How Did You Learn of Harry Browne?

[Otto]

I knew about him from his presidential runs and was only vaguely aware of his investment writing. I read Fail-Safe Investing when it came out in 1999, but it seemed way to conservative. Why would you put all that money in cash when you could make so much more in the stock market?

I opened my first IRA the following year. March of 2000. I think I bought biotech stocks. That didn't go well.

I probably broke even over the next eight years, or close to it, but by the end of 2008 I was looking for something less haphazard. I found Crawling Road somehow and listened to the radio shows and reread Fail-Safe Investing. It seemed a lot more reasonable the second time around.

It was about six months between rediscovery and deployment.

[MediumTex]

I probably broke even over the next eight years, or close to it, but by the end of 2008 I was looking for something less haphazard. I found Crawling Road somehow and listened to the radio shows and reread Fail-Safe Investing. It seemed a lot more reasonable the second time around.

That's wisdom right there.

I'm just happy that I learned of the PP before losing any MORE money trying to win in what is basically a casino.  I think, too, that a person has to be ready for something like the PP, and for many people the only way to really get ready is to bang their head against a wall losing money until they get serious about trying to find a better way.

It's amazing how few investors actually have success in managing their own money.  Looking at things through the lens of the PP, I realize that there is a "blind leading the blind" quality to much of retail investing, but for whatever reason many people keep going back for more. 

I think also that many retail investors simply don't have a strong grasp of their own risk tolerance.  By failing to anticipate how they will react to losses, they are not emotionally prepared to deal with them when they come and they wind up selling near the bottom.  I think that most people begin to sweat after seeing their investments go down in value about 15%, but I think many of these same people would tell you that they wouldn't start to sweat until their investments lost 30%-40%.

[6 Iron]

I'm just happy that I learned of the PP before losing any MORE money trying to win in what is basically a casino.  I think, too, that a person has to be ready for something like the PP, .....

In the 90's, I was an indexer, but after a job change in 2000, I thought that my finances had become complicated enough to justify professional assistance. By 2008, I felt that the management costs exceeded the benefits and counsel and started to reevaluate by studying investment strategies, including the bogleheads website. There, I first looked for a few seconds at the HB PP thread, and wrote it off as nutbaggery in a few thoughtless seconds. Came back in late summer 2009, after seeing the permanent portfolio discussed on another website that I cannot recall. The more I learned, the more sense it made. And that is still true.

[Pkg Man]

I voted for HB twice, but like others didn't know anything about the finance side of HB.

I stumbled upon a website earlier this year that mentioned the approach http://www.mymoneyblog.com/the-permanen ... rowne.html and eventually found the Boglehead thread.  The 4x4 pie chart in article from the link really captured my attention. 

I had already bought some gold and was looking to add more bonds and cash to my portfolio so I guess it was a fairly easy sell for me.  Within two months of discovery I moved 50% of my assets into the PP.  If I had found the PP earlier it might not have resonated.

[smurff]

I read his book, "How to find freedom in an unfree world" back in the late 1970s/early 1980s.  It was an interesting (and controversial) read, so I read some of his personal finance books.  That's when I first ran across the PP, but back then I was still in school and did not have any money. 

I knew that he had run for political office, but I never really considered him a true candidate for president.  To me he was more a protest candidate--someone who runs for office primarily to make a point about governmental mischief.

I never considered the PP again until a couple of years ago, when I decided it was time for a more secure strategy for dealing with my investments.

[Snowman9000]

My dad had several of Harry's books, dating back to when I was in high school or just out.  Dad was big into libertarianism back in the 70s.  He saw Harry speak back then, got to meet him, the usual seminar stuff.  Dad made a nice bit of change buying gold in the 70s due to the advice of Harry and others.

I didn't pay any attention to any of it but one day much later, probably in the late 90s, I decided to borrow "How I found freedom..." from my dad.  I loved it.  It changed my life.  At some later date I found Harry was doing radio shows on the internet.  One on politics and one on investing.  I listened to both, and that is how I found out about the PP.

[murphy_p_t]

PP recommended by http://chaostan.com/