Gyroscopic Investing

When I first heard about the Permanent Portfolio a few years ago I thought, "that's the craziest thing I've ever heard of".  I kept reading, thinking, reading and thinking.  The more I learned, the more it has made sense.  As my income has increased I have been reluctant to purchase more stocks and bonds with my earnings as prices have risen (my investment portfolio was only about 38% stocks - I'm in my 30's).  I never even contemplated owning gold.  I ended up being very cash heavy.  A little over a year ago I broke down and started an all ETF PP (TLT, SHY, VT & IAU) with a small amount of money in taxable.  Since then I have slowly added to the portfolio and even started buying physical gold (something I thought I'd never do).  I've been amazed at how balanced the overall portfolio is, how taking assets in isolation is misguided.  It's been incredibly stable and I plan to move more and more towards it, probably with a 50/50 PP/VP breakdown for a while. 

I followed the PP threads on bogleheads, have read numerous articles, found this site and have now read Craig's new book (excellent by the way). 

Question for Craig (and MediumTex) - how do you have your portfolio set up?  Most importantly, I'd like to know how you've invested in bonds and gold.  Do you use an ETF like TLT?  I'd imagine you buy bonds directly, but do you use a broker or treasury direct?  Maybe a combination?  As far as gold, I imagine you hold most of it overseas.  Out of the options, which did you choose for yourself?  Perth Mint?  Swiss safe deposit box?  Do you keep some physical locally?  Do you insure it?  Do you use an ETF for rebalancing?  Do you have a variable portfolio or is it all in PP?

Basically, after all the reading and option weighing, I'm curious how the more knowledgeable have done it themselves. I recognize everyone's circumstances are different, but I'd like to know. 

Thanks for all your contributions and thanks in advance for your response.

Joe

Welcome to the forum! This may be too confidential to post online (I probably would not want to), so I will take a stab at how I envision their portfolios:

Stocks: All VTI currently (but plan on adding second one for institutional diversity since net wealth exploding from new book sales).
LTTs: All bought individually through Fidelity and Vanguard.
Gold: Definitely not all overseas, since want some readily available for rebalancing and emergencies. 50% physical in US, 30% Perth Mint, and 20% GTU (for rebalancing in taxable acts). Was thinking of insuring but decided against after viewing consensus among this wildly popular thread: http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/ht ... ic.php?t=3
Cash: All iBonds and SHY currently, but thinking about moving some of SHY "deep cash" to Treasury Direct ladder.

VP: Very small plays in a few stocks of industries that are very well understood. Less than 10% and shrinking.

Each person is going to have their own needs and situations. What I do may not be a great fit for everyone, however I do eat my own dog food. So without going into too much specifics:

Stocks are broadly based stock index funds focusing primarily on US stocks with a little international.
Bonds are US Treasury bonds held directly.
Cash is a mix of Treasury money market and short-term treasury funds.
Gold is going to depend on your situation. I advise keeping some stored locally in secured storage and some overseas in an appropriate custodial account once you have accumulated enough physically where you live.

Don't touch the portfolio except for rebalancing purposes or for new deposits which I would generally apply to the worst performing asset class first.