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...

Great topic. Food and data are not far behind home and auto for many people. I am shocked at how many people living on modest incomes carry smart phones with data plans and spend >$10/day on unhealthy lunches that they have to drive to purchase every day. I live in a home that is worth less than my ...

If you are a person who worries about an abrupt dollar collapse, a mortgage about the size of the long term bond and the cash portion of your PP could act as a kind of hedge, since the nominal value of the LB and cash parts could be used to convert nominal mortgage debt into real home equity. How i...

Love the logic! I put a high premium on paying off debt, since this is essentially a risk-free, tax-free, guaranteed return. Even the PP cannot boast those characteristics. Furthermore, even a year's supply of cash will not help much if you lose your job for an extended period of time and the bank o...

Interesting idea.  What country would you use? Like Clive, I would use index. But, in doing so, I bet that it would be impossible to construct something as safe and non-correlated at the single-country HB PP. For example, couldn't emerging market equities, bonds and currency tank at the same time? ...

This inflation vs deflation argument has been argued on this forum before. Could it be that both sides are right? For that which is financed through debt, particularly non-necessities such as mortgages and autos, there could be deflation because slack was taken out in the last decade of low interest...

That might have been the case in the past, but there is increasingly an argument that international emerging markets are decoupling from western markets. I am not 100 percent committed to my international exposure as I said earlier because i still don't know if I would have the guts to double down ...

Just have it sent to me, and I will "fabricate" the coins at a fraction of any price you are quoted!

In terms of the zigging and zagging I view international exposure as another class that zigs and zags independently of the other traditional 4 assets. I would imagine that it should smooth out the line more and potentially increase returns....especially if we were to get into the issue of economic ...

I am trying to add about 20 percent Intl exposure to the traditional 4 way PP... I tried to hedge against that with some international stocks, and zero coupon treasuries. I think 20-50% each from the stocks and bonds in the PP. By including international stocks and bonds in the PP, aren't you degra...

All lawns are an environmental negative. But hard to have good neighbors in suburbia if you are going to let your lawn follow its natural succession back into a prairie. So, to minimize herbicides, I use a spot sprayer only. Most hardware sprayers are inexpensive and fall apart within a year, but I ...

Depends on where you live and what banks are around, I suppose. Ideally, it would be nice to have the account in the other country. So, if anywhere close to Canada, I'd second MTs idea. Canada has an abundance of natural resources and a very sound banking system. If you had <$10K, it would not have ...