Gyroscopic Investing

Hi All - I thought it might be interesting/useful to have a thread in which we share our actual PP investment selections (I am kind of curious where I fit compared to the community and thought maybe others would too).  Maybe we could even re-visit and update/append-to this thread whenever we change selections or rebalance (if you are aware of a thread that already meets this need, please let me know and I will re-post there instead).

Here is my info (pretty plain vanilla I'm guessing):

I adopted the PP approach Q2 - 2010.

stocks - VTI and SPY
bonds - TLT
cash - SHY
gold - GLD and IAU

Most of my net worth is in IRAs of which about 75% is PP and 25% is VP.

I don't have any physical bullion yet but plan on getting some bullion coins once I find a place I am comfortable dealing with.

Here's my PP. It will change soon due to 401(k) provider change 

stocks - FSTMX and DGS
bonds - FTBFX and EDV
cash - savings and HSA accounts, FSHBX,
gold - SGOL, PHYS, IAU

For my PP I have:

Gold:  bullion coins(Eagles, Maple leafs, etc.)
Cash:  Series I Savings Bonds
Stock:  SVSPX (S&P 500 Index Fund) and WAAEX (Small Cap Growth Fund)
Bonds:  PRULX (US Treasury Long Term Fund)

I liked Harry B.'s original idea of a volatile growth fund for the stock portion of the PP, which is why I keep about half of the stock fund in the small cap fund.  (Yes, I know there are additional risks.)

My goal is to convert the Bond fund into LT bonds at some point in the future.

I also keep a bit of PRPFX just to see how it tracks with the other components I have in my PP.

My PP/VP split is 75/25, and except for the bullion and Series I Bonds, it's all in my Roth IRA.  About half of the VP is currently in natural resource shares and the remainder in cash, but since it's variable, the components change from month to month, quarter to quarter.

I started by investing a portion of my portfolio in PRPFX in mid 2008, but I decided to embrace completely the PP in October 2009, after dealing with so many of my own forecasts, prognostications, miscalculations. 

I was also afraid of the way the stock/bond markets have changed, with programmed trading, high frequency trading, CDOS, CDS (swaps), and other products/techniques that have untold effects on the financial markets.  (BTW, I live in NYC.)  It's been a wise choice for me so far. 

Last year when I started, I rebalanced every quarter.  This year I cut down to twice a year.  Next year I rebalance annually--unless something weird happens because of a major dollar collapse or a TSHTF episode--in which case I would suspend moving additional $ into the portion of the PP that is collapsing...

gold - 2% Silver Eagles; 8% Gold Eagles/Liberty's/St Gaudens/Maple Leafs/British Sovereigns; balance iAU and SGOL
cash - CD's paying 5%
stock - 21%VTI and 4%MAPTX
bond - 20%TLT and 5%BIV

Currently

25% TLT
25% GLD
25% VB (small cap stock index)
and 25% VNQ (REIT's)

This was the result of "tweaking" the PP, but I'm going to switch the REIT's to SHY and VB to VBR when it comes time to rebalance - my portfolio is too small to justify changing it frequently.

I now believe that the "cash" portion of the portfolio is MUCH more important than I initially realized, and I like being aggressive with the stock portion of the portfolio - after all the Gold and LTGB's are volatile - the stock portion should be as well.

I will CONSIDER using REIT's for 10% of the portfolio and taking 5% out of both Gold and Stocks to make room - I think Harry Browne advocated adding REIT's this way, correct?

15% VTI & 10% VWO for Stocks
25% TLT for Bonds
25% SHY for Cash
25% GLD for Gold

foglifter wrote: Here's my PP. It will change soon due to 401(k) provider change 

stocks - FSTMX and DGS
bonds - FTBFX and EDV
cash - savings and HSA accounts, FSHBX,
gold - SGOL, PHYS, IAU

My company switched to a new 401(k) provider. There were 2 index funds in the old plan (Fidelity) and I nagged our HR all the time trying to make them talk to Fidelity and get us better options. I thought we had a lousy plan but now it seems I was wrong! Our new plan offers only 1 (one) index fund (FUSEX)  - the rest is a bunch of actively-managed load funds with ERs north of 1%. The only new good addition is PIMCO Total Return (PTRAX).

Here's my updated PP:
stocks - FUSEX and DGS
bonds - PTRAX and EDV
cash - savings (APY 1.35%), HSA (APY 5%), + more PTRAX if needed - there is no ST bond funds available
gold - SGOL, PHYS, IAU

Gold  Approx 9% Bullion (Pamp 1oz bars) and approx 16% GTU (central gold trust)
Stock 25% VTI (vanguard total market)
Long term bonds 25% TLT (iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treas Bond)
Cash 25% Vanguard treasury only money market fund

for tax loss harvest purposes:
GTU maybe replaced with GLD for 30 days or untill Premium on GTU is low
VTI may be replaced with VOO
TLT may be replaced with BTTRX for 30 days

I noticed many people use GLD for their gold portion of the PP. I was wondering why not to use IAU instead? You get allocated gold and a lower ER - just 0.25%. SGOL, PHYS and GTU are also good options with the gold being held outside of the US.

For those interested this thread in the Gold section talks about various gold investment options: https://web.archive.org/web/20160324133 ... opic=187.0

My gold strategy has been so far to use GLD and now SGOL.  If I need to add more gold I'll probably use IAU just to diversify a bit.  I started investing in GLD long before all these other options existed, and there was no point in selling shares just to take a tax hit.

Storm wrote: My gold strategy has been so far to use GLD and now SGOL.  If I need to add more gold I'll probably use IAU just to diversify a bit.  I started investing in GLD long before all these other options existed, and there was no point in selling shares just to take a tax hit.

Storm, in your case of course GLD should be kept. I guess my remark is intended for those who haven't established their gold position or have room in tax-deferred accounts for gold.

As far as taxable accounts are concerned: gold CEFs like CEF (gold+silver), GTU and PHYS would work better as they are subject to capital gain tax rather than collectible tax. But it's hard to find time when the premium is low - there's too much demand for non-US allocated gold with preferential tax treatment. Also PHYS offers an option of physical delivery.