Hal, I don't think Ray Dalio was talking about countries working together in a group debt forgiveness cooperation agreement (GRO-DE-FO-CON-AG) when he talked about beautiful deleveraging. He was talking about households and individual governments. Households here in the US have actually reduced the...

Everything will be exactly the same, except different. In 2020, Dems will nominate Elizabeth Warren who will rail against plutocrats in banks, Wall Street, and offshore tax havens; but for taxes on Roth IRAs over $1 million, tighter capital controls, and Obamacare Plus Free Everything. Ironically, t...

You might want to consider a second opinion on the benefits of the barbell strategy. See: Ryan Melvy, Stable Investing “The combination of greater tax efficiency and liquidity make the barbell approach far superior to an intermediate bond fund. In fact, I can’t think of any compelling advantages to ...

Pointedstick, Is Trump really the “de facto leader of conservative America”? See Peggy Noonan’s column in last Saturday’s WSJ. Ronald Reagan’s most loyal speechwriter described Trump as “Woody Allen without the Humor.” She also scorched him for being a disgrace to American masculinity and unseemly i...

Im trying to do some upside / downside calculations on whether for capital preservation it makes more sense in the present environment to trade in my (25% - 30 year) / (25% - Cash) barbell style traditional permanent portfolio for a (50% - 5 year ladder). The yield difference between the 5 year and...

https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239466/ishares-short-treasury-bond-etf The ishares website reports .34% as the YTD gain, as does morningstar. Powershares has a new ETF CLTL that is similar to SHV but at only half the expense ratio. I have been leaning towards the ETFs for the simplicity. I unde...

This draft intended to invoke reflection and—quite possibly-- spirited discussion. -Don’t treat your cash like trash. Cash is an investment in safety, stability, and liquidity. Don’t settle for less than the highest quality securities. -Don’t lock up your Cash-designated assets in intermediate/long-...

-Inflation-protection for 30 years/ rate resets 60 times (no CD has that) Why the assumption that a rate reset is always in your favor? Inflation has only ticked up .47% in the last 3 months. If that continues the the ibond rate reset coming up may be half of my cd rate. And if deflation hits you c...

-Inflation-protection for 30 years/ rate resets 60 times (no CD has that) Why the assumption that a rate reset is always in your favor? Inflation has only ticked up .47% in the last 3 months. If that continues the the ibond rate reset coming up may be half of my cd rate. And if deflation hits you c...

-Inflation-protection for 30 years/ rate resets 60 times (no CD has that) Why the assumption that a rate reset is always in your favor? Inflation has only ticked up .47% in the last 3 months. If that continues the the ibond rate reset coming up may be half of my cd rate. And if deflation hits you c...

Sophie & jhogue, Sorry if my last post came off as snarky or snotty; that was not my intention. I love and respect most everyone here! Was just looking for an answer / trying to make my point. Pugchief, No offense taken. In fact, I welcome your sharp questioning of my argument. If I can convinc...

Beyond their underlying suitability for PP Cash, the appeal of I bonds to me is their unbeatable combination of 30 year tax deferral PLUS 30 year inflation protection PLUS 30 year compounding. OVER TIME—and that is always what investment is about-- the CD investor will turn into the hare sprinting a...

Sophie & jhogue, Sorry if my last post came off as snarky or snotty; that was not my intention. I love and respect most everyone here! Was just looking for an answer / trying to make my point. Pugchief, No offense taken. In fact, I welcome your sharp questioning of my argument. If I can convinc...

Treasury has a limit on how many you can buy: $10,000 per SSN + $5,000 with your annual tax return. You can however get an additional $10,000 in a trust. Sorry, for hijacking this conversation off at a tangent, but the above caught my eye. My wife and I each have personal TD account sand buy I-bond...

I don’t quite understand why Desert (and you Pugchief) seem to regard a comparison of an I bond to a 1 year CD for PP cash to be “not relevant” or “ridiculous.” Why is that? So, here are my calculations for a contest between a 5 year CD (“typically the sweet spot” according to Desert’s post) and a s...

Dearest Pugchief: Of course I bonds are for sale right now! You can buy them 24/7/365 at Treasury Direct. You used to be able to buy I bonds over the counter at FDIC-insured banks like WaMu and TBTF mega bank JP Morgan Chase, both of which I gather you have some passing familiarity. WaMu also offere...

It's probably easiest & safest to consider your home a consumption item rather than an investment. +1 And to the extent that I track my home equity in my overall net worth, I don't bother trying to wedge it into the PP framework. I'm just happy to have another non-financial store of wealth that...

While we are on the topic of I Bonds, I have a general question. It seems most posters here are of the opinion that the Treasury will never outright default on their bonds, but will instead opt to pseudo-default by inflation. If one believes that then part of that scheme would have to be the under ...

While we are on the topic of I Bonds, I have a general question. It seems most posters here are of the opinion that the Treasury will never outright default on their bonds, but will instead opt to pseudo-default by inflation. If one believes that then part of that scheme would have to be the under ...

Dear Pugchief, Eureka! You said, ”As you noted however, this wasn't an investment account but small business checking, and last I checked, Treasury Direct does not offer a T-bill secured account for said purposes. So I really didn't have too many options.” (7/20/17) and , “Also will again point out ...

Only on this forum would FDIC-insured accounts be thought of as high risk. I think it's being overplayed just a tiny bit. I feel like I'm reading about private REITs and junk bonds here. Yes, there is a liquidity risk with CD's and savings accounts. If the bank fails, you may not get the money the ...

Thanks for the analysis jhogue, Could you expand a bit on why you believe Hedged International Bonds are less desirable than Australian Gov't Bonds. Same reason as Tyler? I would imagine PP'rs in Canada would face the same issue. Also, If it is best to hold just Australian Bonds, what are your thou...

dear pugnacious, I understand that you were one of the injured parties in the 2008 comedy of errors. That is why I found your story so compelling. What I don’t understand is why you keep recommending FDIC-insured bank accounts for PP cash on this forum. Are you some kind of financial masochist? You ...

Sorry Desert, but I will have to disagree. The differences between the powers of the FDIC and the US Treasury can and do matter in practice, even short of an end-of-the world-as-we-know-it scenario. Pugchief himself provided a personal example of this back in 2013 on this forum, when he described wh...

Hal, Flesh out your scenario further: 1. If the Australian housing bubble bursts, a burst of deflation is bound to follow. When that happens you don’t want to hold VIF, you want actual Australian government bonds, preferably not even in the form of the Vanguard ETF, VGB. 2. If the Australian currenc...