Hi All, I have been using the code in fnord123's post to track my I-Bonds in Google Spreasheets. This has been working fine, but in the past couple days, it has stopped working and just returns #VALUE (error: The data could not be retrieved. Please check the URL.) Is anyone else having the same issu...

I know I am a new member here and I spend more time reading the posts than I do commenting, but I'd also be interested to see the data with the 25% Max DD for the PP. I chose the PP due to it's low overall volatility and think this information would be interesting. I know LC475 is being a bit rough,...

Okay, that sounds reasonable to me since we agree that a stock tilt is a bet on prosperity :) If someone doesn't mind making that bet and also can guarantee that they won't have to touch the money for a sufficiently long time (this is a loaded statement since there could be a multi-decade stock mark...

PointedStick, I get what you're saying that the PP will lag the Stock Market during times of prosperity. But to say that over a long time horizon, one would be better off putting more money in stocks is the equivalent of saying that one should expect prosperity in the long term. If that is the case,...

My solution has been to add new funds to the 'Cash' bucket. Whenever I hit a rebalancing band (i.e. Cash reaches 35% of the total PP size), I use the excess cash to purchase the other asset (Stocks, Bonds, Gold). This keeps transactions down to only a few times per year and will become less frequent...

I don't understand the responses saying that a 'stock heavy' portfolio is appropriate for anyone in the accumulation phase (young investors). Hasn't the PP historically done about as well as a 100% stock portfolio with significantly lower volatility and much smaller drawdowns? In what way would a st...

Thanks for your help everybody! I have (pretty much) built my PP. I have ordered half of the gold portion and will wait to receive it before ordering the second half. Cash is in an I-Bond; I will put the rest in short-term treasuries once I'm done with my gold purchases. Stock portion is invested in...

Okay you still get the full 1 ounce of gold. I may split my gold 50/50 between American Eagles and Canadian Maple Leafs even if it doesn't really get me anything. I might also get the coin balance to check for fakes, just in case. We won't tell if you won't. Maybe this can be the omnibus Mukramesh t...

I'm not really worried about buying online and having it shipped to my home from a reputable dealer. I make most of my purchases online anyway. For most purchases, I shop around for the best price and best reviewed dealers. I assume the same thing would apply to gold? Also another gold question. I n...

Thanks for the replies everyone. Rickb, I actually live in Texas so there is no state income tax to worry about. And thanks for the info on insuring gold. I will definitely be looking into that. LC475, yes I was thinking the same thing about it being very unlikely that I will need to sell gold since...

Also in Harry Browne's book, he recommends the Dreyfus 100% US Treasury Money Market Fund in the index. It currently invests in treasuries with an average effective duration of 7.5 years. Does that mean it's safer to to ladder longer term treasuries?

Also, the more I read on the cash section of the forum, the less sure I am about what to so with my own cash portion. I don't like the idea of getting an ETFS with an expense ratio comparable to/higher than it's yield. 1-3yr treasury ladders seem good yield/expense wise, but have some interest rate ...

Thanks for the input everyone. Let me explain my current plan in more detail and maybe you can explain why a separate PP in each account would be better. I am currently planning on treating my entire portfolio (taxable brokerage and 401k) as a single PP. Since both accounts are approximately the sam...

I just spoke with a Merrill Edge rep and found out that they do not have an auto-rollover feature to automatically purchase new treasuries when an old one matures (Fidelity has this). So I guess using Merrill Edge is only feasible when using Short Term Notes (1-3 yr) since I'd have to manually purch...

Hi All, This is my first post on this forum. I have enjoyed reading Craig's blog and the forum posts and I will likely create my own PP in the next few weeks. I have a few questions regarding the cash portion. Here is my current plan: 401k- Fidelity Bonds: Buy long term treasuries in my 401k brokera...