Getting back in

[LesWurse]

After being out of any kind of investing except sweat equity for many years, I'm in a position to try again.  Years ago I had remarkable success (luck) with an auto company stock.  After blowing those proceeds, I much later had a remarkable failure in commodities (predictable).

Now with a portion of my company's assets to work with and having read Browne's Fail Safe Investing several times, I think this is the way to re-start.  I'll probably begin with $25K and do the 25/25/25/25 allocation.  Being a modern day Rip Van Winkle, the question is who to start with in actually placing the investments.  Is there a list akin to Consumers Reports with ratings or is it every man (mark) for himself?

[MediumTex]

Buy gold coins for the gold part.  American eagles will be fine.

Open an account at Vanguard and buy VTSMX for the stock portion.

Use your Vanguard account to buy the ETF SHV for the cash portion.

Open up a Treasury Direct account and buy whatever 30 year bond is available (you can also buy Treasuries through Vanguard's bond desk--very simple).

Every few months check in and when any asset hits 15% or 35% rebalance the whole package.

That's it.

[Lone Wolf]

Welcome, and congratulations on making your new start.

MT's advice is a great starting point.  It really is that simple.  You'll see many of us making various simple maneuvers for tax efficiency or to shave fees and expenses here and there, but it's all just tweaks to the core that you see above.

Vanguard is a great company with a good reputation.  I run my own Permanent Portfolio out of Fidelity, which also works well.  I just use FSTMX (total stock market index) for the "Stock" portion and purchase individual Treasury Notes and Bonds for the "Cash" and "Bonds" portion.

Open up a Treasury Direct account and buy whatever 30 year bond is available (you can also buy Treasuries through Vanguard's bond desk--very simple).

If you are looking for the simplest possible option for long-term bonds, you can also consider purchasing the ETF with the ticker symbol "TLT".  This fund will handle the process of buying and selling long-term bonds for you.

MT, do you have experience selling any 30-year bonds that are held in TreasuryDirect?  It looked like performing a sale before maturity would require a transfer to a 3rd party bank or broker.

[upside]

MT, do you have experience selling any 30-year bonds that are held in TreasuryDirect?  It looked like performing a sale before maturity would require a transfer to a 3rd party bank or broker.

I just sold two 30-year bonds at TreasuryDirect a couple months ago. Very simple. You just go to "manage your account" or something like that and click on "sell bond." You can log into TreasuryDirect to check the status at anytime. I think mine were sold in Chicago within a couple days for a flat $40 fee, which was automatically taken out of the proceeds.

Basically, it's just a few clicks of the mouse on TreasuryDirect and then you sit back and wait for the money to either be deposited in your bank account or your account at TreasuryDirect, whichever you selected as your preference.

[BRESLOW]

The quickest way is to invest in PRPFX. They do everything for you. Next easist way is open account at Vanguard and put 25% in each ETF VTI-stocks TLT-LT/bonds IAU-GOLD, and SHY-cash. Done.

[LifestyleFreedom]

You can "paper trade" while you figure out what to do.  After reading Fail-Safe Investing last summer, I set up a "paper portfolio" on Yahoo Finance (but there are many other free portfolio tracking sites out there you can use).

My $100K of PRPFX is now "worth" $120K.  My portfolio of $25K each of GLD, SHY, TLT, and VTI is now "worth" $110K.  I don't remember where I got the ideas for GLD, SHY, TLT, and VTI, but it might have been from a post somewhere on this forum.

Soon after setting up this paper portfolio, I started buying PRPFX for real (not because of its relative performance, but because that is the approach I decided to use) and it has done well so far.  I might still buy other components separately later on, but that is a decision for a later time.

[Gumby]

I just sold two 30-year bonds at TreasuryDirect a couple months ago. Very simple. You just go to "manage your account" or something like that and click on "sell bond." You can log into TreasuryDirect to check the status at anytime. I think mine were sold in Chicago within a couple days for a flat $40 fee, which was automatically taken out of the proceeds.

Basically, it's just a few clicks of the mouse on TreasuryDirect and then you sit back and wait for the money to either be deposited in your bank account or your account at TreasuryDirect, whichever you selected as your preference.

You must have been one of the last people on Earth to use SellDirect. TreasuryDirect no longer provides that service. They ended SellDirect on December 17, 2010.

See: Public Debt to End SellDirect Services

Now you have to transfer the bonds to a broker or bank to complete the sale.

TreasuryDirect is great for Treasuries you plan to hold until maturity. Right now I prefer Fidelity, which has zero-commission buy/sell trades for all Treasuries.

I use a Vanguard account for VTSMX.

[MediumTex]

For a beginner, TLT might be the best approach for the long term treasury piece, though individual bonds are very easy to purchase.