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!

The end result is a huge amount of mistrust between the two groups, to the point where spending time with people who are not a member of your "team" can lead to serious social consequences. Early C, Can you give an example of this? What were the consequences for you or others who have ass...

Pointedstick wrote: ...I must echo Ad Orietem's oft-repeated approval of owning a chunk of VT and never letting it go. Use the PP to protect your personal stash and use VT to bet on humanity.

Ventricular Tachycardia? Seriously, what is VT?

What the...?

The Nikkei is up over 7% this year and gold is up 10% or so YTD when converted to Yen. If you figure nothing on cash or bonds, then a Japanese PP is still handily beating inflation/deflation in Japan this year. What it means going forward, I have no idea. In such a long-term deflationary environment...

OPEC also has an interest in keeping the world addicted to oil. Having the price low for a while here and there has the benefit (for oil exporters) of making oil-importing countries complacent about developing alternative energy sources. When gas prices are low, it's easy as a consumer to get lazy a...

barrett wrote: I wander into this conversation with trepidation.

That's it. I am outta here. This discussion never ends well for me. But, yes, Happy Thanksgiving to all.

For those who have heard the "word" and rejected it, I think they are going to hell. Can you understand how hellish this proposition sounds to everyone except the few who do follow the (forced) path? It's not even a proposition but a threat that sounds like it comes from Kim Jong-un. What...

I think what I don't like about this EE idea is that it doesn't give you a favorable option to do an about face with that money. In 5, 10 or 15 years you may feel that you don't want to wait the full 20 years to get that magical doubling (remember that the interest rate can be really bad right up to...

Mountaineer, Don't know if I speak for the majority of non-believers, but I personally also do not believe in Satan. The existence of Satan or God seems equally unlikely to me. if you give up on, or don't believe in, the anthropomorphized big sky daddy version of god, then the round and round argume...

Interesting, whatchamacallit. I assume that you are young (and accumulating for a while) and that you have read the whole moda/Ryan Melvey thread that you have cited above? I think that moda advocated looking at the EEs as part cash/part LTTs.

PS, I'm showing closer to 8%. I have LLTs up about 21%, S&P up about 11%, gold down 1% and cash up a bit (lots of old savings bonds for me).