It's crazy, isn't it?  :) When the entire package goes up but one asset is down, it's completely normal and natural, but we fret about the lagging asset and beat up on it. If only we had invested more in the winning asset! And when all the assets are on fire and the pp soars, we sense it can't last...

I used to use EDV instead of TLT on the justification that bonds have the lowest historical volatility of three three volatile assets, so I was trying to match them up better. In practice, I almost immediately got spooked by its much higher volatility and replaced it with TLT and real bonds. Every ...

I was just reading Ryan Melvey's article on Long Bonds here: http://www.stableinvesting.com/ He makes the case that one can hold a lower percentage of LTTs (and still not alter the power of bonds to lift the entire portfolio) if they are of longer duration. I guess that is pretty obvious to most PPe...

Here I have to sell, make a wire transfer and buy again. At least 3 days. I continue to think that not having 20% of the total portfolio (10% stocks + 10% gold) working might change a lot the result. The last days were very good for PP, imagine being out at these days and come back in the next nega...

My constantly rejiggered portfolio (CRP) for the last 12 years shows a annualized return of 4.77%. That includes one year plus of PP returns. I just have to click a tab and Fidelity is happy to show me my lagging quotient (LQ) as well as my rejiggering losses.

Ouch! But that concurs with data that I have found elsewhere on the subject... that during a time frame that the stock market was delivering 10% a year or so, the median individual investor was making about 4%. As I have said before, I'd put my crappy results up against anyone's on this forum. I am ...

Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Alien(s) with that Mech suit. Yes! And here is a suitable sound bite from the movie: "That's the only way. We'll move in pairs. We'll go step by step and cut off every bulkhead and every vent until we have it cornered. And then we'll blow it the f*ck out into spac...

Anecdotally, there is a major factory in my town house where hundreds of millions of dollars of high tech goods are produced. Touché, PS. Thinking about this a bit more, this manufacturing topic seems to come up a lot in political debates where the only thing that is really being discussed is the n...

China is a manufacturing powerhouse, but the USA is still the top manufacturer in the world! This just boggles my mind if it is true. I really wonder how this is calculated. If, for example, an American company is outsourcing a tremendous amount of the manufacturing processes but the goods ultimate...

All that happens as one's wealth increases is that you get closer to being able to afford that next tier of purchasable goods. Gosh, I sure hope that is not the case for me and my family. I am hoping that we will reach a point of "enough is enough" and not give a rat's ass what other stuf...

TripleB wrote: Side note: $2M is not wealthy by any means.

I think it's all relative. Pointedstick is a master of living way within his means. He once survived off of shoe leather for three years during a weak market.

Thoughts? Well, the most obvious one that comes to mind is that you are "all in stocks" so you don't really have any dry powder to buy up loads of shares when they are cheap. You'd maybe have a few thousand in dividends that have been spit off but, for a portfolio of that size, you would ...

I was four weeks away from rebalancing!  Four weeks!  I guess anything can happen in that time but still... I keep thinking about this post. Gold goes up after a long down period which kinda rebalances your portfolio passively, right? Is your regret that you didn't actively rebalance? I'm intereste...

This idea is really intriguing, but when I read these GTU threads I always wonder why people talk about the shares "trading at a discount" instead of the shares "underperforming the metal." Yeah, it seems that increased volatility might be a good thing for PP assets, but you have...

Sophie, These EE Bonds are all outside of my APAP and it's money I don't plan on using for a long time. And, no, no T-Bills to sell instead. Also, my Roth accounts can really use some beefing up.

I think the situation is even better than break-even after four years.  Bear in mind that you pay tax on the gains, not the whole bond, so a bond valued at $1000 that has just doubled means an initial purchase of $500.  Tax on the $500 gain at 15% would be $75, meaning you'd have $925 to invest in ...

I have some EE bonds hitting their doubling date next year and I too wonder if it's worth cashing them in.  It seems like it may be pointless as long as interest rates are lower than the current rate? I think it's more complicated than that depending on what tax bracket you are in now versus five o...

Not sure what it means for the PP but my guess is that the Swiss see the demise of the Euro coming sooner rather than later, and want to be well clear of all the eventual mayhem that could create. If the Euro falls apart (as CraigR has predicted many times), my guess is that gold prices will shoot u...

Not sure if I am looking at all the correct math angles on this so I'd like to get some input. I have some EE bonds that hit their doubling date recently. They are now earning about 1.4% and I am thinking seriously about cashing them in, paying taxes on the gains, and putting the proceeds into a Rot...

I think that Saudi Arabia is setting up for a 3-4 year period of low oil prices ($30-$60 per barrel), to be followed by 5+ years of $100 or more oil (and ideally in this view $100 would be the new floor going forward).  It will be painful for the state oil companies, but it will completely wipe out...

My dilemma is that the TLT is held in a traditional IRA. I would rather buy physical gold rather than buy into a gold IRA ETF, but I don't see an easy alternative. Cashing in the TLT would send me into a higher tax bracket. How does selling TLT put you in a higher tax bracket if it's held in a trad...

Austen,

Thanks for posting that! Great info to have & much appreciated.

The HBPP involves a lot of inaction once you set it up, and the "set it and forget it" mentality is counter-intuitive for most people. In our linear thinking society, inaction is not usually a virtue even though in some situations, it can be the smartest strategy.  Dang, I wish I had writ...

Due to my problems with LT bonds and gold, I end up having a classic stock-heavy Boglehead type of portfolio.  This has worked out OK for the last few years, but I need to get my ducks-in-a-row before the next big market meltdown comes. Yeah, it's hard to jump into LTTs right now. I'll buy a few wh...

WHAT? When the hell did Spain's yields recover... weren't they like a Greece Jr. a couple years ago? I think even when Spanish yields were "high" they were only at about 6%, no? Damn! I knew I should have gone long on Spain! I am guessing that the fact these countries are part of the EU h...