I'm not sure about the real return bonds, but as long as they are long-term then it's probably okay, unless you're worried about the Canadian government manipulating the CPI.  Otherwise I'm fine with the rest of that Canadian PP. In 2008 the Canadian dollar tanked by about 20%.  This resulted in the...

I think it's possible everyone will be saved (in this life or the next), but they must accept it.  I'm pretty well convinced from the Bible that everyone will be saved eventually. Lots of scriptures speak to this and you can weigh them all side by side for yourself with the help of Google - just li...

Decay is also a function of volatility.  For example, if GLD goes down 10%, then up 10%, repeated every day, you will have a lot of decay.  If it just goes down .00001% every day, you will have no decay. edit:  so my point is maybe daily volatility has been relatively low. I agree that it is all ab...

Mountaineer & Xan,

Thanks guys.  You have given me a nice contrast to my current opinion, and I think I understand the debate a bit better.

Desert, Thanks for the link.  For the most part I agree with Tullian.  There is a great risk in thinking that we can only please God by good works/behavior.  So we then push Christ away and think we can do everything on our own.  This is what Jesus warned the Pharisees of. But in my mind I think Jes...

Xan, That was a great summary!  And just to be clear I do believe that church and other christians play an important part of the christian life, but it doesn't have to be a priority for someone kicking the tires of Christianity, IMO.  C.S. Lewis describes the new person as entering the hallway of me...

I think if you really are worried that you don't believe, then you in fact do.  If you didn't you wouldn't be worried. That might be so, but in my case I would love to be able to believe in something....but I am filled with doubt regarding everything. If I am really honest with myself I must say th...

But it seems to me that a big part of the Gospels consists of Jesus performing miracles and other supernatural acts, chief among them being born to a virgin and later rising from the dead.  If Christ really demanded faith, what was the point of all of the miracles? I'll admit that the miracles don'...

I'm not sure if this is authentic, but even if it's not it is still a valid criticism of The Age of Reason : [quote=Benjamin Franklin] I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argument it contains against a particular Providence, though you allow a general Providence, you strike at th...

GLD has broken through it's 200-day moving average.  It will be interesting to see if GLD holds onto it.  This could be the beginning of a beautiful run.

I think it has to do with rebalancing.  The 2x PP triggered a rebalance after 2010 & 2011, but not after 2012.  At the beginning of 2013, the stock portion was just under 30% of the portfolio so it was overweight.  With the strong year in stocks, it pulled the other assets up.  By the end of 20...

I hear this all the time how Jesus spoke more about hell than he spoke about heaven but I don't see one single scripture in the Bible where Jesus clearly warned us about the Christian view of hell as a place of eternal punishment for non-believers. Not once. And if that was the case why would he te...

I tried this myself, but the more metaphorically I started to see things, the less interest the stories held. Even the metaphors I was trying to read into them contradicted each other. I think a big problem with Judeo-Christian religions for me is that none of the stories have ever had even a shred...

One thing to keep in mind is that Jesus was primarily the one that spoke of Hell.  This supposed pacifist and great moral teach, seemed to add to the end of all his sermons "or else you're going to Hell."  Bullshit! Which part is bullshit? Jesus did warn us of Hell more than anyone in the...

"The Gospels I take as oral tradition passed down from Jesus and eyewitness accounts." To me, that is the crux of Christianity - you either believe the eyewitness accounts or you don't. Much is made of the fact that those accounts don't agree - especially in regards to the beginning and t...

I need an old priest and a young priest!  ;D MT, My simple answer is I don't know.  And to be honest I don't think most people know.  We are working off the best information we have.  This doesn't disturb my faith since I normally don't think about Hell very much...I'm still trying to figure out thi...

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. That sounds like slavery to the collective to me. Why should you sacrifice? Man isn't...

MT, The difference between a theologian and an atheistic/agnostic philosopher is that one has faith and the other doesn't.  The philosopher is trying to find truth on his own, while the theologian has found the truth but doesn't understand it. I can respect Deism or Pantheism, but I personally find ...

From David Foster Wallace, "This is Water": [quote=David Foster Wallace] And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration ...

Another one I wonder about is the second set of Ten Commandments in Exodus 34 that were supposed to be a copy of the first set that Moses broke (and apparently didn't remember until he wrote Deuteronomy later on or else he would have presumably pointed out to God that the second set of commandments...

Annual returns, after rebalance: 2010: 21.1 2011: 28.0 2012: 8.9 2013: (0.7) 2014: 3.5 YTD I would have thought a leveraged portfolio like this would have trouble in a down or sideways year.  It actually performed better than the 1x portfolio. Wonk, something seems wonky with your 2013 numbers.  I ...

Kriegsspiel wrote: I'm also excited for the Russian women's curling team.

Hear Hear!!

FarmerD, Here you go: http://www.stableinvesting.com/p/long-term-performance.html Melveyr's charts appear to match closely with my data as well: [img width=400]http://i59.tinypic.com/2w53p0y.jpg[/img] (click to enlarge) I get a real CAGR of 4.7% and a STDEV of 7.7% (based on monthly real returns).

So 35 pages in, and we are clearly no closer to 'figuring out' Christianity. Anyone want to give it a shot with Judaism, Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism? This thread has been great for me, and helped me really think through what I truly believe.  My Christian beliefs have been greatly strengthened.  Th...

I'm not sure to what level I'm a "literalist" , but my wife does enjoy wearing hats to church, especially on Easter, and our church doesn't ordain women. I'm not entirely sure where I fall along the literalistic spectrum either, but I tend to agree with St. Augustine that the creation sto...