Hoo boy, looks good. I'm going to make a nice cup of coffee and sit down for this one.

Is it US-centric, or global in its narrative? Or is it rather about applying principles?

Great topic, by the way. I love me a good book review.

I actually think it's not super bad news. He was caught, and it got on the news instead of being buried somehow. Not a customer at the Perth, but they'd still be on my short list.

I think it's a pretty good portfolio, I've got something almost similar myself but I haven't gone global on the bonds part yet. Meb Faber has said a few short words about the global permanent portfolio in past episodes, something to the tune of very low volatility, hasn't done better than the US PP,...

But what is the alternative then?

Nice work recreating that portfolio!

Schiff has a nice YouTube channel and podcast. He has zero faith in the political and monetary situation of the US, that's why he's called a permabear. One day he'll be right, but then we could all be dead.

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 . Please keep posting. I very much appreciate your critical view.

Oh yeah, this is a big one for me. I've seen my dad go in and out of stocks, because he started to feel unhappy about his investment. Later he'd say "it was the right time", and he'd buy back into the market without any particular strategy. The buffer of cash makes me feel secure. I know t...

Thanks for reporting back. Very interesting. Since starting, I had severe doubts about the PP in this European environment but it looks like you've done pretty okay. This year also looks to be good, with how gold is doing.

You check once a year. And only rebalance when the boundaries were hit.

I really like them. Very privacy-friendly, no communication with the mothership or external parties. Due to work, I'm using a Mac but this would definitely be my next choice.

76 minutes? I would need an executive summary. :) I think it's too long as well, however -- in the first couple of minutes, he refers to a debate he had with Christopher Joye: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQuKMsmVq5c It's about 25 minutes long and very fast paced. What I like, is that both sides...

Interesting... so even if interest rates would rise, we won't get the same performance from bonds -- due to the drag inherent in bonds. Anyway, to counteract this, they say they do the following: We take a different approach. Our portfolios are designed by “currentizing” historical bond returns. Thi...

When I read this stuff, I'm so glad a decent portion of my portfolio is gold.

Some weeks back, Peter Schiff analyzed this in a podcast. He figured that this benefits the big boys, because they have enough money for robotization/automation. They either replace workers, or augment them, such that they can do with a smaller workforce. Smaller companies can only downsize when the...

Wow, that's an extremely interesting thread. Fascinating how the topic author, "Calais", updates his topic over the years. Also interesting: he jumps out of equities, and then most recently, reveals how he's been taking pretty huge risks which lost 45% of his usually very steady 2% yields:...

Pretty good podcast on diversification https://www.schwab.com/resource-center/insights/content/financial-decoder-season-2-episode-1?cmp=em-QYD I'm always on the lookout for good financial podcasts, added it straight away! Edit: so I listened to it. Basically it's a very, very well done overview of ...

How has Euro PP performed in that environment? Gold: 1,7% Bonds: 0,9% Stocks: -0,5% Cash: 0,7% So an average of 0.7% in 2018, thanks to gold. I'm switching out of a Euro PP, and taking steps toward a global PP. I've already moved out of EU stocks, and taken a global stocks fund. I'll probably do th...

These low (or for EU zero) interest rates have been likened to drugs by Peter Schiff.

I listened to it, and it's pretty good. I'll listen to it twice, to be honest. A lot of information that requires me to "let it sink in".

Great tip!

Just to make sure, you're based in the US? Because if not, then you'd get different advice.

Happy Christmas!

Off to my sister-in-law. Last time I had a pretty interesting conversation on investments there, with one of her friends. Probably no such luck this time Oh well.

Here's an interesting discussion about these lower yields. It's also why I avoid these longest maturities. But calculate it for .75%, .5% and .25% yields and it still holds up because the duration is also increasing to make up for the "missing" yields, i.e. it just becomes more like a zero...

For bonds, I've got the iShares E GOV7-10, IE00B1FZS806. As you'd guess from the name, maturity is 7 to 10 years. This is the longest maturity I'm willing to buy. I may get rid of the whole thing, and get some sort of global bond ETF. I also no longer hold EU stocks, I went global. For cash, I went ...

I think Hal's conclusion is correct; you'd just have the bond interest + stock dividends. However with the Euro as it is, I think gold serves a nice backup in case something else than inflation happens.