Relative Newbie... Not happy with 1 year performance

[Pointedstick]

You can easily get the capital gains tax on gold down by using GTU instead of IAU, and I do this in my DIY taxable PP. I am under no illusions about the safety of a single-fund PP in the event of a bank panic, brokerage seizure, monetary crisis or even a severe recession. I mostly use PERM for the convenience factor of being able to buy a single fund commission-free at eTrade where I already had an account, and it's used for medium term savings because I can tolerate fluctuations and it does better than the piddly 0.8% interest on my savings account. My long-term investments are in three DIY PPs, two of which are tax-sheltered in a 401k and two Roth IRAs.

[jediclampet]

You can easily get the capital gains tax on gold down by using GTU instead of IAU, and I do this in my DIY taxable PP.

So you have to fill out an 8621 form every year to allow you to pay 15% tax on GTUs long-term capital gains?  This form is not currently supported by TurboTax so I'd have to file my taxes the old fashioned way or pay an accountant to do my taxes, right?  

[Pointedstick]

I haven't actually had the opportunity to do it yet so maybe others can chime in, but I hear TaxAct lets you file that form. It's a lot cheaper than TurboTax, too.

[craigr]

Seems to me that, for a taxable account, the most attractive thing about PERM and PRPFX as opposed to a 4 ETF HBPP is that all long-term capital gains in PERM and PRPFX are taxed at 15%. Couldn't make a big difference if gold takes off?

PERM does not have nearly long enough track record yet to determine how tax efficient it will be. PRPFX has that over it that they run the fund for tax efficiency. The PERM prospectus indicates they will rebalance once a year. That could drop a big tax bill in shareholder's laps if not done correctly by the fund. They also are relying on ETFs underneath to do things correctly and not make a lot of taxes that will pass through to shareholders. There are a lot of moving parts involved in PERM that the managers do not control.

I would recommend that PERM be relegated to tax-deferred funds until it gets some time to establish how it is going to be run.

[Pointedstick]

I share your concerns, craigr. However, I sort of did this to be a guinea pig as well as to try to use it as a supercharged savings account. I'll be sure to report back what happens at the end of the year. I knew I wanted to use one an all-in-one fund with a certain amount of money simply for convenience, but PRPFX is just too expensive and different from the straight-up HBPP for me to stomach.

[craigr]

I share your concerns, craigr. However I sort of did this to be a guinea pig as well as to try to use it as a supercharged savings account. I'll be sure to report back what happens at the end of the year. I knew I wanted to use one an all-i-one fund for a certain amount of money simply for convenience, but PRPFX is just too expensive and different from the straight-up HBPP for me to stomach.

Definitely post how it works. I'm hoping the managers handle things well and make this a useful option to investors.