What purpose do LTT's serve in the PP? Thanks, Clive. I do undertand the basic purpose of LTTs in the PP. But I still wonder if 6 Iron, Moda, and Tortoise are on to something, namely that the benefit of holding LTTs in the PP declines exponentially as the yield approaches zero. And the risk increas...

Part of my motivation for coming back to the issue of negative yields on 30-year bonds is that some participants of this forum seem to mistakenly believe that if yields remain positive but continue to decrease exponentially (e.g., continually halve), bond prices will continue to increase without bo...

Well stated, MT. I'm sure that you've posted on this elsewhere, but how do you see this playing out (of course, realizing that if any of us knew this with any degree of certainty, we would not be on this forum)?

Hmm, how about to practice thinking about investments less in general.  One of the things that investors hopefully realize at some point is that at any point in time there are countless market narratives floating around, and this was the case long before you ever became interested in investing, and...

I think, like every other fear-mongering "resource scarcity" issue in the past, "Peak Oil" will turn out to be ballyhoo.  Every finite resource consumed will inevitably reach a peak of production, then decline. The question is only of timing. And peak oil is not an issue of &quo...

Great post, MT.
If possible, can someone give a few sentence synopsis of the "Freedom in an Unfree World" book and/or the "Rule Your World" audio for those of us less erudite. I'm interested.

That's interesting because those 2 issues are my primary drivers for where I will live because they directly impact me on a daily basis: 1) How much money I have in my pocket to spend 2) Whether I'm able to defend myself and my loved ones from a violent criminal Weather and everything else is nice ...

Off topic, but you might want to figure out how to live on less than $60k/year in the event of job loss. Just calculated my cost of living, and it is similar. Interesting to think that I spend more than the typical American family makes in a year. And, because I work long hours, I am frequently exh...

I appreciate the critique. I am much less sanguine about the adaptability of humans. Rather than accept change, we tend to deny and blame (the Chinese, the Islamic extremists, the immigrants, the liberals, the government, the conservatives, etc). But I would like to think that you are right. I am in...

Lately, I've been thinking that a solution to this concern is to hold a complete PP in another currency. Ideally, I would hold this outside my country of residence, for purposes of increased geographic diversification. One reason I'd like to do this sooner than later is the pending FATCA 30% withho...

The problem is he only has a few years of serious market observation under his belt... Market observations will only take us so far if the future is different than the past 50 years. Most "market observers" naively assume that, given enough time, things will always go up; hence the standa...

Can I go out on a limb and guess that this is a hyperinflation and/or high-inflation piece of journalism? Almost. He tries to tie together the "three Es':" Economy, Energy, and the Environment (largely other natural resources). The first is dependent on continued exponential growth while ...

Has anyone followed Chris Martenson's work? The Crash Course is very logically presented and very scary, and it has definitely changed how I invest. I found the following 80 minute presentation most compelling. Be sure to listen to the Q&A session, if skeptical. http://www.chrismartenson.com/blo...

OK. The topic of a wiki or book has been discussed at length before on this forum, but to do this well will necessarily take a large commitment and a lot of time. How about this as an alternative (and perhaps a genesis for something more ambitious)? It would be interesting to know what most importan...

Agree. Also agree with all that KevinW has posted on this topic here and in other threads. Read his posts carefully before you do this. We want the 4 components of the PP to be as volatile, uncorrelated, and tied to specific economic conditions as possible. The gains come from the REBALANCING. Addin...

Another quotable post, MT. That was clever. Don't get me wrong. I love this site. So much so that I had to put it away during the spring because I was spending too much time reading the posts. I began neglecting my kids, inconsistently going to work, forgetting to brush my teeth, and no longer chang...

I am going to restart this discussion. Two things have happened since the last time i signed on: First, i drifted away from following the discussions on this forum last winter, since I found many to be chatter, and i found that the time invested reading posts on the site was not worth what i was gai...

The U.S. has probably not been any less clumsy than other superpowers in world history.  It's a tough job.  Exactly. That's why they are not superpowers any more... Really think US policies of materialism, dependency on foreign oil, massive debt, overextension of military, and inability to make tou...

Couldn't agree more, MT. The beautiful ending made for a nice NYT letter, but the probability of this is about as low as the executive and legislative branches of our government resolving to reign in entitlements, balance the budget, reform the tax code, and define a rational energy policy, all whil...

China reminds me of a puppy, a bit clumsy, not entirely housebroken and with a tendency to chew its master's slippers when annoyed.  I wonder what kind of dog it will grow into. Like the analogy. But one can also argue that the US has been the clumsy one lately, an aging pit bull that is increasing...

julian wrote: And VTI is better tax wise as their is a loop hole in the tax law regarding capital gain distributions.

Can you explain? I'm curious.

The idea sounds great, but you will find many things that are not made in the US any more. And that is for a good reason: labor prices are so high here that you could not afford many items if they were. Good luck finding a DVD player that is made exclusively in the States. And if you do, I bet that ...

Other than cost differences, aren't there capital gains differences? My understanding is that many ETFs are more immune to capital gains triggered by others selling off in a market decline. Not sure if this is true with Vanguard though.

Fantastic idea! This forum is a wonderful asset for exploring ideas, but the real gems get hidden among a lot of mundane discussion. That's why the same questions seem to get posted so many times.
I like the wiki concept for this.

I feel that your approach is an over-simplification. And with all due respect: It reeks of the resentment of not being more financially successful.  (And I don't mean that as an attack, as I've frequently felt the same way myself, too.) Not really sure of your point, Coffee. I'm 50ish, live in a ni...