Gyroscopic Investing

I was introduced to the Permanent Portfolio years ago (not long after the Great Recession) after listening to some old Harry Browne podcasts. For the gold portion, I went with GLD due to its simplicity and invested in it for my Roth IRA and Brokerage accounts, not being aware of the tax implications. Since then have discovered that there seem to be better options. Am I pretty much stuck with it at this point? Or should I consider selling while prices are up and take the tax hit? I think I'm going to have to sell some of it in the Roth anyway as the account is out of balance due to the recent run up.

I really don’t think you made a mistake.
I sold my paper gold (not GLD but close enough) because I didn’t want to deal with it at tax time. While I don’t do my own taxes, my accountant charges extra for all the little calculations that were supposed to be made for my gold etf. Sometimes I did them.
A friend of mine who held GLD said, “I just put all my papers in a box and hand them to my accountant.”

You mentioned “tax implications” by which you probably meant a tax hit, not the trifle I mentioned above.
It’s not that bad, is it?
I’m sure someone will chime in, at least after the holidays, with more efficient choices if that’s what you’re looking for.

Since I don’t really trade gold, I didn’t want a hassle to just hold it.
But there’s always a tradeoff: I pay for safe deposit box insurance and update that annually. And the coins that I keep at home could be stolen or could just go missing. So for many, paper gold brings peace of mind that is worth a few minutes of work when tax time comes.

turbo8214 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 23, 2025 1:20 pm I was introduced to the Permanent Portfolio years ago (not long after the Great Recession) after listening to some old Harry Browne podcasts. For the gold portion, I went with GLD due to its simplicity and invested in it for my Roth IRA and Brokerage accounts, not being aware of the tax implications. Since then have discovered that there seem to be better options. Am I pretty much stuck with it at this point? Or should I consider selling while prices are up and take the tax hit? I think I'm going to have to sell some of it in the Roth anyway as the account is out of balance due to the recent run up.

I have a now huge position in GLD. It’s in my taxable holdings and I’m stuck with it. Selling would be very expensive. I know, cry me a river. If I had it in a Roth, I would sell it and buy the low expense ratio version.

what i find is when you have big positions to sell the spreads on gld are smaller than the cheaper etfs .

it can actually cost more in spread difference than expense difference.

gld is a more liquid for big positions.

many times i had only a portion go in gldm and the rest went at lower prices