Whenever I make purchases with my credit card, I save the receipts, and when I get my credit card statement I check it against the paper receipts to make sure none of the charges are fraudulent. That worked fine for many years, but recently I've been using my credit card more often as society become...

July 15 close hasn't happened yet, so here's the PP performance (including dividends) from Feb 15 to July 12: Stocks (VTI): 8.6% Bonds (TLT): 7.9% Gold (GLD): 7.0% Cash (SHV): 1.0% Portfolio (4x25): 6.1% You can check these numbers yourself by going to www.etfreplay.com and selecting Backtesting -->...

A lot of the sentiment in this thread seems to be hinting towards the tight money recession scenario -- the scenario that the 25% cash portion of the portfolio is meant for. There can indeed be times in which, say, stocks and bonds both perform poorly simultaneously. We've got that cash (and gold) ...

As an empirical test, let's observe the price behavior of gold vs. various cryptocurrencies in response to the next period of major uncertainty (market crash, secular bear market, global crisis, major war or terrorist attack, etc.). My feeling is that our technologically-based financial system (incl...

If I store it at home, I’ll get shot. I feel better keeping it at the bank. Agreed. There was a home burglary in my neighborhood a few weeks ago, and the owner was home at the time (midday). The burglar severely beat the man and escaped with a safe. The man died later in the hospital. Although I do...

The gold ban doesn’t make much sense to me, either. As long as it’s clearly stated that the bank will insure only up to $X per box, why do they care whether a box contains gold or not? Something isn’t quite adding up. Unless they’re specifically banning gold bullion since they know it’s the most com...

Jainism? No, Seventh-day Adventist Christianity. The consumption of meat and alcohol aren’t forbidden by the Bible, but Ellen G. White is considered a prophet by the SDA church, and as part of the Temperance movement she advocated a vegetarian and alcohol-free lifestyle (similar to John Harvey Kell...

Yes, I turned 70 two days ago (and get my first SS check next month). And for the record I'm a kick-ass 70 year old. Celebrated by doing a 200 mile bike ride with my son (actually it was originally supposed to be a 400 mile ride but still not too bad). Badass! What’s your secret? Discipline, or jus...

Impossible Burgers are soy-based. Depending on who you talk to, men should avoid soy. I did read an article yesterday claiming that this was a myth, but have read way more taking the other view. Boca burgers (also soy) used to be pretty good, too, but haven't had one in years. Well, for what it’s w...

As an aside, although the BYND burgers tasted great, they had the oddest smell prior to cooking. Almost didn't go through with it. Yes, exactly. Beyond Burgers taste fine, but they have an odd smell that reminds me faintly of a freshly opened can of dog food. I hope they can improve the product ove...

I remember Sophie’s backtest. However, I recall the difference in measured performance was not huge and might have been due simply to statistical variation within the historical data set. Even if the difference were real, there’s no guarantee it would persist going forward. Whether you buy the laggi...

what i find funny is when there is a short term market downturn everyone seems to cheer about how the pp did so well by not falling but when the results are weak for 3 years all of a sudden you can't tell much from the short term . That’s not a contradiction. Short-term volatility and long-term CAG...