Enlighten me oh golden ones.  The value of gold for PP purposes is its melt value yes?  American currency is illegal to melt down.  Ergo in theoretical terms it is worth only its face value yes? Now I understand not everyone cares about legality but if you do it seems more prudent to get bars or for...

KevinW has read my mind!  Well that's not true, if he read my mind he'd be traumatized. I'm not saving for RE right now, but I plan to in just a few years. Regardless I have kind of the same system.  If it's a cost to be incurred within 1 year, or 2 years of it's estimable, I generally sock away the...

I can only tell you what I do.  I'm going to make a lot of people here laugh at how childish and simplistic this is. I wait until I feel like I have a "pile" big enough to mess with.  I generally follow the rule of thumb that if the cost to invest the pile isn't at least 2% of the "pi...

I learned I was right.  I was right to diversify.  I was right to use low cost passive funds.  I was right to stick to the plan.  I was right to ignore the news.  I came out rather smug actually.  If that disaster did not swaybme from my ideas I don't know what will. It still sucked for other reasons.

Convergent evolution?  Browne is not that famous outside of certain internet sites. He was a New York Times best selling author, presidential candidate, wrote articles, gave speeches and generally was in the public eye quite a bit. He was not unknown. It is extremely unlikely this index just happen...

I like how Tortoise described investing as an insurance policy that will payoff if we can hold the current system together. This is exactly the way I look at it. Very few people have the resources to really be able to completely insulate themselves from a systemic collapse of society to any meaning...

I find extra spending and extra spare time have diminishing marginal rates of utility at some point so it is rational to both indulge the present and save for the future just in case there is a tomorrow. !!! I don't see why this is so shocking. I have determined that with spending, for instance, I ...

This is one of those oddball questions which really has nothing to do with investing per se but the responses might be interesting.  Rather this is a question about behavior with money. The question is, what does your personal cash flow look like? I will use myself as an example.  Being a salaried s...

Well... 1.  What if the bond market changes in a year maybe less? 2.  You seem to be looking at government rates.  Thing is the government pays the minimum possible rate investors will accept for that level of risk.  That doesn't mean no one will make any money.  Also the government isn't trying to ...

craigr is exactly right.  With gold, you have a built in tax deferral to the point it almost makes no sense to have it in tax advantaged space unless you just have oodles of tax advantaged space like I do. I personally don't even try to compensate for the effects of taxes.  It'd just be madness, too...

Now please no one take this as a harsh tone, but I hear this kind of thing a lot, and I think people are the victims of their own imaginations sometimes. Everyone talks about how IRA's and 401K's are great investment vehicles because they are tax deferred. With the amount of debt that we have in the...

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet...

Will you give the 60/40 a whole 2 years I wonder?

I'd be weighting my personal DJIA index the same as TSM. Offhand I believe it's around 70% of TSM is the SP500 and of the SP500 around 80% to 90% of that is the 30 DJIA stocks. Thus, I can easily structure my holdings such that my weighting of individual stocks would match that of TSM. So if shenan...

Dennis Leary once said something to the effect of happiness comes in small doses:  it's a chocolate chip cookie, You eat the cookie then you wake up in the morning and go to work! Now he was being facetious in the name of comedy (I think) but he hits on an important point, not every moment in life c...

Thanks for this thread, I have considered trying alternative living situations like RVs, trailers, tiny houses etc. as a way to save money, but ultimately I keep coming back to the idea it's best to just keep renting my apartment and saving money for a house at some point.

Somebody bandied about a plan some years ago to let us opt out of SS benefits if we put that same money in IRAs instead.  Employer portion would still go to Uncle Sam I think.

That plan will never get anywhere because the government likes money but what a step forward it would be.

Madness!

Could not wait a couple weeks for April 1?

I find it ironic an online petition, which never works anyway incidentally, is being used as a means to reinstate a paper instrument.  Seriously do most of the buyers of paper bonds spend an appreciable amount of time researching areas of financial concern on the internet? That said I thought it was...

Wouldn't the denominator of that faux Dow Index always be the whole you would weigh the rest of the shares to? The weighting unquestionably changes as the components slide up and down relative to each other, but when you weigh everything against the total Dow market cap (your denominator) it seems l...

Is the point of this that this is in fact the PP with the cash diminished and hiding inside the bond portion?-

I can buy the basic argument.  Whether I'd do that or not... Nah. This is one of those things like holding SHY or I bonds or some blend in place of only 30 day T bills or holding 50% in 5 year treasuries or holding some zeros etc etc.  It is a benign tweak that probably improves returns a little bit...

The fact that tools like 401(k) plans have turned the general public into hopeful/fearful speculators is unfortunate. In my arrogant opinion, the worst part of that particular phenomenon is that they have turned into ignorant emotion driven speculators who believe that only the anointed can process...

So many threads here are so analytical and serious, this one's a little bit silly. My question is, is it possible to hold an entirely tangible PP? - Actual gold - Actual cash, or at least paper bonds or something - Physical long bonds - Physical stock certificates Gold and cash seem doable enough.  ...

I have to echo that last sentiment.  I have followed this thread with great interest as a TLT holder.  Now I'm suddenly not feeling so smart for holding TLT. Damn.  I love one stop shopping.  How hard is it to just buy a basket of long treasuries, sit on them, and skim fees off of people like me?  S...