MediumTex wrote: Why do that? 

Please stop.

+1

This is covered in the FAQ
https://web.archive.org/web/20160324133 ... ation-faq/
and also the book and the podcast.

It's a good idea but somehow I feel like there must be some kind of catch that makes investing through currency exchange rates different from investing domestically (in a different country). Otherwise I think a young Harry Browne would've bought a conservative stock/bond portfolio in Switzerland and...

I like IAU better than GLD, too.

GLD came first so it has the benefit of greater notoriety and assets under management.

Another +1, if you squint the Desert Portfolio looks a lot like a 4x25 PP with some modest reallocation. If you squint another way, it also looks like Vanguard Target Retirement Income Fund (VTINX) which is approximately 30/50/20 stocks/total bond/short term TIPS. The 10% gold and 20% ST TIPS alloca...

Agreed that those are poor options but you seem to be making the best of it. Based on Morningstar, MWTRX looks like the lesser of evils. JSNFX resembles a short term junk bond fund, while MWTRX is more moderate on quality and duration. The expense ratios are a wash. If it were me I'd probably do 40%...

I like to view these drawdown's as the spring coiling tighter.  I think MT said that once, and it's true.  These drawdowns tend to be relatively short-lived and can be followed by large gains.  +1 And, the perennial question: if one were to quit the PP, what will they use instead? We have to actual...

Duration and maturity are different. Yep.  It's definitely a little confusing.  This article helped me. http://www.investopedia.com/university/advancedbond/advancedbond5.asp That's a good resource. IMO, the word choices are terrible (duration and maturity sound like they should be synonyms), but th...

This is similar to the "buy the lagging asset" strategy, which has been discussed previously. I'm not sure I understand the scenario here --- so the investor has a supply of cash that they could invest in the PP to simplify re-balancing, but would prefer not too? I don't know many people w...

Duration and maturity are different.

Isn't interest rate volatility precisely why we want to hold long term bonds in the PP? Yes. But the problem is that zeroes are significantly more volatile than a stock index fund or physical gold. So you'd need to do something like leverage stock and gold, or decrease the bond allocation, to compe...

What ETF would you recommend as CASH for the taxable account/emergency fund? I am presently using VMLTX which is liquid and pays off dividends tax deferred.  All my other CASH is in BIL in tax advantaged accounts presently. Any thoughts on this? This has been discussed a lot already, so you may wan...

See the bond FAQ: https://web.archive.org/web/20160324133409/http://www.crawlingroad.com/blog/2009/02/09/permanent-portfolio-25-bond-allocation-faq/ In an orthodox PP, the bonds are 30 year coupon treasury bonds that are sold after 10 years. So the portfolio holds bonds with maturities 20-30 years. ...

Like D1984 said, there are tax-managed funds. My bad, I should've been more precise about the distinction between minimizing capital gain events and minimizing dividends. Though, my understanding is that Vanguard has "deprecated" the tax-managed funds and is downplaying them, because as c...

The short answer: strictly speaking "no," because the only orthodox cash vehicle is T-bills or a T-bill-only money market fund; but many forum members seem comfortable with FDIC insured accounts because, barring a widespread bank run, they are very nearly as safe.

Yes, Vanguard for one has a series of tax-managed funds including Vanguard Tax-Managed Capital Appreciation Fund Admiral Shares (VTCLX). Google is your friend. 

If I woke up in that situation I'd pay off the mortgage in full. There is a big difference, both mathematically and emotionally, between 2.8% guaranteed and 4-5% (I would actually say 3-5% for the PP, but whatever). Good luck finding zero-risk 2.8% after-tax returns anywhere else in the current inte...

Where is it written in stone that this can't happen? It's not written in stone anywhere, but the prosperity-recession dichotomy is consistent with the Austrian business cycle theory ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_business_cycle_theory ) and the inflation-deflation dichotomy seems to be inf...

I get frustrated when I read most 'tracking error' posts because the PP is not supposed to track some other index like the S&P 500 or a 60/40 Bogleheads setup. We should only be comparing it to itself. Only then can we have reasonable discussions about whether or not it is lagging, broken, outp...

It's just that people are far less risk tolerant in reality than they like to think they are, and I believe the average Joe is unlikely to stick with it and ever see anything close to average returns. +1 I started investing somewhere around 2005 and, being a rational and mathematically inclined per...

There used to be an analysis here:
http://europeanpermanentportfolio.blogs ... folio.html
but apparently that blog has been removed.

My wife and I each have a 4x25 PP.

Guys, we've been through this. The PP is designed to achieve moderate returns, low volatility, and protect a portion of your wealth against a local economic collapse. It is not designed to achieve high returns, go up every single day, or track a stock-heavy index allocation. We're only 4 months into...

My advice is to just go all-in, buy VTI, and move on. KISS. 

Asset Vanilla Portfolio Weight Vanilla Volatility Contribution to Vanilla Portfolio Risk Vanilla Risk Contribution Equity 25.00% 16.74% 0.18% 33.42% Debt 25.00% 12.08% 0.09% 16.65% Real 25.00% 20.61% 0.26% 49.93% Portfolio 75.00% 7.24% 0.52% 100.00% Diversify Ratio 56.90% Yes gold's volatility look...