right, so you mention that the PP relies on causation, which is what I like about the portfolio too. However, I was wondering about the situation in Japan. Somebody recently posted that Japan was posting billions in government surpluses. So that would indicate that Japan's economy is doing well. So ...

0% to VP.
I buy discretionary items with the money I can afford to lose.

It doesn't make sense to have almost no info tech stocks (except for RIMM >:(), health care, or consumer staples/discretionary.  Our stock market is dominated by banks and global miners, which is a large part of our economy, but not 75% of it. I guess I always assumed that owning the Canadian stock...

Agreed, I was under the impression that the Canadian PP was up for the year. However I am in the same boat in that I started deploying the strategy after most of the gains so I am down since inception; albeit less than 1%. For the most part the 4 asset classes track similar to the US PP and I agree...

as an imperfect person who becomes very discouraged when she loses money, I like the low volatility of the portfolio the best.

But I love the stock market, and it was very hard for me to choose the PP over dividend-paying stocks.

Hey -
I started my Canadian PP in October 2011. From then until October 2012, it returned 5.4% for me (with a rebalance from cash into all four other assets sometime in the summer).

Since then, my PP has lost a percentage or so.

Is this the article you were referring to: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/12/13/gold-analysts-ignoring-40-of-the-market/ It seems they are focused mainly on supply and demand.  Gold isn't affected by this as much as other commodities since there is a large stockpile of gold already availabl...

Does he understand that a STT/LTT barbell is very similar to a 10 year bond.  Both have a duration of around 8.5 years.  If that is still too risky for him then I'd put him into something with a duration of around 5 years (1-10 year ladder or IEI).  That will give most of the same protection as the...

Could you let me know if the following statement is accurate: statement:  For non-US PP folk, gold acts as an alternative currency. If your own currency (say the canadian dollar) is suffering from inflation, then gold will be doing very well (gold now being worth way more canadian dollars than befor...

funny that Clive, a regular here, would say something like that. You're right MediumTex, I think your book will help Harry Browne's widow more than it will hinder her. anyway, I wanted to comment on the bogglehead thread. The feeling I get from posts on Boggleheads is that the core difference betwee...

Thanks Gosso!
Wow, what a difference.

The gov't changed the Canada savings bonds, and I'm wondering whether they'd be suitable for the cash portion of the PP. Web site for more info: http://www.csb.gc.ca/8086/canada-savings-bonds-program-changes-effective-october-2012/ Excerpts from above web site: "Beginning with the fall 2012 cam...

I also think the "bond" portion of way too many portfolios tends to be 1) too short in duration (even when they ARE long duration, they're callable so it's pointless), and 2) too risky (mortgages, munis, corporates, foreign, etc). I think the fact that the 50% bond portion is longer in du...

Thanks, Tortoise. I remember HB saying to put new contributions in cash. But I didn't read this passage carefully enough: "Whenever you have additional funds to invest, you don’t need to divide the additions evenly among the four investments. Just put the new money into the cash portion. If yo...

Thanks, Tortoise. I remember HB saying to put new contributions in cash. But I didn't read this passage carefully enough: "Whenever you have additional funds to invest, you don’t need to divide the additions evenly among the four investments. Just put the new money into the cash portion. If you...

The question is in the subject line. I will be performing a rebalance soon, and have to buy some bonds, but unfortunately I need less than the 5K minimum. So I will be putting cash into ZFL instead (unless there is a better option). I would like to know how closely ZFL comes to tracking 45-year bond...

The other thing about doing a plain vanilla Canadian PP  is that you have lower transaction fees, because you hold fewer ETFs. Another thing to consider if you're just starting out: For bonds, I'm pretty sure you have to buy a minimum of 5K-worth. If you want to hold smaller amounts, you can use the...

For the deflationists: what do you make of the fact that prices aren't actually falling but rising ?  For the inflationists:  what to make of record low yields on LT bonds ? The whole narrative strikes me as a messy "work in progress".  I'd suggest staying diversified.   8) [/quote] Right,...

Because I don't have very much money, by bi-weekly contributions into cash cause my cash pot to become overweighted. If I were to rebalance out of cash to maintain my bands, I'd have to do it twice a year, maybe more. That would cost me a lot of money in transaction fees. So I was thinking that a on...

The PP is supposed to take advantage of (and protect you from) all economic conditions. What economic season are we in now? Deflation? Are we still in a transitional period? I know, this question comes up a lot, but I *still* don't have an answer, and it's been almost a year since I've been looking ...

Hello there,
Canadian PP still hanging in at 2% gains since October 2010 when I started. But that's not why I posted :-)

I'm wondering if it's OK to do a rebalance this October.
Somebody here said that rebalancing in the fall is not a good idea. Should I wait till a better time?
THanks!

I have been accumulating into cash and plan to do a once-a-year re-balance out of cash into my other positions. I do this for two reasons: 1. My employer forces me to use Manulife funds, and Manulife only lets me take money out of their funds once a year. If manulife offered all the necessary funds ...

Right, ok. By "printing money" I just mean "increasing the money supply". Japan is one example of where the government has increased money supply and inflation hasn't happened. I suppose this is occurring because the *demand* for money is going up in tandem, thus zeroing out infl...

thank-you.
Yes, I will stay the course with the PP as it seems to make logical sense.
I think the key for me is to not look at my portfolio, which I haven't done in about 2 weeks now (go me!).
I can't find the original article, but I think it was in the Financial Post.

Hi, I **think** I read on this board that printing money does not necessarily lead to inflation. If I recall correctly, money printing precipitated by a credit crisis does not lead to inflation, according to the historical record. Now I'm not 100% sure I got this right.  Could somebody set me straig...