Gyroscopic Investing

Hi everyone,

I’m based in Europe, and I already run a Permanent Portfolio here.

Now I’d like to build a second one — an American-style Permanent Portfolio.

Could you please share which ETFs are most commonly used (or preferred) in the U.S. version of the Permanent Portfolio for each of the four assets:

Stocks
Long-term bonds
Gold
Cash or short-term bonds

Even if you’re in the U.S. or another region, please share your setup — and for those in Europe who run an American PP, I’d also love to know what ETFs you picked.

Thanks for your help!

I’m trying to learn from your experience before building mine.

frugal wrote: ↑Sat Nov 01, 2025 4:53 am Even if you’re in the U.S. or another region, please share your setup — and for those in Europe who run an American PP, I’d also love to know what ETFs you picked.

Australia: 25 Gold 75% VDCO

<snip>
The PP can be difficult to implement in 401(k) plans. Stock index funds and money market funds are frequently available, but suitable bond funds are rare and gold is unheard-of. When an investor's 401(k) is less than half of their total portfolio, and the plan has an acceptable stock and cash fund, the 401(k) can house the cash and stock allocations and the rest of the portfolio can go in more flexible accounts. However often the 401(k) is the majority of assets, or the plan has no acceptable cash fund, in which case implementing a PP is impossible.

In such cases the lemonade modification to the PP could be used (as in "turn lemons into lemonade"). In theory, the cash and bond allocations, which are short- and long-term treasury bonds respectively, behave equivalently to intermediate term treasury bonds. So the cash and bond allocations could be merged into one large intermediate term treasury allocation:

25% stock
25% gold
50% intermediate Treasury bonds
Intermediate Treasury bonds are often available in 401(k) plans. A plan that has suitable stock and intermediate bond funds could house 75% of a PP, leaving only the gold to be located elsewhere.

USA as per Morningstar -> https://www.morningstar.com.au/personal ... -portfolio