I found an interesting analysis of various gold investment options available today, it compares fund structure, tax treatment etc. The recommendation is basically to choose SGOL, which stores gold in Switzerland. Nothing bad said about IAU though, and given the recent expense ratio cut I wonder if I...

Thanks for jumping in Clive, you did remind me about Swedroe and Taleb allocations. I recently nailed down my PP (finally!) and I do use some limited skewing in the equity bucket: TSM + EM LV + EM SV. I used to have some US SV, but due to high ER of a SV fund in my retirement plan I decided to drop ...

I've been thinking about these two strategies for quite a while: Mebane Faber's sector rotation and 200-day SMA timing. Then I checked back "The greatest HB PP thread" on BH and saw Clive's posting about these on page 67 . I think I could probably split my VP between the two: - 50% sector ...

Here is a summary of suggestions so far: 1) Macro bets (Wonk) 2) Stock picking / special situations (Craigr) 3) Meb's monthly trading system 4) Lazy portfolio from another guru Other options are Meb's other higher returning rotation system: http://www.mebanefaber.com/2009/06/25/combining-rotation-a...

You can call me a gold bug for now.   ;)  I fully expect to go PP neutral in about 5 years and then overweight equities in about 10 years.  I agree with Craig in that often the best investment is in one's own business.  I wouldn't be where I am today without the same decision. No, I won't call you ...

And then I stumbled up the HBPP thread on the Bogleheads forum... That bogleheads PP thread is one of the most amazing internet discussions I have ever been part of. That is so true! And the subject of that thread is truly remarkable - "Updated modification of HB PP". Most of us here can'...

This is aside the point, but I wonder: presently I have my Cap' Gains/Dividends and Interest Payments from my mutual funds set to reinvest.  Should I instead have them sent to a MM account for rebalancing later? If it is in a taxable account I would turn off reinvestment option and do that manually...

I wonder if the interest from long and short term treasuries could be structured so that they are held internally and not passed through to shareholders.  The goal would be to reduce pass-through taxable income of the fund and increase NAV instead. I think this is how PRPFX is implemented - it keep...

I wish I could figure out how to post a screen shot to show you, but I can't, so I'll try to give you some results to illustrate. pumpkin, here's how you can post the image 1. Make a screen shot of the particular window you want to post using Windows snipping tool or via Alt+Print 2. Save it in a f...

I'm interested too.

Is the 50/50 allocation just your rough guess or something calculated? It's my rough guess, but I'll bet it's very close to what 100% TLT would give you.  If it's different, it's not by much. In my view, EDV is a great way of taking an intermediate term bond fund (which is what most 401(k) plans of...

I wonder if it's possible to substitute a mix of VUSTX and EDV for TLT. Do you think it would be a good replacement? 50% VUSTX/50% EDV is, IMHO, a suitable approach to the LT bond potion of the PP, though it begins to look a lot like a solution that is more complicated than the problem. As you migh...

KevinW wrote: Most of them are pretty ridiculous.  I don't mind them, though, because I figure they help craigr defray some of the costs of running the site.

I don't mind either. I think most visitors will understand why the ads are here and that these ads are placed by Google, not by craigr.

Craigr, I apologize for an off-topic, just wanted to share an amusing observation. I laughed when I spotted a particular Google ad banner here on the forum that promised "32 dividend checks a month" if I subscribe to some report. Sounds almost like oxymoron given the idea of this forum.  :...

My challenge now is that I'm getting weighed down in the various 'lazy' style portfolios, and weighing the returns of those more weighted towards equity. For instance - and just as an example - the Lazy Portfolios listed on Market Watch: http://www.marketwatch.com/lazyportfolio. There are various t...

Being a junior expert (or senior novice) myself I will leave the heavy stuff to experts and will try to answer in simple terms: You are not alone. I'm a tad closer to retirement than you (less than 30 years) and always keep these concerns in mind. That's why HB suggested VP in addition to PP. A very...

I rarely have money in a variable portfolio, but when I do it's usually in stocks that have been deeply discounted due to some bad events in the news. Assuming I like the company business and fundamentals, I'll put a little money on them. However I also tend to "invest in myself" and have...

I'm using the Merriman Ultimate Buy and Hold. With maybe some influences from the Swensen lazy portfolio. I always get caught between wanting the simplicity of the PP and the Swensen lazy portfolio, and the diversification of the UB&H. http://www.fundadvice.com/articles/buy-hold/the-ultimate-bu...

Be careful with VUSTX.  It's not well-suited to the overall PP strategy and it won't protect you the way TLT, EDV or individual bonds will. Using VUSTX rather than longer dated bonds in a PP setting actually increases risk. I wonder if it's possible to substitute a mix of VUSTX and EDV for TLT. Do ...

I know it's not a simple question. I know this is the question that legions of investors are trying to answer. I know there is no crystal ball and there is only one Warren Buffett. But still I will try  ;). I don't want to treat my PP and VP as Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde - i.e. I don't think it should be...

The only reason I would say no is that prior to age 65 you can't use this money to rebalance the overall PP if you hit a rebalancing band. This is a valid point, so that's why I stated I would consider is as only a part, not the whole cash portion. The contributions are limited to ~6K annually anyw...

I have a Health Savings Account which I try to max out annually. My medical expenses are pretty low, so my annual contribution into HSA for the most part is saved. The account earns 5% APY in an FDIC-insured bank savings account. After the age 65 HSA funds can be spent on anything without the IRS pe...

I use an Excel spread sheet, and it makes it very easy to keep track of both the VP and PP, as well as percent holdings for the PP, despite having multiple accounts. If you are unfamiliar with Excel (as I was), I learned how, and created my spreadsheet in a couple of hours from a user. I do have an...

One of PP's important principles is "separation of PP and VP" in a sense that money from PP should not be used in VP and VP should only use money that one can afford to lose. My question is more technical in nature: I'm struggling to find the way to separate the positions that I consider p...

I believe VUSTX has an average shorter duration on it's bond holdings than EDV or TLT. Now how that changes the value I'm not so sure… bond funds can be confusing. As the chart shows TLT surely jumps higher than lesser duration bond funds when everything drops and everybody runs to (at least percei...