Member requests banning and removal of all traces

[Cortopassi]

I would not be retired and living peacefully off of the PP if I had not encountered this forum 10+ years ago.

Say WHAT???? When did that happen??

The "Budd" I knew was terrified of the PP because of the gold and because it didn't perfectly track the stock market. I thought you were going to do a simple portfolio of stocks with a hefty side of cash? When did the change of heart happen?

But, "living peacefully off the PP" sounds like a great ending to the story. I just want to hear the middle part of it because I missed it.

Budd, and anyone who stayed the course (which the PP allowed easily this year) were rewarded, pretty much regardless of their allocations! Go back to mid March and imagine that we'd be where we are on Dec 28th. If there are those who knew we were going to be here, my hat is off to you.



and the smoothing effect of the pp on my return:

[buddtholomew]

I would not be retired and living peacefully off of the PP if I had not encountered this forum 10+ years ago.

Say WHAT???? When did that happen??

The "Budd" I knew was terrified of the PP because of the gold and because it didn't perfectly track the stock market. I thought you were going to do a simple portfolio of stocks with a hefty side of cash? When did the change of heart happen?

But, "living peacefully off the PP" sounds like a great ending to the story. I just want to hear the middle part of it because I missed it.

65/5/30 Stocks/Gold/Bond
40/15/15/30 Stocks/Gold/LTT/Cash

PP will bridge the gap between current age and 59-1/2 when retirement accounts are accessible without penalty.

I was secure in the value of the PP during times of crisis (March) and leveraged its stability (taxable account) to over-rebalance in tax-deferred accounts (70/30 to 80/20 and finally 90/10). This helped significantly. I was also laid off around that time. Never wavered on the plan...go figure.

Lifting, doing some “gardening”, raising kids in the Bay Area. Our city was ranked safest over some geographical area so its desirable with good schools and as they say, the rest is history.

[ahhrunforthehills]

I would not be retired and living peacefully off of the PP if I had not encountered this forum 10+ years ago.

Say WHAT???? When did that happen??

The "Budd" I knew was terrified of the PP because of the gold and because it didn't perfectly track the stock market. I thought you were going to do a simple portfolio of stocks with a hefty side of cash? When did the change of heart happen?

But, "living peacefully off the PP" sounds like a great ending to the story. I just want to hear the middle part of it because I missed it.

Budd, and anyone who stayed the course (which the PP allowed easily this year) were rewarded, pretty much regardless of their allocations! Go back to mid March and imagine that we'd be where we are on Dec 28th. If there are those who knew we were going to be here, my hat is off to you.



and the smoothing effect of the pp on my return:

TBH, this strikes me as a really odd comment. The graphs pretty much show me that anybody with a pulse were rewarded. The PP was just one of many that was positive. Anyone who held onto those ST and LT Treasuries after March had realistically missed a large opportunity to hold better appreciating assets.

[Cortopassi]

Which part strikes you as odd? I would be pretty certain that some % with a very stock heavy portfolio got out on the way down in March and haven't been able to get back in, always waiting for that other shoe to drop which hasn't yet, and have missed out on gains. I have one friend who exactly did that. He still dabbles in his penny stocks but took his main holdings to cash early in the pandemic.

[ahhrunforthehills]

Which part strikes you as odd? I would be pretty certain that some % with a very stock heavy portfolio got out on the way down in March and haven't been able to get back in, always waiting for that other shoe to drop which hasn't yet, and have missed out on gains. I have one friend who exactly did that. He still dabbles in his penny stocks but took his main holdings to cash early in the pandemic.

Your original post said “anyone who stayed the course”. Your friend did not.

Regardless, this still amounts to saying “at least the PP outperformed market timers”. That is not much of an achievement if we are being honest.

Also keep in mind that lots of people did the exact opposite of your friend (including people in this forum) that were dumping treasuries and/or increasing stock.

I am not saying that the PP did not achieve its designed purpose... but it certainly was not the belle of the ball by any stretch of the imagination.

[Cortopassi]

Which part strikes you as odd? I would be pretty certain that some % with a very stock heavy portfolio got out on the way down in March and haven't been able to get back in, always waiting for that other shoe to drop which hasn't yet, and have missed out on gains. I have one friend who exactly did that. He still dabbles in his penny stocks but took his main holdings to cash early in the pandemic.

Your original post said “anyone who stayed the course”. Your friend did not.

Regardless, this still amounts to saying “at least the PP outperformed market timers”. That is not much of an achievement if we are being honest.

Also keep in mind that lots of people did the exact opposite of your friend (including people in this forum) that were dumping treasuries and/or increasing stock.

I am not saying that the PP did not achieve its designed purpose... but it certainly was not the belle of the ball by any stretch of the imagination.

I understand. Realize for me, though, I spent most of my investing career with a great precentage "VP" trying to time the market -- 1990 to 2014. It will remain the stupidest thing I have ever done investing-wise. Conversely, the smartest thing was going to the PP in 2014.

[Libertarian666]

While I agree with you Xan, and acknowledge that something probably needed to be done, I would point out that a 4 hour/post limit is tantamount to a complete ban.

I don't think that's true, it just requires some extra thought and planning.

My first choice actually was to have the 4 hour/post rule apply only in the Politics section, and have it apply to everybody. That doesn't seem to be an option.

p.s. don't just pick on Libertarian666. There are a few prolific posters from the opposite side of the political spectrum who certainly did their part. Also, those other posters put up posts that were extremely difficult to read (walls of text, too much being quoted with almost no useful followup, off target comments). I haven't seen many posts from them so I assume they've been throttled as well.

I had found that putting them on "ignore" increased the readability of threads dramatically. However it was not a perfect solution since others would be led to respond to them, which often resulted in derailing threads. I would not want to see the politics subforum blocked, but it would be a good idea to keep politics out of other subforums.

I don't believe anyone who doesn't engage in wrongthink has been throttled.
I'd be happy to be corrected about this though.

[Xan]

Update: we've been able to hack something together so that there's a rate limit on the subforum rather than on users. This is fairer, and gives us a "knob" to easily turn to attempt to dial down the temperature if things get ugly, and then relax if things are good.

No user is now rate-limited.

The Politics subforum is now rate-limited by user: nobody can post more frequently than once every two hours. We'll start here and see how it goes. The hope is that it will encourage thoughtfulness in posting as opposed to reactivity, and will allow everybody to get a word in (if they want to).

[Mark Leavy]

Thank you Xan and all of the other moderators for the work you do in keeping this a viable forum. Much appreciate it.

This new, equitable approach sounds positive.

[Xan]

Mark, I really appreciate you burning your only Politics post for the next two hours on the kind words! :-)

[Mountaineer]

[Mark Leavy]

Drat!

Wait... did I do it again?
Curse you, Xan.

Addendum:

Note to Vinny :
Try it.

(See how I semi-subverted the benevolent dictatorship via the edit function?)

[vnatale]

Mark, I really appreciate you burning your only Politics post for the next two hours on the kind words! :-)

I'll burn up one of mine here.

What happens if you go over the limit?

Does it just refuse to post? With some message popping up telling you to come back later (with a specific time)?

Or, does it get put in some form of line wherein they get released every two hours?

Vinny

Edit! Note to Dualstow! I did see how you cleverly did that! Note to Xan! I got the response exactly as you described. Did not want to use my one per two hours to directly respond to you as I have another all set to go in a different topic.

Vinny

[Xan]

Mark, I really appreciate you burning your only Politics post for the next two hours on the kind words! :-)

I'll burn up one of mine here.

What happens if you go over the limit?

Does it just refuse to post? With some message popping up telling you to come back later (with a specific time)?

Or, does it get put in some form of line wherein they get released every two hours?

Vinny

Well, you can just try posting again and see.

I believe it just says in red text that you've exceeded the limit and to try again later.