added a new fund to my mix

[mathjak107]

with all the confusion as to where we are headed i decided to add the permanent portfolio to my mix of core holdings. the fund is more a capital preservation fund then a growth fund. it just covers all the economic scenerios and basically says let the chips fall where they may.

although i followed this fund for years the heavy gold position weighted it down for decades. now that gold is back on the radar the fund has performed great but thats not it purpose.

the expense ratio is high but when you consider all the coverage including foreign currancys, foreign real estate, gold, silver, long term bonds etc it really isnt to bad, and if you turn a profit in a down market with very little risk then its all very worth it. none the less i figured a bet on nothing and a bet on everything at this point wasnt a bad way to go

 

[emilylynn]

Hi, Mathjak-- I've had the permanent portfolio as one of my core holdings for quite some time now. It's a good fund based upon a model that makes sense to me, especially in today's economic environment. Considering that great minds think alike, I'd be interested in knowing what other funds are making sense to you these days.

 

[unclemick]

Yikes! - Shades of Harry Browne. Brings back memories of my debates back and forth with the Brit engineers circa early 1980's back at the old rocket plant - they tended to really favor Swiss demoninated assets - having experienced the taxes and gyrations of the British pound in the 70's. Provincial American me considered gold and the $ as the way to go.

Good luck.

heh heh heh - Guess what - owned a slug of pssst Wellesley back then plus a few other things - like 500Index compounding away in 401k.

 

[hogtied]

You say a core holding. What percent of your portfolio is permanent? thanks

 

[mathjak107]

Hi, Mathjak-- I've had the permanent portfolio as one of my core holdings for quite some time now. It's a good fund based upon a model that makes sense to me, especially in today's economic environment. Considering that great minds think alike, I'd be interested in knowing what o
ther funds are making sense to you these days.

its not so much the funds used but the system i use that helps me sleep


i use a 3 bucket system and have a different dedicated portfolio for that particular bucket

the cash bucket is cd's, money markets and bank- 7 yrs worth of projected income inflation adjusted

bucket 2 is bonds- 7 years worth of projected income inflation adjusted

TLT long term treasury fund
TIP tips fund
FINMIX international bonds
FSRRX fidelity strategic real return
SPHIX fidelity high income
SHY 1-3 year treasury fund
APPLE HOSPITALITY UN-TRADED REIT-paying 8-1/2 %

bucket 3 has an actively managed mix and an etf mix

etf
VTI VANGUARD TOTAL MARKET
PWB POWERSHARES LARGE CAP GROWTH
PID POWERSHARE INT'L DIV ACHIEVERS
IVV S&P 500
GSG COMMODITY FUND

active

FCPGX FIDELITY SMALL CAP GROWTH
PERMANENT PORTFOLIO (ABOUT 10% OF STOCK BUCKET)
FDGRX FIDELITY GROWTH COMPANY
FDVLX FIDELITY VALUE
FEQIX FIDELITY EQUITY INCOME
FTIEX FIDELITY TOTAL INTERNATIONAL FUND

 

[jIMOh]

I opened an account in PRPFX this week as well. I am using this fund as an alternate to paying down my mortgage.

This is not going to be a high flier- I am not expecting to see anything higher than a 12% return, but I also think it can do much better than a 5% return from money markets and better than my 5.75% mortgage.

And gold and silver do not pay dividends, so it is tax efficient too.

My comment to mathjak107 would be to include PRPFX in cash position or bond position, not the high growth position. I consider this fund the next safest thing to cash I own.

 

[mathjak107]

it can be quite volatile. it has had a few negative years. 12% i think over all is wishful thinking. about 6-7 % may be more realistic. historically until gold took off the fund hovered around a point or 2 above treasury bills . it still has to much potential for loss to be a cash substitute. just a few weeks ago it swung over 1% in a day


10 year average return was about 9-1/2% , but that included awesome runups in gold, energy and natural resource stocks and a weak dollar. i think going forward much more than 6% or so would be tough