstow wrote:eufo, if you're going to buy large, mid AND small, why not just buy the whole market, i.e., VTI? No overlap.

According to Tyler's site, mixing the 3 blends comes out on top of the total stock market long term (8.5% vs. 7.4% average return). The research I've done seems to support that.

Ok, I'm currently investing the stock portion of my portfolio into Vanguard ETFs, but after some analysis, I'm thinking iShares looks like the better deal. I'm going to share why I think that and I'm looking for anything I may be missing here. I'm splitting my exposure into 3 parts... large/mid/smal...

Unfortunately, its either all cash or all the default fund. Yipes! That's just horrible. Given the all-in nature, I think going all cash assets in that account is your best bet, since the default fund is a real wild card. The remainder of your assets outside the account could go to everything else ...

Also, he speaks of recency, but most EM are up substantially as of "recent", so explain to me how recency might make someone avoid EM. Bah, the whole article just gets me riled up! >:( Rather than getting riled, you may want to read the article again. :) The second mistake is that investo...

Emerging markets are a fine component to a portfolio in the right dosage. But the more I read Swedroe extol the virtues of valuations and expected returns, it strikes me that despite the one passive portfolio named after him he's really not a passive investor at all. Adviser gonna advise. Yes, he h...

Can you split it up? Say 75% in the default fund and 25% cash? That might be your closest bet. Auto rebalance, if possible.

Once you have access to the funds without penalty, withdraw and put them to use where you really want.

When I started PP I used VTI.

25% VTI (Total Stock Market)
25% TLT (Long Term Treasuries)
25% SHY (Short Term Treasuries)
25% IAU (Gold)

I think the point in your first paragraph is critical. When the market plunges, there are often other bad events going on, including job loss. So it's not always the case that investors "panic" and sell in downturns (though they often do); some sell because they simply need the money. The...

iShares IVV gives you an ETF option for S&P500 currently at 0.04% ER. http://etfdb.com/etf/IVV/

Competition has definitely been a good thing for us little guys!

I do think it's kind of funny that the OP's friend thinks we're doomers but he's all in CD's. Not exactly a bet on prosperity. Ha! Good point. There's a point I haven't seen mentioned here, but when those doom days happen, it's way more than discipline you need to avoid selling your equities. Most ...

With regards to my earlier statement about preference to narrower bands to capture gains... let me put some qualifiers on that. My calculations were based on a non-taxable account using commission free ETFs. Taxable accounts or situations that would involve a lot of friction (trading fees) should b...

With regards to my earlier statement about preference to narrower bands to capture gains... let me put some qualifiers on that. My calculations were based on a non-taxable account using commission free ETFs. Taxable accounts or situations that would involve a lot of friction (trading fees) should be...

Whether the bands should be wider or narrower depends a lot on price action that cannot be determined in advance. We can curve fit to the past, but it won't indicate what will work best moving forward. Obviously the best time to rebalance would be right when the prices are about to reverse, but one ...

I'm fairly new to PP, but this idea seems to fly in the face of what the PP is supposed to be... a stable place to put your savings where you should see real returns during most economic events so you'll be financially stable. Just because someone is young doesn't mean they need more exposure to ris...

Wow! Thanks everyone for the responses! I especially enjoyed the link to PortfolioCharts.com. The Golden Butterfly allocation is VERY alluring. I may slowly morph into that, though the timing seems awful to buy more equities... VERY slowly morph into that. I'm really glad I stumbled onto this site!