Well, this is the reason I was reluctant to get into physical gold in the first place. I went with a vendor recommended at this site and had a very good experience. Thus, I was emboldened to try a bigger order. This time, the package appears to be lost. I'll let you know what happens. I know the goo...

I still have munis as part of my vP. Following Harry's advice, I call it money I'm willing to lose and can afford to lose.

1) Gold prices just sank
2) Sh*t
3) I think I'll be buying more gold in 12 months.

Thanks Craig. I also heard a radio show that touched on it. It was Harry's 24 April '05 show, I believe. He basically said the same: sell the bonds when they're down to just 20 years away from maturation, because you want the "most powerful" bond possible. In other words, an instrument tha...

As we say in the Netherlands, one man's death is another man's bread... Hmm, never heard that one, although there is something close in English. ... Got me to where I'm now though with 1/3 of my money in the PP... Same here. I have a long way to go to reach 1/3, but it's the stock drops and those t...

I think the replies here are very good. As has been mentioned, there will often be temptation when your friends are bragging about their soaring stock portolios. So, let your variable portfolio (vP) soar. If I could time the stock market to not tank just when I'm about to retire, I would only have a...

you are supposed to sell them and replace them with fresh 30-year bonds. Is there any special action that should be taken whether the price is up or down? I guess you should ignore the price, other than when it exceeds rebalancing bands? Well, I don't have to worry about this for ten years, but I do...

craigr wrote: I'll have to listen to how I'm pronouncing that word. I didn't know it was coming off that way.

Maybe it's just the mic. You still don't sound nasal, like I do.

Obviously, you are still a fan of the pp If you consider the PP as a bond or cash like investment its great.  If however you have higher expectations of it being more of a stock like investment then you might have some regrets. At its core the PP is a form of stock, bond, currency and cash blend wh...

If you don't mind a little nitpicking
- You shouldn't say "down minus ten percent." Just down ten percent.
- And, pundits, not pundints.

Again, the podcast was very informative. I really enjoyed it.

Very informative podcast. I did not know that VUSTX was not a wise choice. I currently hold both 30-Year Treasuries (directly) and VUSTX, but not so much of the latter. I will probably only buy direct or TLT from on.

pkg man, I agree about buying all the components in once. My initial post mentions that it's the only way that's comfortable for me. Although I'd rather be buying gold at US$300 an ounce, the current price is not too far off from a LT treasury. And adding some ETFs allows me to buy a block of every ...

I think the first thing you should do is decide what VP-PP mix you would like to hold.  If you want the PP to be a relatively large portion of your total portfolio, you need to sell off some of the existing stocks to fund the other components.  At some point you have to deal with the elephant in th...

or, "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bonds" This is not another thread about changing the 4 x 25 settings or about substituting components. It is also not a general thread about easing in vs going in all at once. I've read those. Specifically, it's about dealing with wealth tha...

I did write to Fido's customer service because when I ordered 8, that was later displayed as "Quantity: 8000" in the confirmation I received. Not $8000, but Quantity of 8,000. This was slightly disconcerting, because elsewhere there was a price displayed which, when multiplied by 8,000 to...

Fair enough. I've got a friend who got married in Argentina ("land of silver") and moved there during that crash who can confirm it. I suppose that there is some "unhappy medium" between our current situation and true SHTF that would merit holding these coins.

Well, confession time. When I browsed the fixed income desk at Fidelity I saw that, unlike the case with Vanguard's bond desk, I could order online. So, I never did make that phone call. The offering that I saw mentioned today's date, 12/9, so even though I placed the order last week, it kicked in t...

In his 1989 book The Economic Time Bomb , HB ... Page 210 - "As a very small part of the cash budget, it might be prudent to hold some 'junk silver coins'--U.S. dimes or quarters that were minted prior to 1965... In [the event of runaway inflation], pre-1965 U.S. silver coins could emerge as t...

I recently turned 40. I'm not sure whether that counts as young or old here. ;-) "Cash is a weak piece" -- I basically look at the cash holding as a way to easily rebalance the other three assets, since one cannot easily exchange gold coins for treasuries. But, that's because my entire PP ...

Hmm, it sounds like you may not be entirely convinced. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think if you below 15% in any one asset, it's no longer the PP. Maybe cash could be the exception. I might not be at 4 x 25 yet, but I'm certainly not shooting for a tweaked allocation. I was listening to one of th...

Good to know, especially since I'm easing into the PP rather than jumping in. This is due more to a reluctance to sell off stocks to generate cash than it is a fear of taking the plunge. I'm pretty much sold on the PP, and it's heartening to read that just moving in the direction of this allocation ...

I really enjoyed the interview. To back up what MadMoneyMachine wrote below, I want to reference a particular show from the Harry Browne "Money Talk" archives. It's 05-01-02*  If you start listening at 6:36 (minutes:seconds)  you will hear this: So - if anybody asked {how to protect} again...

Will do, thank you.

I need to sit down and go through these scenarios a bit. When I setup my portfolio I just wanted to get it done and I use the bond income for living expenses so I didn't think about it in all of these levels. I'm not sure in the end how much it really matters, but I need to find some time to do the...

Lone Wolf wrote: I also very much enjoyed the familiar intro music.  I think you should add some commercials advertising your new book for "only $9.75" that I can "read on your computer screen or print it out and read it in your easy chair."   :)

hilarious.