Confession: I'm thinking about chopping long term bonds down to maybe 20% after New Year's. No less than 15%, anyway. Then, when five straight years of deflation follow -- if I do it -- you can all laugh at me.  ;) Bond prices will go down just enough in the next couple of weeks so that you don't h...

I am not really keen on purchasing one asset a time, it feels like a big gamble to try to time the market. Yeah, as PS says, the picture came out really small. With a smaller PP, buying only one asset might tilt you a bit out of balance so that you are not exactly at 4X25 but that's OK. Just buy wh...

The CPA I used to go to actually offered audit insurance for about $200. I liked that. He just charged too much for the other stuff.

Just counted the pages of my 2013 return and there are 49 of them.

Reub wrote: Are your numbers correct? Are the decimal points in the wrong place?

Reub, You are asking about the numbers in krod16's returns chart, correct? It seems like to get the "total return", the monthly gains or losses are just multiplied by 12 to calculate a yearly return.

Being self employed, I use the cheapest competent CPA I can find. Depending on which forms certain expenses are listed, it can save me a lot. Might even bump up to a more expensive CPA during the years our daughter is in college because I don't yet know know all the tricks. When I am retired, I will...

I am struck over and over by the appearance that Muslim thugs seem to be trying to draw anyone and everyone into the battle against them... that they don't just want to fight the evil US but England, Spain, India, China, Australia and everyone else.

Thanks Xan & Tech. This is a good trick to know about going forward. Here is a decent link on the subject: http://moneyover55.about.com/od/taxtips/fl/How-to-Manage-Capital-Gains-for-Mutual-Fund-Investors.htm And also a 1040 tax calculator I found online: http://www.dinkytown.net/java/Tax1040.htm...

dualstow wrote: I am about as old as Unix, or at least the name UNICS.

But not old enough to remember the eunuchs, correct?

Thanks for posting your early results, krod16. I am curious how long your long bonds are there in India. Does the Indian government issue a 30-year bond? I looked at some figures online and it looks like (at least officially) inflation has come down considerably there in India in the last year or so.

lordmetroid, 3% in expenses means a return that is roughly that much lower. It's hard to reliably generate a 3% return so definitely don't go that route. Buying the lagging asset (think of it as shopping for stuff on sale) when you have a decent amount to invest seems a good route to go. You'll prob...

madbean,

Budd beat me to it but, yeah, check out the link that Craig provided. Much of the blog post is about tax efficiency.

To paraphrase rickB, everything in the PP sucks eventually. You have every right to be upset about the lagging asset, but I think the key to being really comfortable with the PP is to just not pay too much attention to whatever is going down at any moment in time. I'm terrible at this as well but I'...

...what doesn't suck in a PP at some point in time? If you are having a bond discussion open up three other discussions and all four miss the entire point and theory of the PP. Not sure how I missed this post the first time but it's a great one. I guess I've never looked before, but I will admit to...

dualstow wrote: I bought BP during the disaster and public relations downward spiral. Was doing pretty well until oil went down across the board.

Ah ha! Buy the spills!

I'm a freelancer so I like having the extra cash in case of an emergency. I'm a CT-based freelancer as well. Maybe this is obvious but I think it makes a big difference if there are two income earners in a household. A big reason for a large cash stash is to protect us when we can't work or work is...

dualstow wrote: Long bonds to Barrett: "How'ya like me now?" 

Dualstow, Thanks for thinking of me. Haven't sold yet!

Anyone out there eyeballing oil stocks at current levels? My wife who is never interested in anything to do with investing says that she wants to buy some. Those dividends look tasty but I realize they are not guaranteed. This stuff (oil, that is) is in limited supply in the long run, right?

I think there might be a tactical advantage to sticking with one type of coin for the most part. When you buy coins, you get a receipt. When you sell them to rebalance (or otherwise), it's important to be able to show what price you bought them for, no? Prices vary. Receipts are pretty general (five...

dualstow wrote: Nope, my dad took care of it back then. Come to think of it, I was young and he was the stickler making me report it. 

Yeah, my accountant brother-in-law did the same for me when I was working overseas a lot in the 1980s. Some crap about tax compliance and yadda yadda yadda.

Dualstow, You didn't have to pay "thousands of dollars" to your accountant, did you?

No real opinion of Jeb but it strikes me that we are getting closer and closer to our own version of royal families here in the US with the Bushes, Clintons and (maybe) Obamas.

If three assets go down at once with only cash being the winner in a Mother-Of-All-Dual-Bubble-Pop-Deflations, there's no way the PP can offset it.  I think Ray Dalio understood this problem which is why they shift from a All Weather portfolio to a special Deflationary Proof portfolio, but it still...

I didn't miss it.  Just concerned about the future.  The PP isn't historically battle-tested under the conditions I'm worried about.  What is more deflationary than stocks and bonds declining at the same time? MG, Why do you say that bonds tanking is 'deflationary'? Was that a typo or do you just m...

Pointedstick wrote: While buying is free, there's a $75 fee per bond sold.

Wait, is that really true? Did you mean $7.50? Even that is really bad!