Getting back to the OP's questions: I highly recommend reading through Cullen Roche's website, starting with this comprehensive overview of money:
https://www.pragcap.com/understanding-money/
He does a great job of explaining how fiat currencies work - and, among other things, why gold isn't a particularly useful way to hedge against their possible failure. His book "Pragmatic Capitalism" is excellent and his new Discipline Fund ETF is intriguing. I've corresponded with him a bit and think he's one of the brightest younger finance guys. And if I were going to hire an FA for hourly advice or a plan he'd be my first choice.
Cullen knows lazy portfolios in general and the PP very well. Here's an excerpt from a note he sent me in regards to alternatives to the Golden Butterfly and Wellesley for a risk-averse retiree like myself:
"I've always liked "lazy portfolios", but the problem there is they don't always bucket allocations in a sensible manner which creates a lot of uncertainty. Specifically, I'd argue that 20% in long-term bonds is way too much. Long bonds and gold are like insurance in a portfolio. Your portfolio should never be comprised of 40% insurance. Instead, I'd bucket it out with more T-Bills and something like VGSH for the short-term bonds. Then apply DSCF, VTI and smaller allocations to IAU or VGLT for insurance. For instance:
10% 6 T-Bills (just keep rolling them every 6 months)
20% VGSH (short-term govt bonds yielding 4%)
30% DSCF (tax efficient stock/bond mix)
20% VTI (stocks)
10% VGLT
10% IAU/PHYS
This portfolio gives you a ton of short-term certainty with broad diversification on some longer-term instruments. You end up with the same stock exposure as Wellesley has, but you have more insurance, liquidity and protection built into the portfolio."
IMHO something like the approach he suggests above is in its own way just as interesting of a "PP-inspired" allocation as the Golden Butterfly.
These recommendations embody Cullen's approach to what he calls Duration Matched Investing. You could think of this as a more sophisticated iteration of the old "bucket" approach. Mr. Roche really understands the dangers costly investor behavioral errors after spending two decades or so working with clients. Here's the link to his new paper on this approach:
https://www.pragcap.com/new-white-paper ... investing/
I'm watching DSCF and will probably eventually invest a decent chunk in it.
