Well said Craig.  This also applies to co-workers, family, and friends as well.  Bull markets, such as the past five years, give a false sense of security.  My wife and I just returned from our company's Christmas party and you would swear that everyone's Warren Buffett, which is amazing because I'm...

Some people feel safe and secure paying cash for their own home and that's fine.  I feel better with having a mortgage (30 year at 3.25%) and having more liquid assets if/when Mr. Murphy decides to pay us a visit.  You can't eat sheetrock.

This doesn't surprise me at all.  When I first started investing in the Permanent Portfolio people would want to tell me how dumb it was.  Gold and LTT seem to get the brunt of the criticism. 

1.  Buying a house in July of 2007.  Real Estate always goes up, right  ;) At the time the real estate in the Washington DC area had already dropped 10-15%.  Little did I know it would drop another 20-25%.  Bought the house for $375,000 and it's worth $280,000 now. -$95,000 Lesson learned:  Leverage...

TD Ameritrade due to the commission free ETF's.

Great news!!  Looking forward to the release.

Thanks for the reassurances. As you've probably noticed I'm a recovering stock picker, and the itch is always there ;-| Yes, the PP allocations definitely allow me to sleep much more comfortably, but I suppose I still check the tickers during the day to see how I'm doing. I will let it coast and go...

How do you manage to spend $80k per year while working full-time? Do you skeet sheet uncut diamonds?  ;D In all seriousness I live off $15k per year using modest expense control. If I wanted to I could do a few more things and maybe up my expenses to $30k, to include a few vacations. I can't imagin...

I have noticed that as I have gotten more comfortable with the PP strategy, I have developed an ability to analyze and interpret the PP components far more effectively than I ever could prior to coming to the PP. It's probably sort of like being able to walk a beam six inches off the ground that yo...

I've known about the PP since the late 90's.  However back then, if you weren't in stocks 100% or 200% if you had a margin account most people considered you to be a fool.  A co-worker of mine back then was on a three year retirement plan.  That didn't turn out to well. How times have changed.  Even...

MT, To answer your question, If the market can be beaten, what could be more productive than staring at the squiggly lines? Spending time with my family is the main thing.  Tomorrow's not guaranteed.  The returns I got when investing in individual equities was only a little higher than if I had impl...

It takes work (lots of it), skill, and some luck but I have the opinion that some people can beat the market.  I use to dance in and out of individual equities when I was single and had the time to keep up with that type of portfolio.  Since I've gotten married and had children, I don't have the tim...

I'd stay away from covered calls.  Why limit your upside?

Looks like some great choices to me.  I'd love to have those options in my current 401k.    

This reminds me of trying to pick a Final Four bracket on the first week of the NCAA tournament in March.  It's a lot of fun but you tend to make a lot of picks that don't pan out.

Congratulations.  As craigr mentioned, I think you'll find CNBC to be of comical value now.  One other good thing that you'll notice is that you will have much more time to do things that are more important.  To be honest, that's why I transitioned to the PP.

15% VTI & 10% VWO for Stocks
25% TLT for Bonds
25% SHY for Cash
25% GLD for Gold