It looks nice to me. I'd put VTSMX to 10% and VEA to 10%, and then you have a nice 40% US PP and 60% Israeli PP, which I would keep separate and let them go whichever direction they want (rebalance only within a portfolio), while adding in new money in 40-60 proportion. I think it's a good choice fo...

I think HB's observation about USD being a world reserve currency is critical. He mentioned they run to gold only when there's some crisis or loss of confidence in USD. As such, I don't think it's very unlikely that we could have extreme prosperity in US pushing down the value of gold, and at the sa...

I just put 50% of cash in 1 year bills and 50% in 3 year bonds. You can make a 3 year bond ladder with bonds spread 6 months apart and eventually you'll be buying just 3 year bonds and have awesome cash returns.

But then, you're not protected against a deflation of your own money if the dollar doesn't deflate at the same time. Overall US PP returns will take care of that. The returns might appear smaller in terms of the local currency, but over the long time I really doubt that any currency deflation will ...

HB was claiming that gold is the second most popular money after USD. He claimed that in the time of the crisis everyone runs to USD, and only when there is trouble with USD then they run to gold. For example, it can happen that while the currency of a small country X is having problems, the world i...

What is your opinion about the Merriman's claims about TSM not really being diversified and his approach to solving the problem in his Ultimate Buy and Hold Portfolio (there are some old lengthy discussions on Bogleheads forum). This is a summary: http://www.fundadvice.com/fehtml/bhstrategies/0404a....

Word of the Day: Treasury Bond ETF (TLT)...Bond Buyer Beware!

http://youtu.be/DlUQQRR5DJ8

(3 mins 54 secs)

$23 for the Kindle edition?  Talk about price fixing!  The whole appeal of ebooks were the use of less resources so why isn't there such huge discounts?  Even $10 is too much when paperbacks still cost less that that. I will continue to boycott Kindle. We don't set the prices. But I will say that t...

@Lazy - Thanks for the heads up. Singapore and Israel are very similar in this regard. What would be, in your opinion, the correct balance between a USD PP and a local currency PP? Singapore might be good for gold purchase and storage for you. I have no clue what should be the ideal proportion for ...

I'm not really convinced that PP is ideal for small countries, so I would stick with US-based PP. I don't think it's hard to imagine prosperity in US, Europe, and so on which results in gold prices declining a lot, while at the same time having a government of a small country causing huge inflation ...

Thanks Coearth for excellent detailed info!

Just Googled this interesting link about Singapore and gold

http://www.sovereignman.com/expat/intro ... gold-6089/

@coearth: You say "25% Gold: UOB Gold Savings Account. Alternatively buy physical gold bullion or coins." Can you give us some more details about this UOB account such as safety, costs, insurance, and bank stability over there? How do you buy coins in Singapore? What are the choices and wh...