When I get rich enough, the only one I'd ever consider investing in is Bridgewater's All Weather.. Not to nitpick (All-Weather is still a decent choice IMO as hedge funds go) but didn't it just post a negative return of around 4% last year when hedge funds overall averaged about 9%? See: http://dea...

And when LT interest rates return to normal -- let's use 8% -- why wouldn't a prudent, risk-averse investor shift their entire portfolio to laddered LTTs? LTTs have historically yielded about 2% to 3% over inflation on average; are you saying you expect inflation to be 5% to 6% per year over most o...

Decimated is not the word I would use. http://www.peaktotrough.com/hbpp.cgi says PP was down 9.4% in 1981, while cashless PP was down 14.6%.  http://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/ViewHistoricalReturns shows PP was down 5.2%, cashless PP down 11.6%. And in 1981, T-bills returned almost 15% and 2-year ...

1.95%....WTF??? Are these broker-sold funds (i.e. B-shares or C-shares with deferred charges built into them and higher expense ratios in lieu of a load...and let's not foregt about 12b-1 fees) or are they just regular no-load funds with ridiculously high expense ratios? What were the fund choices? ...

Maybe a stupid question but any particular reason to choose an offset mortgage (including of the DIY type with a muni bond fund) instead of a flexible mortgage (kind of like U1st did but using a HELOC you yourself set up so as to avoid paying U1st's $3500 fee) where you use the combined HELOC/mortga...

Thank-you all for the responses, I appreciate it. I have done more reading into everything and have a few more questions. 1.) To clarify, not that I would, but with a Roth IRA, you can withdraw on the principal at any time penalty free, correct? It is just the growth that can not be taken penalty f...

Where does this leave the shy, quiet, melancholic introvert who has little or no athletic ability or aptitude for "traditionally male" pursuits like competitive physical sports? Planet earth. Deal with it. You have no choice. I'm not sure I get what you are saying. We all live on planet E...

I do agree with Mr Reed that we are overmedicating kids (mostly but not only boys) with psychoactive drugs rather than just letting them be kids but with that said I also have two huge concern I have with what he wrote: One, feel-good nonsense like making valentines is inappropriate for any grade, m...

Reub, IIRC, the law states that the debt from not paying the mandate penalty is only for ten years (although it rolls over so in year 11 if someone didn't pay the penalty fo that year then they would then owe the penalty--and interest--for years 2 through 11 as year one got dropped off but year elev...

Also, just an FYI for anyone worried about what might happen if you don't buy insurance on the exchanges and then get in a car accident or have a burst appendix or heart attack or the like: http://ccf.georgetown.edu/all/health-plans-get-creative-skirting-the-aca/ http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Feat...

Apparently if you arrange your taxes so that you get no refund, the IRS cannot collect the "mandate" from you (if you get a refund, they can just deduce it from your refund). They'll fix this right away, before anybody can actually game the system like that.  The US government is lax and ...

I have heard that if large numbers of people don't sign up for this (which seems very possible) it crashes and burns on its own.  In any case, I suspect that we will have to hit bottom (in more than one way) before things get shifted. This was something I was wondering about myself...the financial ...

PS, How would they deal with the insurance companies who would find themselves suddenly out of customers? From a purely cost perspective, if they can't compete with something like Medicare one might say they deserve to be put out of business....but I'm sure their CEOs, boards of directors, major sha...

Another practical way to solve the problem Obamacare was trying to solve was to federalize the regulation of insurance and destroy all the ridiculous barriers to competition that the states have set up. With one giant nationwide market, I would expect prices to quickly plummet. Prices would plummet...

To try to dispel what seem to be widely held myths even among otherwise knowledgeable people (:P), here is a thumbnail sketch of the current possibilities for second citizenship for those without any fairly close family connections in another country: If you have at least an 8-figure portfolio, sto...

Thank you for the clarification D1984, I didn't know that and will apreciate the annual figures. However, I think all we agree that EM are more volatile than TSM and I guess that even with the right data the CAGR will be better too. Koekebakker, you are right about SCV and EM not being perfectly co...

Pointedstick try with emerging markets. They are even more volatile and in my tests they worked quite well for the PP. If you are using the numbers from the Simba speadsheet for emerging markets historical return data then please be aware that anything it has for EM from before 1987 or '88 (wheneve...

I have had this view for about the past 10 years, once I saw that the US government/Fed was continue to blow bubble after bubble to postpone the depression that would be needed to clear out the malinvestments that have been accumulating for decades. What is the nature of these malinvestments, exact...

The PP is like a brick house. Unless one happens to have the misfortune to be invested in it when two volatile assets are declining at once over a fairly long period and the other asset plus the cash isn't enough to offset them. Ask any Japanese PP investor from 1990-2002 how "safe" his/h...

The PP is like a brick house. Unless one happens to have the misfortune to be invested in it when two volatile assets are declining at once over a fairly long period and the other asset plus the cash isn't enough to offset them. Ask any Japanese PP investor from 1990-2002 how "safe" his/h...

D1984, Why would rates be rising if there was no inflation, as evidenced by gold falling? MT, Rates can rise significantly (and be positive in real terms) even if there is little or very little inflation. From 1952-1967, inflation averaged about 1.5% a year (I chose 1952 as the starting point becau...

The confidence in future performance arises from the belief that the PP covers the full spectrum of possible future economic environments. Can you elaborate on why you think they are dangerous? Is there an economic condition that the PP doesn't cover? An environment of stagnation, deflation, and a ...

How exactly do CFDs work as regards the collateral you have to post? My understanding from Googling it is that a Contract for Difference has (unlike a futures contract) no set agreed upon future price and no agreed upon settlement future date. So what happens (hypothetically) if you enter into a CFD...

So when will people finally start voting for 3rd parties in bigger numbers? I take it you are from (IIRC...please excuse me if I am wrong and feel free to correct me) one of the Benelux countries and thus have a parliament with proportional representation and a national chief executive that is elec...

Does anyone else invest a portion of their taxable assets in municipal bond funds? I don't, but have often thought that munis might be a good idea for a VP. Maybe something like a HDY/VBK 50/50 split in a taxable account.  (VBK b/c its dividend is small).  (HDY is a longer term muni fund, and VBK i...