The permanent portfolio
by Craig Rowland, J. M. Lawson · first published 2012
27% recommend73% neutral
"An up close look at an investment strategy that can handle today's uncertain financial environmentMarket uncertainty cannot be eliminated. So rather than attempt to do away with it, why not embrace it? That is what this book is designed to do. The Permanent Portfolio takes you through Harry Browne's Permanent Portfolio approach--which can weather a wide range of economic conditions from inflation and deflation to recession--and reveals how it can help investors protect and grow their money.Written by Craig Rowland and Mike Lawson, this reliable resource demonstrates everything from a straight
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…takes a critical look at how charitable giving and service are done by the modern church and provides a better plan distilled from decades of experience helping troubled neighborhoods in Atlanta. The Permanent Portfolio by Rowland and Lawson preaches Harry Browne's Permanent Portfolio but fills in all the implementation gaps left in Harry's rather thin original. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. This classic on what…
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?” ↗The Permanent Portfolio [1]. The plan is based on very simple economic theory, and historically it generates market-competitive returns in the long run with much lower volatility than stock indexes or 60/40 portfolios. As in…
on “Ask HN: Your Passive Income Suggestions?” ↗I don’t follow the Harry Browne portfolio advice, but I have read Craig Rowland’s very good book about it [0], and I disagree. The Permanent Portfolio has had pretty good overall returns extremely consistently despite its low (25%) stock allocation because it holds four assets with poor correlation and rebalances between them, and because one of them…
on “Harry Browne’s 17 Golden Rules of Financial Safety (2013)” ↗I'd use Harry Browne's "Permanent Portfolio" allocation - it performs as well or better than other passive portfolios while experiencing far less volatility. Here's a detailed analysis of historical returns: http://crawlingroad.com/blog/2008/12/22/permanent-portfolio-...…
on “Ask HN: Steady 4-5% on $5 million?” ↗Investing is a very personal matter. A financial advisor is the best person to discuss this with. If I were pursuing this for myself I would build a Permanent Portfolio [1]. If I was looking for a financial advisor I would talk to Andrew Horowitz [2]. I would also recommend you look a small allocation in something such as Bitcoin, Zcash or Ethereum as they have a lot…
on “Ask HN: How should I invest $200K in this market?” ↗Though I am not there yet, the Permanent Portfolio [1] makes sense to me. The key insight is that for the money you have lost, you can never recover the energy/time/life you have spent in earning it. So, capital preservation (wrt inflation) is more important…
on “Money as a System of Control (2017)” ↗…"Market Neutral" funds that blew each other up in the summer of 2007. Note Harry Browne ran as the libertarian candidate for US president more than once and is really famous for https://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Portfolio-Long-Term-Investm... In my mind it is quite similar to Diallo's "All Weather" strategy where inflation protected bonds play a role similar to gold in Browne's portfolio.
on “Harry Browne’s 17 Golden Rules of Financial Safety (2013)” ↗…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)” ↗…gold or real-estate) are highly recommended. 2. See #1. Diversification is the way to reduce the risk of stock market crashes, while still getting high annual returns. Diversied portfolios such as the Permanent Portfolio have averaged 9.3% CAGR over the last 40+ years. 3. Average lifespan in developed countries is still increasing dramatically. It might be ~80 years now, but kids just entering the workforce could easily…
on “Safe Retirement Spending Using TensorFlow” ↗…allocation and periodic balancing in his book "Why the Best-Laid Investment Plans Usually Go Wrong". It's an old book from 1987, but the principle is timeless. For example, I'm looking at a chart of his "Permanent Portfolio" from 1970 through 1987, which weights four asset classes equally at 25% each: gold, stocks, bonds, and cash. The portfolio has far lower volatility and far lower draw-downs than gold, stocks, or bonds…
on “Picking Investments: Only Two Things Matter” ↗The author argues that these four types of investments are very unlikely to go down at the same time - if one loses a lot, the other types grow. " It might seem that a Permanent Portfolio containing these four contradictory investments would be neutralized: As one element rose, another would fall and nothing would be gained. On a day-to-day basis, that can be true.…
on “Qwiki Epitomizes the Current Startup Bubble” ↗BTW. In case I wasn't clear the site I run focuses on on passive investing strategies relating to the Permanent Portfolio asset allocation. You can read more about it here: http://crawlingroad.com/blog/2010/02/06/permanent-portfolio-...
on “Ask HN: Steady 4-5% on $5 million?” ↗He discusses real estate in a separate chapter, but what he says is interesting: "Real estate isn't an essential investment for a Permanent Portfolio. Real estate offers no profit or protection to a portfolio that can't be achieved more easily with stocks and gold." He then accepts the reality that many readers have invested or wish to invest in…
on “Picking Investments: Only Two Things Matter” ↗…you with everything you need in order to get your feet wet. Then, while you're checking your investments every day (exactly the way the book tells you not to do), start to read as much as you can about Permanent Portfolio. The reason I recommend this is because it allows you to learn the theory of (and indeed watch, if you decide to build your own Permanent Portfolio) different asset classes, and how they move depending…
on “Wealthfront: Silicon Valley Tech at Wall Street Prices” ↗…relative to its own historical range. Lots of boring stocks like KO and IBM, but the newsletter does pretty well historically, and has low volatility. Another method I've thought about about is the 'Permanent Portfolio'. It's not a newsletter. Simply put 25% each in an index fund ETF, stock ETF, gold ETF, and cash. Rebalance once per year. It's popular with end-of-the-world preppers, and underperforms the market,…
on “Investing for Geeks” ↗