How long did it take you to adopt the PP after hearing about it?

[longeyes]

A few months.

First I had to convince myself that the PP was in fact safer than just holding cash in Treasuries (which had been my tack for some time). 

[moda0306]

As an investor, I've always looked at cash, bonds, stocks, and gold as just different forms of "money"

Man... I really never looked at it that way, but it's a really good way to see it.  Given the antiseptic nature of a publicly traded corporation (with few exceptions, these are faceless entities whose ownership is often far-disconnected from management and more resemble a communistic entity than the entreprenurial, ownership-based activity like a closely-held business... at least IMO).

Given that nature, it's easy to set aside a corporation as having some aspects of a private business, with a lot of aspects of a disconnected, bureaucratic nightmare that is government.  The management is invested in the company's future like most government employees are, and very unlike most closely-held businesses that define the spirit of honest free enterprise.  Maybe we should look at PTC's (publicly traded corps) as having enough government-like traits, that when combined with their ease of tradability, should be looked at as a form of money, since many of the wonderful things that define an entreprenurial environment and ownership are perverted and near-devoid within a PTC.

You guys have given me more to pontificate on... I love it.

[murphy_p_t]

to answer the healine question...more than a year, sadly...what i've learned here finally gave me the confidence to pull trigger 11 months ago

[beafet]

A few weeks.... I read about PRPFX about a month and a half ago in Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?...

[MediumTex]

to answer the healine question...more than a year, sadly...what i've learned here finally gave me the confidence to pull trigger 11 months ago

How are you feeling about it with 11 months under your belt?

[murphy_p_t]

MT...i feel great about my HB PP! My bias is that of a goldbug...but I was also fearful of increasing that holding...the PP has shown me how to do that in a balanced way...without the PP concept, there was no way under the sun that I'd buy a 30 T-bond...but I'm sure glad I did! Having said that, I have no intention to sell gold in the next few years, unless it goes truely parabolic...i view the overweight gold as part of a VP. Before I became comfortable with the PP, I was too much in cash.    thanks again to all, esp Craig & MT & Clive

[jackely]

to answer the healine question...more than a year, sadly...what i've learned here finally gave me the confidence to pull trigger 11 months ago

How are you feeling about it with 11 months under your belt?

It's been about 11 months for me too and I've been feeling great about it. Only wish I'd been bold enough to go whole hog with the HB PP instead of PRPFX at the beginning. Will be sorting the rest of that out soon.

As for how long it took me to adopt it after learning about it, I would say not long. I saw a possible repeat of 2008 in the works and was looking for something safe. Being a fan of Harry Browne's libertarian writings I stumbled upon his writings about the PP and made my investment in PRPFX shortly thereafter.

[MarySB]

It took me about a year. I was looking for a "safe"'way to reinvest a maturing zero coupon bond I had purchased in early 1990's. I started out by looking at the Bogelheads forum and stumbled upon the PP. Intrigued, I read the entire PP thread and then, everything I could get my hands on that was related to the PP.  After doing lots of reading, tracing the ETF funds for awhile, and emailing craigr with a few questions, I took the plunge. The first couple of weeks were very nerve-wracking. But, I decided to stay the course and now, nineteen months later, another bond has matured and I will be taking the plunge with it, as well. So, thanks Craig and to MT who has also taken the time to answer my questions.

[akratic]

Four years.

Four years ago I had a roommate that was a doomer and almost fully invested in PRPFX.  I thought he was overly paranoid and that his investment choices merely reflected his gloomy outlook for the future.  He thought the US was going down in flames and has since expatriated.  I confidently held a 70-30 stocks-bonds split at the time.

Then a year ago KevinW from this forum started posting about the Permanent Portfolio over at the ERE forums.  I was immediately intrigued and starting reading through the entire Boggleheads thread.  It took me a little over a year from I started reading until I took the plunge.

The asset class that took me so long to accept was long term treasury bonds, which are of course up 16% since I invested a few months ago.

Now whenever I talk to someone about the PP, I can't help but think that I must sound just like my old roommate sounded to me...

[Tyler]

About a year ago, I set out to create the perfect portfolio.  My goals were:

1) I wanted it to be simple, with 4-5 equally-weighted funds that I could balance without much effort.
2) I wanted to prioritize safety over crazy growth.  I worked out that averaging around 8% a year would work for my personal goals especially if I didn't have to deal with huge down years.
3) I wanted something with a proven history of solid performance.
4) The more I read about the market day-to-day, the more I didn't want to have to stress about it. 

I spent weeks pouring over all of the funds available, and picked 5 that seemed like (in combination) they fit the bill.  PRPFX happened to be one of them, and for a while I wondered whether just using it alone would be the smart thing to do (but hated the idea of putting all of my eggs into one actively managed basket).  Then just a few months ago, while reading an article on PRPFX, I saw a reference to Harry Browne.  Bought the book, and the rest is history. 

Normally I'd wish that I had discovered the HBPP earlier as it would have saved me a lot of time, stress, and trading fees.  But in retrospect, going through the process of figuring out exactly what I wanted (and finding out the hard way what I didn't want) before discovering the solution gave me all the confidence I needed that this is the right system for me. 

Still new, and in the process of getting everything allocated properly.  And I'm starting fairly simple on the ETF side.  But I'm already feeling much more confident about investing than I ever have before.

[dualstow]

...

The asset class that took me so long to accept was long term treasury bonds, which are of course up 16% since I invested a few months ago.

Now whenever I talk to someone about the PP, I can't help but think that I must sound just like my old roommate sounded to me...

So true. To conventional stock and bond owners, I may sound like a doom-and-gloomer, or overly conservative for my age.
The rest, I merely sound like I'm late to the game.