I'm starting to feel sorry for cash, or rather cash in the form of a treasury money market fund. It seems to be as unloved here as midcaps are unloved in the boglehead forum. I think Harry also brought up the junk silver coins when someone asked about them on the "Money Talk" radio show. I...

Definitely, MT. My holdings are still young, so I wasn't able to enjoy watching pp/prpfx navigate 2008 so skillfully*. When I told my father, a lifelong investor, that I had bought gold, he said "Well you definitely paid full price." We're both watching gold's recent climb with interest, b...

So....where do you keep the cape and bat-mobile? (laughing) That really was a great story! I'm somewhat tempted to try the carpet cleaning, though only in my own home. I've got an HVAC guy who has a law degree "as backup". Reminds me of MediumTex a little bit. I have long ago given up try...

gizmo, where are gambling proceeds tax free?

dualstow- if you bought physical gold any time in last few years, you haven't had to wait too long to get back your 4.5% commission! You got that right.  As of last week, I'm above water. (started buying in December 2010, I think). The way things turned out, I had very little time to worry or compl...

Born into a Vanguard taxable account. My IRAs are there, too.
I have a 401(k) at Fidelity because when I went to set mine up, Vanguard was not yet offering a solo 401(k). They do now, but I'm glad it worked out the way it did. I like both companies but Vanguard is the greatest, in my opinion.

Thank you for that, Adam. I've been trying to locate a copy of that book. Nice to be able to just download it.
Now I can read it in my easy chair. ;-)

There is one thing that I find attractive in the mutual fund, but it's not about performance. It's that you can buy all four assets at once , no matter how small, and no matter how much space you have in your IRA/401(k). I've been going gangbusters filling up my tax-deferred accounts with 30-year tr...

Interesting article in the weekend WSJ this morning: 'Why ETFs Lag Their Indexes' Since a March 15 low, the three U.S.-sold ETFs that track the broad Japanese stock market all have lost money, even though the indexes they mimic are up. The largest, the $7.2 billion iShares MSCI Japan Index ETF, has ...

This has nothing to do with the original thread, but it is a fair question. As one of the people who only started recently, I have no data for an answer. But I will add another reason for DIY: manager risk. I don't think Michael Cuggino has any major changes ahead, but if someone else takes over, he...

The question is stil out there. Did anyone make 19% last year or 4.5% YTD.  That's a fair question. Yes I did, but only in my variable portfolio. Then again, I am happy to move it into my pp (not prpfx) because you know what they say about past performance. Not sure why you're stuck on last year. I...

I wonder if anyone has actually taken it upon himself to make a PP? And, if so, did he make 19% last year or 4.5% YTD? I think one should have better things to do than screw around trying to match up to PRPFX. Hah, read the forum and you will see that quite a lot of us have our own PP as opposed to...

Why put gold in your tax-deferred account instead of stocks? Is it due to gold's higher tax rate when you sell?

You may spread your gold holdings over a variety of ETFs like GTU, PHYS and IAU. MediumTex has written about holding both EDV and VUSTX (and perhaps the actual treasuries as well?) for the bond component. Let's say that when it's time to rebalance gold, your IAU shares are responsible for breaking t...

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, mine are in my 401(k), which doesn't have a whole lot other than 30-year treasuries. So, no tax benefits for me.

From another thread, I learned that some of you have been following the pp strategy for quite a long time. Have any of you long-timers ever had to sell your 30-year treasuries at a loss when there were only 20 years left to maturity? Were you tempted to hold on until maturity and just find a way to ...

tractor beam in effect

I will wish I had bought silver, I suppose.

Some online reviews of AJPM indicate this business may have recently changed ownership and quality of service may have gone downhill since.  One reviewer indicated having been lied to.  I found them after having consulted the Gold FAQ. Interesting to hear this. For what it's worth, I have only deal...

Interesting, HB Reader.
I haven't heard bearer bonds mentioned since watching the Jodie Foster film, "The Panic Room."

It would probably be premature at this point to abandon the PP and subscribe to "MediumTex's Magic Market Mutterings." Of course, of course. But trying to convince true believers that these mutterings aren't magic would be like trying to convince numerologists that it's all in their minds.

MediumTex wrote: ...
I'm still in the ballpark.
...
BTW, I will be happy to be wrong on this call.  
...

Still, you seem to have hit on the magic number. It's uncanny.
Time to start selling a newsletter to non-PPers?

Let's make it Tuesday. :-)

We have 1334. What a relief.

Getting awfully close today...