Pat Buchanan is even suggesting it might be a false flag operation. Pat Buchanan, ugh. He says a lot of things, and most of them should be ignored. 10 years ago I would have agreed with you completely. Nowadays, I find I agree with most of what Buchanan says. What does he say that you don't like?

Try: 15% Total Stock Market 15% Mid cap Value 25% Small cap Value 20% Long term Treasuries 25% Gold Modeljc Butterfly? 7.7% REAL RETURNS That might be why NO BELIEVES IN THE PERMANENT PORTFOLIO? PP RETURNS ARE SMALL AND BORING AND WE ALL HOPE FOR MORE Add in 10% to 15% cash, by removing say 5% SCV ...

If you have more than say 15 years to retirement, I might recommend 40% to 50% in the Total Stock etf, as long as you can convince yourself that you won't sell during the inevitable downturns. When those downturns come, you just have to tell yourself that stocks will turn around at some point. The l...

So, for stuper1 and Tenn, since most/much of the mainstream media is throwing God out of our culture and replacing Him with hedonism, I assume you think they are wrong and there really is a God the source of all truth, in charge of all that was, is and will be, including President Trump? Thus, resi...

Let's assume for the moment that Assad did use poison gas, which as I said before, seems very implausible to me. Do you think he's an idiot? But anyway, let's assume that he did, and that he killed 82 people including children by doing so. Okay, he's a bad guy, I get it. I don't really care if he ki...

I'm highly skeptical of the proof of chemical weapons use. Why would Assad use chemical weapons now? It seems like he has been winning lately. Why would he risk raising international ire? He has plenty of other "approved" ways of killing people. Doesn't it seem fishy that all of a sudden h...

What are the expense ratios on those two options?

What has the performance of the default fund been over the years?

Emerging markets are a fine component to a portfolio in the right dosage. Tyler, I have a question about your portfoliocharts.com website. Do you have a calculator that will do something like the following: I pick a certain number of specific assets, say 2 to 10 specific assets. Then, I ask the cal...

To the stance that we should not invest in all assets equally since the chance of outcome is not 25% - The PP is designed for ALL economic environments, not only those that happen more or less frequently. Which is why, to me, the PP seems like a great retirement portfolio. But for an accumulation p...

Maddy, I really enjoy your posts. So often very funny and/or thought provoking.

No, we are not wrong, because we believe in passive, low-expense-ratio, well-diversified investing. In fact, our investing is actually better diversified than the typical stock/bond portfolio, because we also hold a valuable commodity (gold) which is uncorrelated with stocks/bonds. You only have to ...

I don't know when the end of the dollar will come. Neither does anyone else, because it cannot be known in advance. But that it will end one day is about as certain as anything other than the laws of physics. BTW, there is only one circumstance in which a person of moderate means can multiply his w...

Will the Perth Mint keep track of your cost basis for all of your monthly investments into perpetuity? Otherwise, you will need to track that yourself for tax purposes, which seems like a pain to me.

Thanks, Sophie. Definitely sounds like this could be a good option for off-shore gold with reasonable fees for those of us who aren't quite yet in the Rothschild category. One thing I'm not quite clear on is about possible currency conversion issues. Do your U.S. dollars get converted to Australian ...

Sophie, what are the fees for the Perth Mint depository online program?

The guy over at Bogleheads in that link you posted said that gold's outperformance was only due to 1970 to 1975 returns. I do wish that portfoliocharts.com would give you the option to ignore those years, because I do believe that they could be misleading. In fact, there is one calculator, the Bench...

Have you been to India? I haven't, but I'm guessing people there won't be slowing down on their gold purchases any time real soon. Maybe in 200 years. In the meantime, I like how in very recent history having gold in the portfolio has smoothed out the returns considerably. I don't like those 10-year...

Okay, I think I got it figured out. I edited the original post, and now it seems to be working. Does anybody want to take a crack at answering the question I posted at the end? Thanks.

Did I do something wrong? How come my images don't show up? This is my first time trying to post images.

One of my favorite calculators at portfoliocharts.com is the withdrawal rates calculator that shows safe withdrawal rates for retirement portfolios. (BTW, thanks Tyler for making all of these awesome toys to play with on your website!!!) Below are safe withdrawal rates for a conservative portfolio w...

Hey blue ruin, great post. Of course I'd heard that parable before, but it really is appropriate for thinking about permanent portfolio performance. It seems that at least one asset is always looking bad, and that the asset that goes up to help is often the one least expected to do so.

Kbg wrote:The PP is not a good grow your assets over the long term portfolio. There is no risk premia in 50% of the portfolio. I categorically do not recommend it for younger people (unless you leverage it and know how to do that properly).

What portfolio(s) would you recommend for younger people?

Agreed also, and I know you get it, PS, it's just that the cartoon you posted seems to me to sort of lean in the opposite direction just a little, providing some cover for the smug do-gooders who really have no idea what they are talking about. I'm not disagreeing with anything you've said. If alter...

Agreed, the externalities of fossil fuels should also be included. My own gut feel is that if that were the case, the price of gasoline at the pump would be maybe double or triple, which would cause some big changes in our society, which is fine with me. I'm just tired of the media shoving something...

What if it's a big hoax, and we create an even bigger national and global government for nothing?

Having said that, I have nothing against green energy, as long as it makes sense after considering all externalities.