"i am through posting on this forum"

This is the best thing I've read on this forum in a while !! 

+1 on the Duluth Fire Hose Pants.  Far superior to Carhartts.  The only Carhartts worth owning are the double-front, riveted original model which are hard to find.  The single front, carpenter-type Carharrts don't last and are over-priced.  I've worked outside my whole life and the Fire Hose pants a...

4 x 45 would be awesome!

5% is hardly a PP, 10% is acceptable as I too only hold 1/10 of my portfolio in gold.

10% is acceptable according to you, but is definitely not a PP.  You either have a PP or you don't...

I think Vanguard Wellington mutual fund is 60/40 s/b, don't know if there is an ETF equivalent ...

Several mentions of the cost being prohibitive for individual stocks.  I get 30 free transactions per month through my brokerage account.  So could amass a collection of quite a few individual stocks in a short time, creating a small "fund" of my own with zero cost/zero expense ratio.  Ind...

push3r-

Please let us know when the time is right....

To quote Bill and Ted, "Excellent!"

Actually that was Wayne and Garth there Mr. Know-It-All...

Speaking of not having apologized, I believe you owe various people for: * Chastising anybody who questioned your claims. * Calling people names for not taking the simple steps of verifying your claims themselves (which you are now acknowledging was impossible). * Claiming that your proof was readi...

How, pray tell, do you know when gold is bottoming ?

My VP is currently a mix of about 75/25 of stocks/cash.  The stocks are a mix of mostly energy and natural resource stocks plus some metals/mining stocks and ETFs' (GDX, GDXJ, SLW, FCX).  I got to thinking, does anyone do a hybridized version of a PP as their VP??  I'm thinking of adding some long-t...

Frugal,

Have you considered using available technology such as the Internet and the telephone to figure this out for yourself??  Just curious...

KevinW wrote: What are the assets with the unrealized gains? Could they be used acceptably as one of the PP assets?

The assets with gains are individual stocks - LO, SDRL, and LMT.  Suitable for VP but not so much for PP. 

Hi.  This is more of a tax question than a PP question, but I do have a sizable portion of my portfolio in a DIY 4x25 PP, and consult this forum often and find it very helpful/informative.  I am in the process of taking around 100K that is being managed by a fee-based manager back and managing it my...

Merrill Lynch has a credit card and offers 30 free ETF trades per month as long as you keep 50K+ balance.

Google Finance works well. just set up a hypothetical portfolio with 4 proxy funds- VTI/IAU/TLT/BIL for instance.  put 10K in each and monitor the percentage of gain/ loss.

Great advice, thanks again...

thanks for the responses.  The next decision I have to make is whether to go the full 50K into PP or 40K into PP and 10K into VP.  I am leaning towards full PP just to not have to think/worry about it anymore.  Again, any thoughts welcomed...

Hi - Long-time troller first-time poster here.  I am in the process of liquidating a 50K all individual stocks portfolio and re-allocating to a 4X25 DIY ETF PP.  My biggest question concerns the cash portion. What are the advantages/disadvantages of an ultra-short Treasury ETF (BIL, etc.) vs.  the c...