I have a problem with the assertion that a home/mortgage should be ignored.  Here's why. All things being equal (assuming you would have rented the same type of home/condo you bought), locking in one of your largest expenses (isn't housing usually 20%-30% of your expenditures?) for 30 years vs havi...

So I'm planning on taking a mortgage out on a house.  The price of the house is about a quarter of my whole portfolio.  I use the permanent portfolio, so a quarter of my portfolio is treasuries.  So in some sense, I am borrowing from the bank to lend money to the government.  This doesn't seem smart...

I have lived most of my adult life in fear of losing my job and the inevitable financial burden this event would have on my family. This fear, rational or irrational, has motivated me to build the largest emergency fund possible. 100% of the emergency fund is allocated to CD's, Cash, SPY, GLD and T...

Thanks everyone for the very helpful responses.  I am starting to understand the rebalancing bonus and how it relates to convexity.  This part seems mathy enough for me to eventually be less skeptical. I am still a little confused about the behavior of the individual components however.  How is it t...

I'm just starting to learn about investing, macroeconomics, portfolio theory, etc., and I'm seriously considering going with the permanent portfolio with most of my money.  It sounds reasonable, and there don't seem to be too many great counterarguments, and the people who are into it seem pretty sm...