Prpfx

[lawman]

I'm considering investing in this mutual fund. It is comprised of approx. 20% gold, 5% silver, 10% Swiss francs, 15% U. S. & foreign real estate & natural resource companies, 15% aggressive U.S. growth stocks and 35% cash and U.S. treasuries..I'm most apprehensive about the long term treasuries. Comments on this fund appreciated..

 

[2B]

This is one of those "5% of portfolio max" funds - IMHO.

 

[Grep]

What I didn't get at first is why all the cash and treasuries. Is it supposed to be some sort of "balanced" fund with all that gold, silver and francs, etc? Then I deciphered the name.

I guess the "permanent portfolio" approach has its adherents. And it has done well, beating the total market during the lows of the dot-com crash and since our current crisis, plus matching most of the run-up during 2003-2007 or so. But relying on prior performance is rarely a good idea.

To me, it seems a bit too heavily-oriented towards the "tin foil hat" brigade. Do I really want to own that much in precious metals? I don't think so. That much in the currency of one relatively-small foreign country? I don't think so. That much of my stock allocation in "aggressive growth stocks?" I don't think so.

I guess "concept stocks" are so passe. We've long-since moved on to "concept mutual funds."

I wouldn't do it, but it's your money.

 

[mathjak107]

i like the fund and have been using it for decades.... its basically a fund that never has to say im sorry...its not made for capital appreciation but for capital preservation...

all sectors are designed to offset each other and for most of our econmic times that worked well...right now you have a freaky thing where 75 % of the sectors are flowing together even though they are wierd bedfellows. but ill still bet that given a slighly longer time frame things will still find a strong enough trend in one of the sectors and do fine...

its geared to respond to

recession (the weakest protection as almost nothing does well)

depression/deflation

hyper inflation

prosperity

returns on cash suck, returns on stocks suck ,returns on gold sucked ,but they are now bouncing back... only treasury bonds have soared.

its still a place for 10% of my money and even though its down in this calamity its still my best performer

 

[slouch]

Here are previous threads on this topic. The morningstar thread is more interesting (and civil IMO) than the others:

• (morningstar) Permanent Portfolio PRPFX
• (ER) http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/anyone-familiar-with-permanent-portfolio-prpfx-fund-29121.html
• (ER) http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f44/permanent-portfolio-prpfx-37629.html