Will the Perth Mint keep track of your cost basis for all of your monthly investments into perpetuity? Otherwise, you will need to track that yourself for tax purposes, which seems like a pain to me.

Thanks, Sophie. Definitely sounds like this could be a good option for off-shore gold with reasonable fees for those of us who aren't quite yet in the Rothschild category. One thing I'm not quite clear on is about possible currency conversion issues. Do your U.S. dollars get converted to Australian ...

Sophie, what are the fees for the Perth Mint depository online program?

The guy over at Bogleheads in that link you posted said that gold's outperformance was only due to 1970 to 1975 returns. I do wish that portfoliocharts.com would give you the option to ignore those years, because I do believe that they could be misleading. In fact, there is one calculator, the Bench...

Have you been to India? I haven't, but I'm guessing people there won't be slowing down on their gold purchases any time real soon. Maybe in 200 years. In the meantime, I like how in very recent history having gold in the portfolio has smoothed out the returns considerably. I don't like those 10-year...

Okay, I think I got it figured out. I edited the original post, and now it seems to be working. Does anybody want to take a crack at answering the question I posted at the end? Thanks.

Did I do something wrong? How come my images don't show up? This is my first time trying to post images.

One of my favorite calculators at portfoliocharts.com is the withdrawal rates calculator that shows safe withdrawal rates for retirement portfolios. (BTW, thanks Tyler for making all of these awesome toys to play with on your website!!!) Below are safe withdrawal rates for a conservative portfolio w...

Hey blue ruin, great post. Of course I'd heard that parable before, but it really is appropriate for thinking about permanent portfolio performance. It seems that at least one asset is always looking bad, and that the asset that goes up to help is often the one least expected to do so.

Kbg wrote:The PP is not a good grow your assets over the long term portfolio. There is no risk premia in 50% of the portfolio. I categorically do not recommend it for younger people (unless you leverage it and know how to do that properly).

What portfolio(s) would you recommend for younger people?

Agreed also, and I know you get it, PS, it's just that the cartoon you posted seems to me to sort of lean in the opposite direction just a little, providing some cover for the smug do-gooders who really have no idea what they are talking about. I'm not disagreeing with anything you've said. If alter...

Agreed, the externalities of fossil fuels should also be included. My own gut feel is that if that were the case, the price of gasoline at the pump would be maybe double or triple, which would cause some big changes in our society, which is fine with me. I'm just tired of the media shoving something...

What if it's a big hoax, and we create an even bigger national and global government for nothing?

Having said that, I have nothing against green energy, as long as it makes sense after considering all externalities.

What does Rickards have to say about paper gold versus physical gold?

Interest rates are probably going to rise soon, or at least stop falling. How long have we been hearing that? It sounds like your crystal ball is a lot clearer than mine. Could you please give us a date fixed? Have you seen where long-bond yields are at in other countries? Is there some reason that...

We're 15 years out from 9/11. The war machine needs to find some new bogeymen.

Interest rates are probably going to rise soon, or at least stop falling. How long have we been hearing that? It sounds like your crystal ball is a lot clearer than mine. Could you please give us a date fixed? Have you seen where long-bond yields are at in other countries? Is there some reason that...

The thing to do is look back at a long-term graph of PP real returns (i.e., adjusted for inflation). First, make sure that you are comfortable with the long-term results. Then, look at the recent short-term results and compare them to previous down times, and I'm pretty sure that what you will find ...

Kbg, In theory, I agree with you. In practice, all I can say is that I would be light-years ahead if I had discovered the PP in my 20s. I'm now in my 50s. My problem, and that of most other people, was that I would buy when things were up and sell when things were down, instead of vice versa. The PP...

And are there any more advantages of the PP that he missed? Yes, he missed a potentially big advantage of the PP, which is physical gold. Like most of these people, he assumes that the party will go on forever, whereas looking historically that has never happened before. At some point the party wil...

Maybe try a Dogs of the Dow approach. Look for high-quality stocks that have been down for the past 12 months and are due for a return toward the mean.

MachineGhost wrote:

stuper1 wrote:

Kriegsspiel wrote:Or a cult, commune, or convent?

Moving to southeast Idaho would be pretty close to that, if you ask me.

Why???

There's a large Mormon population in that area. Not everyone of course. Very red state type area. Nice, safe area. I really can't picture you fitting in very well.

Kriegsspiel wrote:Or a cult, commune, or convent?

Moving to southeast Idaho would be pretty close to that, if you ask me.

I grew up in Boise in the 1970s and 1980s. It's grown a lot since then. It has a very vibrant downtown and a nice river that goes right through the city. It's a very outdoorsy oriented place but with a good amount of culture also. To me, the best place to live is close to downtown. You can walk or b...

My brother lives in Bend. I've only visited. Is it expensive as compared to California coastal cities, or only as compared to say Toledo?