I finally bought a little more TMF in my little VP started 7/15. It was down to about 10.4%, very close to the band, and Fidelity just dropped a few bucks off commissions. I'm sure it will continue to drop like a rock now.

https://twitter.com/susanthesquark/status/835193441814392833 Research for the smear campaign has begun. If you are contacted by anyone asking for personal and intimate info about me, please report asap. This writer has been through it with Uber in the past https://twitter.com/sarahcuda/status/835208...

I'm amazed she went to the trouble to write this all down. She did such a great job covering her bases and wrote very clearly. It seems to be working, because there has been a ton of press this week. Some investors have spoken out, there's a report of a hundred female engineers gathering together an...

It's been a while since I read the PRPFX prospectus but I don't recall they have the least bit of detail about how they manage their gold. If it's not in there the insurance question is unanswerable with any certainty.

I was nodding along with the whole article except for the part that got really personal. Would I want my parents' healthcare at half the price of today's care? As the father of a joyful 5yo daughter who likely wouldn't be here today without open heart surgery at 5mo, I'll take the $120k surgery and ...

Understood, thanks for clarifying. I don't recall where I came up with the idea you were talking about 75 GEM, 25 bonds dual momentum.

Does it feel a little strange that the two portfolios' rules could conflict, as in you could be 75% bonds for GEM while the bonds momentum says, no, bonds are risk off, 25% cash? I'm sure it still dampens volatility overall, it just seems like a counterintuitive mix when they're both risk off. How d...

Ouch, that an unpleasant "period of underperformance." I started around the same time but returned 2.5% in 2014-2016 (including the first four months of 2014 in 80% stocks, which were mostly flat). 2015 wasn't pleasant, but at least it came back. You also missed a chunk of early 2016 gold ...

Thanks, Shrugged. I have developed an even simpler method. I merely monitor threads like this. O0 Fiddling with XIRR is good, clean fun because your asset allocation and trades are off the table. All that counts are your start and end values and dates and amounts of contributions of withdrawals. Th...

Retirement (4x25 with stocks about 15 TSM, 10 SCB): 5.1%. It was a little cash heavy at the beginning of the year and missed a percent of the initial run-up. I had contributed some money but just hadn't rebalanced yet! College savings (25 stocks, 13 LTT, 12 total bond, 30 cash, 20 gold): 5.0%. Broke...

Wow, I had noticed those similar but different indexes tend to race around each other like the M&M's on the scoreboard at the ballpark, but I hadn't noticed the spread at the end of 2016. Comparing VB and IJR at portfoliovisualizer.com, IJR returned +8% over VB in 2016. The last time the spread ...

This has been a fascinating thread. Thanks for all the ideas, backtests, and reports, Kbg.

I'm not sure what the point of this thread is. Ochotona, if you're looking for rationales for your desire to market-time PP asset purchases, you don't need them. It's your money and you can do with it what you please. Please just don't call it a PP, to avoid confusing readers. Nor is it passive inv...

Good point about different accounts growing at different rates, but in this case there's no new money going into the 401k if I understand correctly. It looks like a good balance with the bonds and gold invested in textbook PP assets and the stocks and cash split in the 401k. It's too bad you have no...

What exactly is the agnostic claim you refer to? My understanding is that the portfolio is agnostic about what the markets will do (besides go up and down wildly all the time). The mechanisms are selected for various practical properties, which may be tangential to other observed properties. The mec...

Johnny, interesting story that it bothered you enough to sell. Try silver? The first time I saw bullion was when a buddy showed me some coins. The gold buffaloes were cool for how much value they pack into a small package, but I found the sheen on the silver eagles mesmerizing.

Pointedstick wrote: I'm really enjoying my new HP Spectre x360, which flips around and turns into a tablet.

Wow. I am a Windows user but that is the time I have looked at a PC and thought, "I want that." It looks great and it's nice and lightweight. Is it well built?

Meanwhile PRPFX is up 10% on the year. What does Michael Cuggino know that we don't? (I'm guessing it has to do with the stock picks swinging back in his favor.)

That's a good perspective Sophie. Thanks. Part of my thought is based on how much I made in stocks in the 90s and how little I'm making in the PP now. So that is a definite bias on my part. No one knows the future, but I personally feel stocks are good for the long run. In fact, stock losses in 08-...

Also look at the distribution of returns for a few portfolios to keep in mind that all portfolios with volatile assets get beat up often, like a third of the time. https://portfoliocharts.com/portfolio/annual-returns/

Then there is the question of when and how the young person should transition from young growth mode to PP protection mode.

Interesting post, and there are many links at the bottom in which he previously wrote about using CAPE to find value and increase forward returns. With so much ink given to slicing and dicing stocks or not and even momentum around here, I'm surprised there isn't more discussion of hunting bargains f...

Property placement is a big deal. I have full sun on the south roof, but with a pyramid hip the geometry limits the system to about 9 panels or 2.4 kW (using numbers from https://solarpowerrocks.com/square-feet-solar-roof/ ). My usage is more in the Desert range, so, yeah, lots of work to do on the ...

Another thing about the economics: it's often a no-brainer to go solar. For example: I have a roughly $30/mo electric bill. That requires $9,000 in investments to offset forever ($30*12 months * 25 years for 4% withdrawal rate). If I can zero out my electric bill for less than $9,000 with solar, it...

A Durisol product is also used for road noise barriers. Purdue University Evaluation of Alternatives to Sound Barrier Walls http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/50000/50600/50633/viewcontent.cgi.pdf Durisol precast noise wall panels are made out of organic softwood shavings processed to an acoustically engineered...