Well, I guess what I meant was that you appear to have started investing a few years ahead of me.DonM wrote: HB Reader...You really are way ahead of me. I may have come across Harry Browne, but was too stubborn to seriously consider it.
I read my first HB (and investment) book in 1974 and that led me to some fairly successful precious metals investments in the late 1970s, but since I was in school during most of that decade I didn't have much to invest. Even during the 1970s it wasn't easy though, as there were some prolonged bear stretches in the precious metals.
I read about and flirted with a lot of different investment approaches over the years, but ultimately kept coming back to HB's 1980s PP/VP approach because I always really liked the rigor of formally dividing investments into a PP and a VP. I began using PRPFX as the core position in our PP not long after it came out in the early 1980's. I converted most of that to a straight 4x25% portfolio about eight years ago.
I've had some successes and some failures in our VP, but the successes have seldom been consistent and often haven't seemed worth the time, effort and stress. I have seen a few successful "value" investors over the years for whom I have great respect, but for a variety of reasons I've never been able to recreate their success consistently.
At any rate, like you I've concluded it makes sense to keep most of our money in a PP (far away from the "experts" in the financial services industry) that doesn't require constant attention and to "play" a little on the side with a VP.