Is everyone sitting down? I’ve come full circle, acceptance. Sticking to rebalancing bands and focusing on loss harvesting. It’s easier that way for all of us! Who are you and what have you done with Buddtholomew! Congrats to you! Your peace of mind will thank you. Put the gold investment out of si...

What's wrong with large growth? That's basically the S&P 500, isn't it? I actually think that the US stock market includes international diversification. Most of the big corporations operate internationally to a large extent. Plus, gold is a form of international diversification. Assuming you hold t...

Yup it's the one with the fee. They just raised that last year. It's still worth while. I end up netting about 4% cash back after the fee. You also get 3% at Macys which is nice since they now have online Zappos-like shopping (free returns and you get your clothes shopping done without ever having t...

Ochotona, I have the same situation as you. When I retire, I'm going to be able to consolidate a bit but will still be left with 403bs at TIAA-CREF and Vanguard, an HSA at Schwab, brokerage accounts at Vanguard and Fidelity, Treasury Direct, and Perth Mint. And a pile of gold Eagles. Yikes!! I'll ju...

Wha? I completely agree that for money that you will stash away and not look at, access, or otherwise deal with for at least 20-30 years, 100% stocks is a great choice. If that were compatible with the human condition, there would be no need for the Permanent Portfolio, or indeed any stock/bond port...

Yes, the point of gold is not about returns, it's about stabilizing portfolio value over the short term. Which can be quite long from the point of view of an individual investor. My original point wasn't about cherry picking dates, it was that there have been long stretches where stocks perform very...

Weird how in the past two pages there are three different sets of numbers for gold vs stocks since 1967. The chart that shows gold beating the pants off stocks over a 51 year period, by the way, DOES include dividends. The original point is that you don't want to get hung up watching any particular ...

No way that's AWESOME!!!!!!

Now all I have to pay fees for is VTI and VBR. I like SPTL for bonds, but I don't like any of their free stock ETF offerings.

Sophie, you know better than anyone that so much of this is psychology. "New record highs" are, and have been, touted so often on the news, and drops explained away with having isolated specific reasons, it leaves one with the fear of missing out. There is never a time to not be in the markets, acc...

Point taken. Historic DJIA data was just easier to come by than S&P 500. I did find a source reporting one data point per year (Jan 1), which is probably good enough. Not quite as spectacularly bad as the DJIA, but it still shows some pretty impressive losing/flat periods. Also let me just say...it'...

I wonder if there is another asset that has performed as poorly in the entire world over that timeframe. Not a joke! Not that SPECIFIC timeframe, but the answer to your question is: stocks!!! In October 1965, the DJIA was 7,668. After that stocks slid until the nadir in August 1982, when it was 2,3...

Also, Will Congress someday tax Roth IRAs? I think it's only a matter of time. Hopefully it's a LONG time. Say not so.... I think it would be hard to do. What would you tax? Contributions are already taxed. If they decide to tax the gains then there is no difference between a Roth and a taxable acc...