Fail-Safe Investing
by Harry Browne, Browne, Harry · first published 1999
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Lays out the permanent portfolio: equal parts stocks, bonds, gold and cash, rebalanced yearly, as a low-risk, do-it-yourself approach to investing that avoids paying for advisory services.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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…lot of money in "wealth management services" you don't really need. Remember, you're a financial advisor's dream come true, and they'll try to sell you everything they can. Here's a review I wrote of "Fail Safe Investing," Browne's book: http://personalmba.com/review/fail-safe-investing/ Here's more solid supporting information: http://crawlingroad.com/blog/2010/02/06/permanent-portfolio-... Hope this helps!
on “Ask HN: Steady 4-5% on $5 million?” ↗I think Harry Browne's "permanent portfolio" deserves a lot more popular attention than it gets. In Fail-Safe Investing Harry said to allocate your wealth equally between: stocks (broad market index), bonds, gold, and cash (CDs, money market). Rebalance back to equal allocations roughly once a year. Try not only to diversify…
on “Mark Cuban: How Stocks are like Baseball Cards (2004)” ↗Check out Harry Browne's Permanent Portfolio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail-Safe_Investing It's a relatively low risk way to invest.
on “62% of Americans Have Under $1,000 in Savings, Survey Finds” ↗I'm a big fan of Harry Browne's thoughts on the subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail-Safe_Investing
on “Ask HN: How did you learn about stocks and the market?” ↗"Fail Safe Investing" by Harry Browne and "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham. Discussion of the former here: http://www.gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum
on “Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?” ↗"Fail Safe Investing: Lifelong Financial Security in 30 Minutes" by Harry Browne "The richest man in Babylon" was also a good read for me early on. It's told in a story format. "Your money or your life" is also good for…
on “How and Why Athletes Go Broke (2009)” ↗…made physically. Understanding Comics - Understanding art and visual communication. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Up there with Hackers & Painters in its rate of insight & surprise per page. Fail Safe Investing - Thought provoking ideas about why we invest and how best to go about doing that. (The ideas stand up, IMO, but some of the concrete advice on how to implement those ideas is very dated.) Good Calories,…
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗In Fail-Safe Investing, Harry Browne's suggestion is 25% each in: equity index funds, long term bonds, cash (in a treasury money market fund,) and gold. Also, he suggests everything be U.S. stuff. U.S. stocks, treasury bonds,…
on “I’m Going Long Right Now” ↗Times were different when Browne was practicing and refining his system. His book Fail-safe Investing talks about using Swiss banks and holding gold there. My understanding is today the Swiss don't want to deal with the headaches that come with servicing customers from countries that demand so much reporting.…
on “Golden Rules of Financial Safety (1999)” ↗Thanks for CAPM 101. Alpha is hard to get. No kidding. But nobody here is talking about stock picking. I'm talking about diversifying well outside of equities, as harry browne described in Fail Safe Investing, and slightly overweighting asset classes in accordance with macro conditions. > a simple diversified portfolio does very well. It does not, if by simple you mean S&P. A naive equities dominated…
on “Why Saving is for Suckers” ↗Harry advocated a portfolio of: 25% Stocks 25% 30 year treasury bonds 25% Cash 25% Gold His book on the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Fail-Safe-Investing-Lifelong-Financia... A more recent book: https://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Portfolio-Long-Term-Investm...
on “Golden Rules of Financial Safety (1999)” ↗Phrased differently: if you had $10mil, where would you put it? 25% stocks, 25% bonds, 25% gold, 25% cash? (That's literally what the "Fail-Safe Investing" book boils down to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail-Safe_Investing)
on “Qwiki Epitomizes the Current Startup Bubble” ↗…and Lawson [2] goes into much more of the nuts and bolts of implementation using different account types, tax status, and many other factors in individual situations. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail-Safe_Investing [2] http://www.amazon.com/The-Permanent-Portfolio-Long-Term-Inve...
on “Ask HN: Your Passive Income Suggestions?” ↗