In this episode we break rules and have guests! Dennis and Ben from the Father McKenna Center. We review the fabulous results of the Top of the T-Shirt Campaign and reflect on the generosity engagement of our listeners.
Then we answer emails from Jamie, Camille and Jon. We discuss Jamie's portfolio experiments, bond allocations in a 403b, musing about changes in the reserve currency status of the US Dollar and transitioning issues.
And THEN we our go through our weekly and monthly portfolio reviews of the eight sample portfolios you can find at Portfolios | Risk Parity Radio.
Additional Links:
Jamie's Portfolio Analyses: https://testfol.io/?s=jusQGGadC9P
Breathless Unedited AI-Bot Summary:
What happens when a finance podcast community rallies around a worthy cause? Something extraordinary. In this special episode, we break our "no guests" rule to welcome Dennis D and Ben Hoffschneider from the Father McKenna Center, where they share the remarkable story behind our recent fundraising campaign.
Dennis's journey will stop you in your tracks – from arriving at the center homeless after a 24-hour bus ride from Florida to eventually becoming its Executive Director. His powerful testimony shows how organizations like the McKenna Center transform lives daily. When our listener "Matthew63" stepped forward with a $15,000 matching challenge, none of us expected what would follow.
The results left everyone speechless: $60,969.83 raised (yes, down to the penny) from approximately 100 donors across the country. This campaign now represents 4% of the center's annual budget and has become their leading donor source for the fiscal year. As we reflect on Theodore Roosevelt's famous "Man in the Arena" speech, it becomes clear who the true warriors are – those doing the daily work with limited resources to address homelessness and food insecurity.
After our interview, we tackle several listener questions about portfolio construction. Jamie wonders about using VXX and SCO as bond replacements, Camille seeks guidance on holding treasury bonds in retirement accounts, and John asks about transitioning from target date funds to a more diversified approach. We close with our weekly portfolio review, noting gold's continued strong performance up 27.83% year-to-date.
Want to support the Father McKenna Center's work? Register for their Walk for McKenna on September 27th or follow them on social media to see your donations in action. The t-shirts featuring our logo will be available mid-September – a small reminder of what we can accomplish together.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Voices (00:01):
A foolish consistency, is the hobgoblin of little minds
, adored by little statesmen andphilosophers and divines.
If a man does not keep pace withhis companions.
Perhaps it is because he hearsa different drummer, A different
drummer.
Mostly Mary (00:19):
And now, coming to you from dead center on your
dial, welcome to Risk ParityRadio, where we explore
alternatives and assetallocations for the
do-it-yourself investor,Broadcasting to you now from the
comfort of his easy chair.
Here is your host, FrankVasquez.
Mostly Uncle Frank (00:37):
Thank you, Mary, and welcome to Risk Parity
Radio.
If you have just stumbled inhere, you will find that this
podcast is kind of like a divebar of personal finance and
do-it-yourself investing.
Voices (00:52):
Expect the unexpected.
Mostly Uncle Frank (00:55):
It's a relatively small place.
It's just me and Mary in hereand we only have a few
mismatched bar stools and someeasy chairs.
We have no sponsors, we have noguests and we have no expansion
plans.
Voices (01:11):
I don't think I'd like another job.
Mostly Uncle Frank (01:13):
What we do have is a little free library of
updated and unconflictedinformation for do-it-yourself
investors.
Voices (01:23):
Now who's up for a trip to the library?
Mostly Uncle Frank (01:26):
tomorrow.
So please enjoy our mostly coldbeer served in cans and our
coffee served in old chipped andcracked mugs, along with what
our little free library has tooffer.
Welcome of the eight sampleportfolios you can find at
(02:02):
wwwriskparityradiocom on theportfolios page.
Voices (02:08):
Boring.
Mostly Uncle Frank (02:11):
But before I put you to sleep with that, we
do have some much moreentertaining features,
inconceivable.
First, we need to break somerules here.
Voices (02:21):
But, captain, I can't avenge my partner's death with
this pea shooter.
I don't want to hear it, mcbain.
That cannon of yours is againstregulations.
In this department we go by thebook.
Mostly Uncle Frank (02:33):
By book, because you know rules are made
to be broken.
It's something that I enjoy,and the rule we are breaking
today is our rule of not havingany guests on this podcast.
Surely you can't be serious.
Voices (02:53):
I am serious and don't call me Shirley.
Mostly Uncle Frank (02:56):
Because we have not one, but two guests
today, and it's Dennis and Benfrom the Father McKenna Center
to talk about their work thereand our recent Top of the
T-Shirt fundraising campaign,the matching campaign that
you've all come to know and loveover these past two months.
So we'll give that a listenit's less than 10 minutes long
(03:17):
and then I'll come back withsome additional thoughts and, of
course, your emails, and so,without further ado, alright,
I'm here with Dennis D and BenHoffschneider down in the
basement of the St AloysiusChurch, broadcasting from the
Father McKenna Center, and wejust wanted to talk about our
(03:38):
recent campaign.
But I wanted to introduce ourcharacters, or our cast here.
Dennis, why don't you go firstand tell us a little bit about
how you came to be the directorof the Father McKenna Center?
Voices (03:49):
Sure, Frank, Great to see you.
My name is Dennis D.
I first came into the center inlate August of 2014.
I arrived after having taken a24-hour bus from St Petersburg,
Florida.
Arrived in Washington DC.
I was homeless at the time.
I entered the center themorning of August 28th, but
(04:11):
who's counting.
I proceeded to come to thecenter and receive services for
approximately three months andthen, due to a staff member
leaving, I was offered anopportunity to work here.
Due to a staff member leaving,I was offered an opportunity to
work here.
I worked here approximately 21months, at which time I
relocated to Chicago, Illinois,where I spent a little over
(04:39):
seven years working as anaddictions counselor at an
organization called HaymarketCenter, which does a lot of
great work in Chicago.
Now, I guess it would be about20 months ago I get an email
from the board of directors,chairman of the board, Barbara
Patoka, asking if I had interestin returning to the center in
the capacity as executivedirector.
I was, you know, flattered,quickly accepted, before she
(05:02):
could change her mind, and I'vebeen here working at the center
since the beginning of January2024 and it's been.
You know every, every bit thatI expected incredibly rewarding
experience, some challenges, butwe're kind of feels like we're
we're overcoming those.
It's been a pleasure to workwith Frank, met at first last
(05:22):
January and everything you knowis proceeding really well.
We're really really gratefulfor Risk Parity Radio's support.
We couldn't do it without you.
Mostly Uncle Frank (05:32):
Ben, tell us about yourself.
Voices (05:35):
So my name is Ben Hoffschneider.
My first experience at theMcKenna Center was in the fall
of 2012, where I came onto thecenter grounds onto Gonzaga High
School's campus as a freshmanat Gonzaga.
I volunteered at the centerthroughout my time as a student
and then, after I graduated fromGonzaga in 2016, I remained
(05:58):
involved.
I worked here, had aninternship type thing for about
a month and a half and later2016.
And then in 2020, during theCOVID-19 pandemic, I came back
and worked as a monitor for themen that were staying in the
shelter and then supported ourday program and food pantry
(06:18):
operations.
I worked in government affairsfor a little while and then came
back in January 2024, joinedthe center staff in a
development capacity part-time.
I was elevated to full-time inApril of 2024 as sort of
supporting the developmentoperations in the development
office and then took over theoffice in February of this year
(06:41):
and now sort of spearheadalongside Dennis our development
and fundraising work.
Mostly Uncle Frank (06:46):
So we're here today to talk about the Top
of the T-Shirt campaign, whichwe've just kind of concluded in
a way at the end of July.
Ben, why don't you tell us sortof what was it like seeing
these donations come in?
Because I know you're actuallythe person that counts the money
.
Voices (07:03):
Yeah.
So I think for our whole team,I think for myself and for
Dennis and for the other memberof our development team, abby.
I think similarly to you, frank.
We sort of came into thiscampaign with a bit of
trepidation.
The center as a whole has notrun many matching gift campaigns
before.
We didn't know what theresponse would be, sort of how
long it would take before giftswould start trickling in, and I
(07:24):
think the easiest word I can useto describe how we feel is just
overwhelmed.
The support and sort of loveand gratitude that we felt from
the community, from yourcommunity, has just been
overwhelming and it's beenincredible to see the sort of
force multiplier effect of thematching campaign and our
ability to raise at this pointmore than $60,000 for the
(07:47):
McKenna Center $60,000.
Mostly Uncle Frank (07:49):
That's amazing Out of an initial
matching donation from ourlistener Matthew63, who put up
$15,000.
I personally thought it wouldtake at least two months to
manage to raise about that, butwhat is the grand total?
Voices (08:04):
Ben.
So our final number as of July31st is $60,969.83.
Every penny matters.
Mostly Uncle Frank (08:15):
Which I attribute that to our creative
donors who donated based on thegolden ratio and the Fibonacci
sequence, which we allappreciate.
Dennis, can you tell us whatthis kind of means to the center
?
Voices (08:31):
I mean this is incredible support.
I mean not just the top of theT-shirt has been accomplished,
but the Risk Parity Radiocampaign is now our leading
donor for this fiscal year, andso you think about how amazing
that is.
Roughly 4% of our budget camein through this campaign
(08:53):
Incredible.
If I could share an anecdotethat still makes me smile, this
might have been six weeks ago.
Six weeks ago, frank contactedme and said that he had received
an email from a listenerindicating that to look out for
a $10,000 gift.
And I said wow.
(09:14):
And Frank said yeah, I don'tknow if the guy's yanking my
chain, but look out for it.
And the next morning, there itwas, it came through.
And so amazing.
There it was, it came through,and so amazing.
The whole matching program hasjust been.
Astonishing is probably thebest word.
And we're really incrediblyblessed and you know I certainly
commit as the executivedirector to be, you know,
(09:37):
prudent and judicious with themoney that's been provided.
You know we really appreciatethe trust and support that
you've provided the center.
I think also it's remarkablethat so in this total of just
over $60,000 are 52 individualgifts, and so that's 52
listeners, 52 donors that, fromthe addresses that we see when
(10:00):
they fill out the forms, reallycome from all over the country,
sort of pitching in to helpsupport the work that we do here
at the center and sort of doingwhat we can to support and
elevate the lives of men thatare struggling with homelessness
and then families experiencingfood insecurity as well.
Mostly Uncle Frank (10:15):
All right.
Well, some of my listenersactually do want to get a hold
of these t-shirts when they comeout.
Do you have any idea when wemight start seeing some of those
?
Voices (10:24):
Yes, when they come out.
Do you have any idea when wemight start seeing some of those
?
Yeah, so the Walk for McKennaregistration is currently up and
running on our website, and thesurefire way to get your hands
on a t-shirt is to register.
I know that some of yourlisteners might be from sort of
out of town, and so if theyregister and then reach out to
us, we're happy to coordinate tomake sure that we can get those
shirts into their hands.
(10:45):
But they're going to beentering production soon with
the RPR logo right at the top,and we should be getting our
hands on them in mid-Septemberand at that point we can send
them out where they're needed.
But we hope that the supporters, especially any that are local,
are able to come and join us inperson on the morning of
Saturday, september 27th for thewalk.
(11:08):
If I could maybe add oneadditional point, frank, the
fact that we've now broadenedour network to go nationwide, as
we have through this program.
It's inspired us to do thatmuch better of a job being
transparent in terms of theservices we offer on social
media, both Instagram andFacebook.
And so please, if you haven't,try to keep up with us or take a
(11:31):
look at our offering andprogramming that we're putting
on Facebook and Instagram,because our desire is to be
again be transparent with whatwe offer so that you can see
what your money is doing, and Ithink, frank, you made it clear
early on that.
Encourage us to do that, andwe've done so, and we try to do
a good job, with two or threeposts a week showing the kind of
work that gets done here.
Mostly Uncle Frank (11:52):
Well, I guarantee it'll probably be one
of the most inspiring things yousee in your Instagram or
Facebook feed these days, giveneverything else that's out there
.
But I want to thank you bothfor participating in this
interview process, because Iknow you're not podcasters by
training Our listeners really,really have enjoyed
participating in this and wehope to continue on supporting
(12:16):
the Father McKenna Center.
Voices (12:18):
Well, I think we're both happy to do it.
I'm excited to be, I believe,or for us to be, I believe the
first ever guests on the RiskParity Radio podcast.
Mostly Uncle Frank (12:28):
This is true .
We made an exception.
We made an exception.
Voices (12:31):
Other than family members.
Mostly Uncle Frank (12:36):
Other than family members.
All right, well, thank you verymuch.
Voices (12:41):
Thank you.
Mostly Uncle Frank (12:43):
Well, I hope you enjoyed that because I
enjoyed meeting with dennis andben and making our little
interview segment.
Just one little correction oraugmentation ben mentioned 52
donors, but there's actually awhole lot more because he was
not counting all of the patronson patreon and so I think it's
(13:03):
closer to 100 donors whoparticipated in the Top of the
T-shirt campaign.
When I was down there in thebasement with them, we were
sitting around this little tablein Dennis's office doing this
interview and, as you canimagine, his office is a jumble
of materials because of all thedifferent jobs he actually has
(13:25):
there.
But one of the things sittingthere on his table was a copy of
Theodore Roosevelt's poem theman in the Arena.
Now, many of you are probablyfamiliar with that.
I'll just give you a littleexcerpt from it.
Voices (13:39):
read by John F Kennedy, he said Theodore Roosevelt once
said the credit belongs to theman who is actually in the arena
, whose face is marred by dustand sweat and blood, who knows
the great enthusiasms, the greatdevotions and spends himself in
(14:02):
a worthy cause, who, at best,if he wins, knows the thrills of
high achievement and if hefails, at least fails while
daring greatly, so that hisplace shall never be with those
cold and timid souls who knowneither victory nor defeat
(14:33):
victory nor defeat.
Mostly Uncle Frank (14:33):
Now I've noticed that this poem has
become very popular amongst techbros and finance bros, who will
often get a designer version ofit and have it framed and put
it up, say, on the wall behindthem for their YouTube videos
etc.
So on and so forth.
But I often think they're kindof missing the point because
you're not in the arena.
If you're sitting behindscreens or behind a microphone
or in front of a camera, it'snot the arena we're talking
(14:57):
about here.
Dennis and Ben and Abby and allthe other people who work at
the Father McKenna Center andsimilar places they are the ones
that are in the arena dealingwith people's day-to-day
problems with limited resources.
So I thought it was fittingthat Dennis's copy of the poem
was not framed, was not fancy.
(15:19):
In fact it looked like it hadjust been printed out of a
printer a long time ago and waswell worn, even though is now
behind a plastic protector itwould not be made out of gold.
Voices (15:44):
That's the cup of a carpenter.
Mostly Uncle Frank (16:21):
There's only one way to find out.
You have chosen wisely, becausehe's been in the arena a long
time with that piece of paperand continues to work in that
arena with his colleagues thereand all the volunteers and the
clients they serve, and it'sreally been humbling and
gratifying to see and experiencehow many of you listeners have
chosen to jump in that arenawith them, with Matthew 63
leading the charge, of course,putting up that first $15,000 as
(16:45):
matching funds.
Voices (16:46):
It's all the same to you .
Mostly Uncle Frank (16:50):
I'll drive that tanker and inviting you all
to come in.
Voices (16:57):
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Mostly Uncle Frank (17:04):
You should all be pleased, proud and happy
to have participated in thisexperience, Because I certainly
am.
Voices (17:11):
This story shall the good man teach his son From this
day to the ending of the world.
But we in it shall beremembered.
We few, we happy few.
We band of brothers.
(17:32):
For he today that sheds hisblood with me shall be my
brother.
Be he ne'er so vile.
This day shall gentle hiscondition and gentlemen in
England, now abed shall thinkthemselves accursed they were
not here and hold their manhoodscheap whilst any speaks.
(17:52):
that thought with us upon StPresbyterian Day.
Mostly Uncle Frank (18:02):
And although I've taken my turn in various
arenas from time to time, I wasvery happy to be able to play
Mickey to your Rockies in thiscircumstance.
Voices (18:13):
You know, kid, I know how you feel about this fight
that's coming up, Because I wasyoung once too.
And I'll tell you somethingWith you, kid boy, I got a
reason to go on, and I'm goingto go on and I'm going to stay
alive and I will watch you makegood and I'll never leave you.
And I'll never leave you untilthat happens, because when I
(18:38):
leave you, you'll not only knowhow to fight, you'll be able to
take care of yourself outsidethe ring too.
Is that okay?
Mostly Uncle Frank (18:47):
It's okay.
Voices (18:54):
Okay, thank you so much again for taking part in it, but
now let's move along to ournext segment, which, of course,
is your emails.
Mostly Uncle Frank (19:05):
And so, without further ado, here I go
once again with the email.
Voices (19:11):
And first off, first off , an email from Jamie.
Mostly Mary (19:21):
And Jamie writes, reduce risk, based on the idea
that recessions usually push oilprices down.
I know you've experimented withVXX before, but found it tough
to get past the fund's drag.
I took it a step further andtested using both VXX and SCO as
a bond replacement.
It's been pretty interesting.
I could only backtest to 2006using USO as a crude oil proxy
(19:47):
and I'm sure this wouldn't haveheld up in the 70s or 80s, but
the results are worth a look.
Benchmarking against GoldenButterfly and Permanent
Portfolio, it showed much betterreturns with only slightly
higher volatility.
Here's the test I ran onTestfolio, curious to hear your
thoughts.
Is it time to reconsider addingVXX and SCO into the mix?
(20:08):
Ps.
If the link doesn't work, letme know.
Testfolio has been a littleglitchy for me.
Thanks, jamie.
Voices (20:15):
Well, I'm waiting for you, Jimmy boy.
Mostly Uncle Frank (20:19):
Well, my first thought has to do with
benchmarking, because yourportfolio is about 70% in stocks
and so you would want tocompare that to other portfolios
that have about the sameallocation to stocks.
And that's just the macroallocation principle that those
portfolios are likely to havesimilar performance
(20:41):
characteristics because theyhave similar risk profiles,
whereas something like a goldenbutterfly or permanent portfolio
is a much more conservativeallocation and you would not
expect it to have the same kindof overall returns as a
portfolio with a much higherallocation to stocks.
But when you compare what you'vedone to a 70-30 portfolio, yes,
(21:01):
it looks really good.
I think you have hit on thelimitation, however.
I think you have hit on thelimitation, however, which is,
since you're only going back to2006, that is really not a very
good data set to be relying onfor any kind of forecasting in
the future, because you onlyhave that basically, one bad
crash at the beginning of theperiod and then after that,
(21:23):
anything with a lot of stocks,and particularly a lot of growth
stocks and things like QQQ, isgoing to just outperform
everything else.
But you might use this as somekind of conservative
accumulation portfolio andcompare it to other kinds of
accumulation portfolios.
As you've mentioned, I'veexperimented with allocations to
(21:46):
the VIX in the past, eitherthrough VXX or other methods,
and I haven't found anythingthat really seems to be a good
idea long term, because it doeshave a negative expectation for
the most part.
Most of these VIX-related fundshave negative expectations, so
I would think you would needsome kind of trading strategy to
(22:06):
go with something like that.
Otherwise it's just going toend up being a drag on the
portfolio overall, and anythinginvolving crude oil is going to
be highly unpredictable.
Mostly Mary (22:19):
Oh, what it's gone, it's all gone.
Mostly Uncle Frank (22:22):
So you would generally only want to allocate
to something like that inconjunction with some kind of
overall commodities allocationor managed futures strategy.
That being said, what you'vedone works really, really well
for the period that it works for, and I'll link to it in the
show notes, and while I am notinclined to do anything in
particular with it, that doesn'tmean other listeners might not
(22:44):
want to check it out and seewhat they think about it.
Voices (22:54):
In any event, I applaud your creativity and your
curiosity and thank you for youremail.
Many men have tried.
They tried and failed, theytried and died second off.
Mostly Uncle Frank (23:06):
Second off we have an email from Camille.
Voices (23:09):
For the next 10 hours I'm going to try to learn
Camille in three steps.
Mostly Mary (23:13):
And Camille writes Hi, frank, it's Camille.
I wrote in on your episode 376.
I am trying to get my portfolioin order for early retirement,
but I am still stuck on figuringout where to put my treasury
bonds.
I currently do not own any.
I understand that the bestplace to put them is in my
retirement accounts, 403b.
(23:34):
My problem is that my employerdoes not offer any treasury bond
funds for my 403b.
I am hoping to quit my job inthe next one to two years and
then I could roll my 403b intoan IRA and invest in treasury
bonds.
But up until that point, whatshould I have my 403b invested
in?
Currently it's 90% stocks, 10%bonds.
(23:57):
Once I reach my FI number, Iwould have about $300,000 in my
403b which, if invested inlong-term treasury bonds, would
reach the golden ratio portfoliorequirement for treasury bonds
In my entire portfolio.
I am pretty exposed to riskright now as I have about 12% in
bonds, 10% in gold andalternatives, 70% in stocks, 8%
(24:19):
in cash.
Should I be holding treasurybonds in my brokerage portfolio
till I reach financialindependence?
I am scared I will be caughtwith my pants down.
That's not an improvement.
On another note, I was hopingyou could consult your crystal
ball and let me know yourthoughts on what would happen to
US treasury bonds if the US isno longer the world's reserve
currency.
(24:39):
A crystal ball can help you.
It can guide you.
What are your thoughts toalternatives to long-term US
Treasury bonds?
I have listened to many of yourpodcasts and I'm guessing there
is not an alternative.
But maybe things change as theworld changes.
Thanks for all you do, camille.
The crystal ball is a consciousenergy.
Mostly Uncle Frank (25:01):
All right, you got two questions here
essentially.
First, about this 403B.
Now, although you probablydon't have specific dedicated
treasury bonds in that 403b, Iwould bet you have something
that is akin to a total bondfund, either a Vanguard-like
product, or maybe it's a T Roweprice, maybe it's a PIMCO thing.
(25:23):
It probably has intermediateduration and you can check these
things out by putting it intothe Morningstar analyzer and
looking at the portfolio to seewhat's in it.
But any of those would be agood parking place to move money
into right now until you canactually roll out the 403b into
(25:44):
an IRA and then buy the bondfunds you actually want.
While it's not ideal for thelong term, for the short term,
if you're just trying to takerisk off the table, any
broad-based intermediate bondfund is going to be good enough
for that.
For the short term, until youcan buy exactly what you want,
and in most circumstances thatis going to be a better solution
(26:05):
than holding excessive amountsof bonds in a taxable account,
because you're just payingexcess taxes on those things and
since there isn't any taximplications to buying and
selling things in retirementaccounts, it'll be an easy
switch if you will both rightnow to move into that bond
allocation and then later on tomove it to a different bond
(26:27):
allocation when you get toactual retirement and can put it
in an IRA, and then you willnot get caught with your pants
down, as you so eloquently putit.
Now your second question ismore esoteric and atmospheric
actually.
Now your second question ismore esoteric and atmospheric
(26:50):
actually.
A really big one here, which ishuge what would happen to US
Treasury bonds if the US is nolonger the world's reserve
currency?
Voices (26:58):
Real wrath of God type stuff.
Mostly Uncle Frank (27:01):
I think the problem here is you are looking
at the US dollar not being theworld's reserve currency as a
cause of something, when inreality that is going to be the
effect of something.
The way that, historically, theworld's reserve currency has
changed has been a diminution ofone economy and society over
(27:22):
time, while another one isrising and eventually takes its
place, and usually this takes anumber of decades.
Going from the British pound asa world's reserve currency to
the dollar took essentially thefirst half of the 20th century
and involved a couple of warsand the Great Depression.
So we would need to know whatis the cause of the US dollar
(27:44):
not being the world's reservecurrency anymore.
And you can imagine, maybe wehave a war and US society breaks
apart and so nobody wants touse a dollar anymore.
Voices (27:56):
Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies,
rivers and seas boiling Fortyyears of darkness, earthquakes,
volcanoes, the dead rising fromthe grave.
Mostly Uncle Frank (28:04):
You'd probably have bigger worries
than whether to hold US Treasurybonds or not at that point in
time.
Want to go back to the CivilWar, though?
You can see that the end resultof that was that the
Confederate bonds were neverpaid and were completely
defaulted upon and went to zero,whereas the Union bonds were
(28:25):
paid in accordance with the 14thAmendment.
But we can do another thoughtexperiment if you like that.
What if the cause of the USdollar not being the world's
reserve currency was not somecataclysmic event or decline or
something like that, but wasjust a decision that got made
one day?
Imagine if the US and theEuropean Union got together and
(28:48):
jointly decided we don't wantthe US dollar to be the world's
reserve currency anymore.
We don't want the US dollar tobe the world's reserve currency
anymore, we want it to be Euro,and we are just going to swap
all of the Euro currency for thedollar and vice versa tomorrow
and then go from there.
Voices (29:06):
Human sacrifice dogs and cats living together mass
hysteria.
Mostly Uncle Frank (29:11):
Now you can think of a million different
ways why that wouldn't work ordoesn't make any sense, but you
can also just look at thecurrent state of things.
So if you go to any otherdeveloping country, whether it's
Japan or Germany or France orwhatever, they have sovereign
bonds that are trading every dayand they have interest rates
that are kind of similar to thedollar.
(29:32):
So if we were to say, well, thedollar is going to be in their
position and they're going to bein the dollar's position, you
wouldn't think there'd be thatmuch change in what goes on with
the dollar and treasury bonds,because if there was going to be
a big change, you'd havealready seen that in all of
these other developed countriescurrencies and bond markets that
(29:53):
you're not seeing.
So, since they are not blowingup or doing anything
spectacularly strange, youwouldn't think it would have any
effect or much of an effect onthe US dollar and treasury bonds
itself.
Now, as it happens, the realityof the situation is more
dollars in US debt are beingused in the world than ever
before, and that's been the casesince the end of the Cold War
(30:16):
and there is no heir apparentother currency on the rise.
Voices (30:21):
That is the straight stuff.
Oh funk master.
Mostly Uncle Frank (30:25):
Because countries like China do not
float their currency and theypeg it to the dollar, so they
can't be the world's reservecurrency.
The world's reserve currencyhas to float, so the upshot is I
wouldn't be spending any timein this conundrum and wouldn't
be making any decisions based onyour thoughts about it.
Voices (30:44):
Forget about it.
Mostly Uncle Frank (30:45):
If you are going to try to predict the
future, you should be trying topredict the cause of why the
dollar is no longer the world'sreserve currency and thinking
about what that implicationmight have or might not have.
Mostly Mary (30:59):
I would place it over a candle and it's through
the candle that you will see theimages, into the crystal.
Mostly Uncle Frank (31:11):
And not just some kind of magical event
where you wake up one day andthe dollar's not the world's
reserve currency.
Mostly Mary (31:18):
Now the crystal ball has been used since ancient
times.
It's used for scrying, healingand meditation.
Mostly Uncle Frank (31:27):
What you would actually do in that kind
of circumstance is move a lot ofyour dollar-denominated bonds
into whatever the bonds were ofthe new world reserve currency.
But there doesn't seem to beany reason to be rushing into
thinking about that or doingthat, because there are plenty
of other sovereign bonds in theworld that are acceptable to
(31:48):
many people and are traded everyday.
So that's the way I would thinkabout that.
Voices (31:53):
That and a nickel.
Get your hot cup a jack squat.
Mostly Uncle Frank (31:59):
Hopefully it helps you think about it if you
really do want to think aboutit, but I would turn off
whatever you're consuming,that's whinging about that, and
get on with your life in otherways.
Thank you for your questionsand thank you for your email.
Voices (32:16):
I hope we were of some help to you.
Mostly Uncle Frank (32:18):
Yes, you were.
Thanks, middle-aged man.
Voices (32:20):
My pleasure.
Just quit looking at my gut, I'mworking on it.
Last off.
Mostly Uncle Frank (32:31):
Last off of an email from John.
What are you serious?
Mostly Mary (32:36):
Well, yeah.
Mostly Uncle Frank (32:38):
John, you want to do that to the kid.
Mostly Mary (32:40):
And John writes Hi Frank and Mary.
I've been binging your podcastfor the last several weeks and
love it.
It feels like there are so manymore people out there who have
not discovered your podcast butcould really use it.
Mostly Uncle Frank (32:52):
No more flying solo.
You need somebody watching yourback at all times.
Mostly Mary (32:58):
First a bit about me.
I am 54, married, and my wifeis 53 and semi-retired.
She picks up consulting workfrom time to time but it does
not amount to much income.
I am planning on retiring inthe next couple of months and
looking for a way to give backwith my time.
I have always thoughtvolunteering or working for a
non-profit.
I am planning on retiring inthe next couple of months and
looking for a way to give backwith my time.
I have always thoughtvolunteering or working for a
(33:18):
non-profit I am passionate aboutwould be the route.
This is still the plan and nowI am getting serious about
finding ways to do it.
Our money situation we have anet worth of 30 plus times our
expenses, so I am not concernedabout having enough.
We have held about two-thirdsin 401k and one-third in
after-tax brokerage.
On to my question, I had athought and I want help deciding
(33:42):
if it is a good thought or abad thought.
After listening, absorbing andlearning from Risk Parity Radio,
I am ready to start trying someof what you teach.
Currently we have most of our401k funds and target date funds
which I want to get out ofafter listening to episode 333.
My plan is to move intosomething like the golden ratio
portfolio.
My question centers on how totransition.
If I look at the differentcomponents, some have been on a
(34:05):
run up, some down.
Gold is way up and managedfutures and long-term treasuries
are down.
If I had been holding theseassets for the last few years,
they would have given me severalopportunities to rebalance.
Since I am just getting in now,I feel like I can use that
rebalancing thinking to myadvantage.
I am thinking of putting moreweight in the assets that are
(34:25):
down and less weight in theassets that are up, almost as
though I rebalanced after thefact.
Over time, I would move theweights of each asset class to
their target weights throughrebalancing.
I want to know your thoughtsabout this methodology.
I suspect you will say this isjust a form of market timing,
but I am interested in what youhave to say.
Voices (34:45):
You are correct, sir.
Yes.
Mostly Mary (34:48):
If this strategy does not make sense, is the best
method to just rip the bandageoff anytime and make the
portfolio moves, especially inmy 401k where there are no
immediate tax implications.
Thanks, John.
Mostly Uncle Frank (35:03):
Well, I think you're probably thinking
about this a little too hard.
You know, I got friends of minewho live and die by the
actuarial tables and I say, hey,it's all one big crapshoot.
Anywho, when you're doing atransition, if you don't feel
comfortable doing it kind of allat once, all you really need to
do is put that on some kind ofa schedule.
But which choice you make iskind of a coin flip, because
(35:27):
there's no way of knowingwhether making this transition
now or in six months is going tobe the better choice.
Voices (35:34):
We don't know.
What do we know?
You don't know, I don't know,nobody knows.
Mostly Uncle Frank (35:40):
Ultimately, you don't even really care about
it, because what you care aboutis where you're going to be in
10 years.
That's the time frame we'rethinking about.
So whether you do thistransition quickly or not
quickly is not something you canreally make a meaningful
decision about.
Just get it done is the upshotof it is, Because the real
danger is having a market crashwhile you're still in an
(36:04):
accumulation portfolio.
I always have to laugh aboutthis sometimes when I hear
people talk about why theyshould or should not own a
particular asset based on recentperformance.
So I've heard recently thingslike well, I wouldn't want to
buy any bonds now.
Look how badly they'veperformed in the past few years.
(36:24):
Okay, well, aren't you supposedto buy low and sell high?
And if they're low now,shouldn't you be buying low?
Voices (36:33):
Buy low, sell high.
Mostly Uncle Frank (36:34):
Fear.
That's the other guy's problem.
And then often the same personout of the other side of their
mouth will say something likewell, I don't want to buy gold
right now.
It's had a big run-up.
You can see that both of theseare just lame excuses based on
recent performance, not to dosomething, not to diversify,
(36:55):
because people often the samepeople will not apply that
reasoning to their holdings instock index funds.
The reasoning there will bewell, I should always keep
buying.
They're going to go up into theright eventually, aren't they?
Well, maybe, but eventuallycould be in 10 years hence.
Meanwhile, things like gold alsotend to go up and to the right
(37:15):
over time, simply because theunit of account we use, the US
dollar, is going to decay overtime.
And as long as the world isimproving economically, the
demand for gold is going to goup over time worldwide.
So you can do this in any waythat makes you feel comfortable.
It's just get it done in somereasonable amount of time,
(37:39):
whether that's a month or even ayear or three.
And obviously, if you have taxissues with selling things in
taxable accounts, you do need tobe mindful of that, so you're
not incurring large tax bills inany one year.
The simplest way to do itobviously is the one you
mentioned as ripping the bandageoff and just making the change
when you've won the accumulationgame and just getting it done,
(38:04):
at least with a portion of yourassets you plan to use as a
retirement portfolio.
Now, if you're stillaccumulating in this kind of
portfolio, or using a portfoliolike this as an intermediate
accumulation portfolio which ouradult children do, to save for
the next car or house downpayment or solar panels or
(38:25):
whatever is on the horizon nextin terms of a big amorphous
expense sometime in the future,game morph expense sometime in
the future, in thosecircumstances it is generally
better to just add to whateveris low in the portfolio as you
are putting more money into theportfolio, because that just
minimizes all of yourtransactions and minimizes the
(38:47):
need to sell things to rebalanceand incur taxes on them.
I think, all else being equal,anytime you can minimize the
number of transactions you needto do in a portfolio or
circumstance, the better offyou're probably going to be.
So I'm glad you're enjoying theshow.
Keep binging away.
Binge, early binge.
Voices (39:08):
Often I always say you are talking about the
nonsensical ravings of a lunaticmind.
Mostly Uncle Frank (39:16):
And hopefully that answer helps and
thank you for your email.
Voices (39:22):
And now for something completely different.
What is that?
What is that?
What is it?
Oh no, not the bees, Not thebees.
Mostly Uncle Frank (39:34):
And the something completely different
is our weekly and monthlyportfolio reviews.
Of the eight sample portfoliosyou can find at
wwwriskpartyreviewcom on theportfolios page.
And we did have a few bees thisweek, at least towards the end
of the week, with respect to thestock market, although it
really didn't affect ourportfolios that much.
(39:55):
Just looking at where thesemarkets are this year so far the
S&P 500, represented by VOO, isup 6.73% for the year so far.
Nasdaq 100, represented by QQQ,is up 8.62% for the year so far
.
Small cap value, represented bythe fund VIOV, is still the big
loser this year.
It is down 7.62% for the yearso far.
Small cap value, represented bythe fund VIOV, is still the big
(40:16):
loser this year.
It is down 7.97% for the yearso far, while gold continues to
be the big winner.
Mostly Mary (40:24):
I love gold.
Mostly Uncle Fra (40:27):
Representative fund GLDM is up 27.83% for the
year so far.
Long-term treasury bonds,represented by the fund VGLT,
are now up 3.64% for the year sofar.
This week was a good week forthose.
Reits, represented by the fundREET are up 3.31% for the year
so far.
Commodities represented by thefund PDBC are up 1.31% for the
(40:51):
year so far.
Preferred shares, representedby the fund PFFV are up 1.31%
for the year so far.
Preferred shares represented bythe fund PFFV are up 1.86% for
the year so far, and managedfutures, represented by the fund
DBMF, are back down.
They are down 1.45% for theyear so far.
Moving to these sampleportfolios, first ones of all
seasons, this one is 30% in atotal stock market fund VTI, 55%
(41:16):
in intermediate and long-termtreasury bonds and 15% in golden
commodities.
It's actually up 0.21% month todate.
For the one day of the month wehave so far, it's up 6.7%
year-to-date and up 15.83% sinceinception in July 2020.
We will be distributing $32 outof it.
(41:39):
It'll come out of theaccumulated cash.
That's for August.
It's at a 4% annualized rate.
It'll be $251 year-to-date and$1,941 since inception in July
2020.
All of these started with about$10,000 in them.
Next one's, golden Butterfly.
This one is 40% in stocksdivided into a total stock
(42:01):
market fund and a small capvalue fund, 40% in treasury
bonds divided into long andshort and 20% in gold GLDM.
It's up 0.09% for the month ofAugust.
So far.
It's up 6.84% year-to-date andup 43.09% since inception in
July 2020.
For the month of August, we'redistributing $46 out of it Comes
(42:25):
out of accumulated cash.
That's at a 5% annualized rate.
It'll be $364 year-to-date in$2,665 since inception in July
2020.
X1's a golden ratio.
This one's 42% in stocksdivided into a large cap growth
fund and a small cap value fund,26% in long-term treasury bonds
(42:45):
, 16% in gold, 10% in managedfutures and 6% in cash in a
money market fund and 6% in cashin a money market fund.
It's down 0.24% for August 1stmonth.
To date.
It's up 6.07% year to date andup 37.84% since inception, July
2020.
For the month of August, we aredistributing $45 out of it.
(43:07):
It'll come out of the cash, asit always does with this
portfolio.
That's how we manage it.
As it always does with thisportfolio.
That's how we manage it.
That'll be $349 year-to-dateand $2,611 since inception in
July 2020.
Next one's the risk parityultimate.
I'm not going to go through all12 of these funds, but it's
down 0.21% for the month ofAugust.
(43:29):
So far, it's up 5.45%year-to-date and up 25.85% since
inception in July 2020.
We'll be distributing $41 outof it from accumulated cash for
the month of August.
It's at a 5% annualized rate.
It'll be $317 year-to-date and$2,767 since inception in July
(43:51):
2020.
Now moving to these experimentalportfolios that all involve
leverage funds and lots ofvolatility.
Don't try this at home.
First one's the acceleratedpermanent portfolio.
This one's 27.5% in a leveredbond fund TMF, 25% in a levered
(44:11):
stock fund UPRO, 25% in apreferred shares fund PFFV and
22.5% in gold GLDM.
It is up 0.26% month-to-date.
It's up 7.9% year-to-date andup 9.01% since inception, july
2020.
We were distributing $39 out ofit out of accumulated cash for
(44:34):
the month of August.
It's at a 6% annualized rate.
It'll be $308 year-to-date and$2,938 since inception, july
2020.
Next one's the aggressive 50-50.
This is the most levered andleast diversified of these
portfolios.
It's one-third in a leveredstock fund UPRO, one-third in a
levered bond fund TMF and theremaining third in Ballast in a
(44:56):
preferred shares fund and anintermediate treasury bond fund.
It's down 0.5% month-to-date.
It's up 2.52% year-to-date anddown 9.71% since inception in
July 2020, continuing to be theworst performer.
We'll be distributing $32 outof it from the levered stock
fund, upro, for August.
(45:18):
That's at a 6% annualized rate,be $256 year-to-date and $2,924
since inception, July 2020.
Next one's a levered goldenratio.
This one is 35% in a compositelevered fund called NTSX that's
the S&P 500 and treasury bonds.
20% in gold GLDM, 15% in AVDV,an international small cap value
(45:44):
fund.
10% in KMLM it's a managedfutures fund.
10% in TMF, which is a leveredbond fund, and the remaining 10%
divided into UDOW and UTSL,which are a levered Dow index
fund and a levered utility indexfund.
It's up 0.22% month-to-date.
It's up 10.39% year-to-date,still leading the pack and up
(46:08):
5.51% since inception, july 2021.
You're younger than the otherones.
For the month of August, we'llbe distributing $35 out of the
NTSX holding.
It's at a 5% annualized rate,be $271 year-to-date and $1,827
since inception, july 2021.
(46:29):
And the last one is our returnstacked portfolio, our newest
one.
And the last one is ourreturn-stacked portfolio our
newest one, the Optra portfolio.
It's 16% in UPRO, a levered S&P500 fund, 24% in AVGV, which is
a composite worldwide valuefund.
It's got 24% in GOVZ, which isa government strips fund, and
(46:57):
the remaining 36% divided intogold and managed futures.
It's down 0.58% for the monthof August.
So far, it's up 7.5%year-to-date and up 10.64% since
inception in July 2024.
For the month of August, we'llbe distributing $52 from the
Gold Fund, gldm.
It's at a 6% annualized rateand it'll be $406 year-to-date
(47:18):
and $666 since inception in July2024.
Voices (47:24):
Woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil sends the
beast with wrath, because heknows the time is short.
Let him who hath understandingreckon the number of the beast,
for it is a human number.
Its number is 666.
Mostly Uncle Frank (47:49):
And with that beastly number we conclude
our weekly portfolio reviews andmonthly distributions.
But now I see our signal isbeginning to fade.
If you have comments orquestions for me, please send
(48:11):
them to frank atriskparityradarcom.
That email is frank atriskparityradiocom.
That email is frank atriskparityradiocom.
Or you can go to the website,wwwriskparityradiocom.
Put your message into thecontact form and I'll get it
that way.
If you haven't had a chance todo it, please go to your
favorite podcast provider andlike subscribe.
Give me some stars, a follow, areview.
That would be great.
(48:32):
Okay, thank you once again fortuning in.
Mostly Mary (48:43):
This is frank vasquez with risk party radio
signing off.
The Risk Parody Radio Show ishosted by Frank Vasquez.
The content provided is forentertainment and informational
(49:03):
purposes only and does notconstitute financial, investment
, tax or legal advice.
Please consult with your ownadvisors before taking any
actions based on any informationyou have heard here, making
sure to take into account yourown personal circumstances.
A foolish consistency, is the hobgoblin of little minds
, adored by little statesmen andphilosophers and divines.
If a man does not keep pace withhis companions.
Perhaps it is because he hearsa different drummer, A different
drummer.
Mostly Mary (00:19):
And now, coming to you from dead center on your
dial, welcome to Risk ParityRadio, where we explore
alternatives and assetallocations for the
do-it-yourself investor,Broadcasting to you now from the
comfort of his easy chair.
Here is your host, FrankVasquez.
Mostly Uncle Frank (00:37):
Thank you, Mary, and welcome to Risk Parity
Radio.
If you have just stumbled inhere, you will find that this
podcast is kind of like a divebar of personal finance and
do-it-yourself investing.
Voices (00:52):
Expect the unexpected.
Mostly Uncle Frank (00:55):
It's a relatively small place.
It's just me and Mary in hereand we only have a few
mismatched bar stools and someeasy chairs.
We have no sponsors, we have noguests and we have no expansion
plans.
Voices (01:11):
I don't think I'd like another job.
Mostly Uncle Frank (01:13):
What we do have is a little free library of
updated and unconflictedinformation for do-it-yourself
investors.
Voices (01:23):
Now who's up for a trip to the library?
Mostly Uncle Frank (01:26):
tomorrow.
So please enjoy our mostly coldbeer served in cans and our
coffee served in old chipped andcracked mugs, along with what
our little free library has tooffer.
Welcome of the eight sampleportfolios you can find at
(02:02):
wwwriskparityradiocom on theportfolios page.
Voices (02:08):
Boring.
Mostly Uncle Frank (02:11):
But before I put you to sleep with that, we
do have some much moreentertaining features,
inconceivable.
First, we need to break somerules here.
Voices (02:21):
But, captain, I can't avenge my partner's death with
this pea shooter.
I don't want to hear it, mcbain.
That cannon of yours is againstregulations.
In this department we go by thebook.
Mostly Uncle Frank (02:33):
By book, because you know rules are made
to be broken.
It's something that I enjoy,and the rule we are breaking
today is our rule of not havingany guests on this podcast.
Surely you can't be serious.
Voices (02:53):
I am serious and don't call me Shirley.
Mostly Uncle Frank (02:56):
Because we have not one, but two guests
today, and it's Dennis and Benfrom the Father McKenna Center
to talk about their work thereand our recent Top of the
T-Shirt fundraising campaign,the matching campaign that
you've all come to know and loveover these past two months.
So we'll give that a listenit's less than 10 minutes long
(03:17):
and then I'll come back withsome additional thoughts and, of
course, your emails, and so,without further ado, alright,
I'm here with Dennis D and BenHoffschneider down in the
basement of the St AloysiusChurch, broadcasting from the
Father McKenna Center, and wejust wanted to talk about our
(03:38):
recent campaign.
But I wanted to introduce ourcharacters, or our cast here.
Dennis, why don't you go firstand tell us a little bit about
how you came to be the directorof the Father McKenna Center?
Voices (03:49):
Sure, Frank, Great to see you.
My name is Dennis D.
I first came into the center inlate August of 2014.
I arrived after having taken a24-hour bus from St Petersburg,
Florida.
Arrived in Washington DC.
I was homeless at the time.
I entered the center themorning of August 28th, but
(04:11):
who's counting.
I proceeded to come to thecenter and receive services for
approximately three months andthen, due to a staff member
leaving, I was offered anopportunity to work here.
Due to a staff member leaving,I was offered an opportunity to
work here.
I worked here approximately 21months, at which time I
relocated to Chicago, Illinois,where I spent a little over
(04:39):
seven years working as anaddictions counselor at an
organization called HaymarketCenter, which does a lot of
great work in Chicago.
Now, I guess it would be about20 months ago I get an email
from the board of directors,chairman of the board, Barbara
Patoka, asking if I had interestin returning to the center in
the capacity as executivedirector.
I was, you know, flattered,quickly accepted, before she
(05:02):
could change her mind, and I'vebeen here working at the center
since the beginning of January2024 and it's been.
You know every, every bit thatI expected incredibly rewarding
experience, some challenges, butwe're kind of feels like we're
we're overcoming those.
It's been a pleasure to workwith Frank, met at first last
(05:22):
January and everything you knowis proceeding really well.
We're really really gratefulfor Risk Parity Radio's support.
We couldn't do it without you.
Mostly Uncle Frank (05:32):
Ben, tell us about yourself.
Voices (05:35):
So my name is Ben Hoffschneider.
My first experience at theMcKenna Center was in the fall
of 2012, where I came onto thecenter grounds onto Gonzaga High
School's campus as a freshmanat Gonzaga.
I volunteered at the centerthroughout my time as a student
and then, after I graduated fromGonzaga in 2016, I remained
(05:58):
involved.
I worked here, had aninternship type thing for about
a month and a half and later2016.
And then in 2020, during theCOVID-19 pandemic, I came back
and worked as a monitor for themen that were staying in the
shelter and then supported ourday program and food pantry
(06:18):
operations.
I worked in government affairsfor a little while and then came
back in January 2024, joinedthe center staff in a
development capacity part-time.
I was elevated to full-time inApril of 2024 as sort of
supporting the developmentoperations in the development
office and then took over theoffice in February of this year
(06:41):
and now sort of spearheadalongside Dennis our development
and fundraising work.
Mostly Uncle Frank (06:46):
So we're here today to talk about the Top
of the T-Shirt campaign, whichwe've just kind of concluded in
a way at the end of July.
Ben, why don't you tell us sortof what was it like seeing
these donations come in?
Because I know you're actuallythe person that counts the money
.
Voices (07:03):
Yeah.
So I think for our whole team,I think for myself and for
Dennis and for the other memberof our development team, abby.
I think similarly to you, frank.
We sort of came into thiscampaign with a bit of
trepidation.
The center as a whole has notrun many matching gift campaigns
before.
We didn't know what theresponse would be, sort of how
long it would take before giftswould start trickling in, and I
(07:24):
think the easiest word I can useto describe how we feel is just
overwhelmed.
The support and sort of loveand gratitude that we felt from
the community, from yourcommunity, has just been
overwhelming and it's beenincredible to see the sort of
force multiplier effect of thematching campaign and our
ability to raise at this pointmore than $60,000 for the
(07:47):
McKenna Center $60,000.
Mostly Uncle Frank (07:49):
That's amazing Out of an initial
matching donation from ourlistener Matthew63, who put up
$15,000.
I personally thought it wouldtake at least two months to
manage to raise about that, butwhat is the grand total?
Voices (08:04):
Ben.
So our final number as of July31st is $60,969.83.
Every penny matters.
Mostly Uncle Frank (08:15):
Which I attribute that to our creative
donors who donated based on thegolden ratio and the Fibonacci
sequence, which we allappreciate.
Dennis, can you tell us whatthis kind of means to the center
?
Voices (08:31):
I mean this is incredible support.
I mean not just the top of theT-shirt has been accomplished,
but the Risk Parity Radiocampaign is now our leading
donor for this fiscal year, andso you think about how amazing
that is.
Roughly 4% of our budget camein through this campaign
(08:53):
Incredible.
If I could share an anecdotethat still makes me smile, this
might have been six weeks ago.
Six weeks ago, frank contactedme and said that he had received
an email from a listenerindicating that to look out for
a $10,000 gift.
And I said wow.
(09:14):
And Frank said yeah, I don'tknow if the guy's yanking my
chain, but look out for it.
And the next morning, there itwas, it came through.
And so amazing.
There it was, it came through,and so amazing.
The whole matching program hasjust been.
Astonishing is probably thebest word.
And we're really incrediblyblessed and you know I certainly
commit as the executivedirector to be, you know,
(09:37):
prudent and judicious with themoney that's been provided.
You know we really appreciatethe trust and support that
you've provided the center.
I think also it's remarkablethat so in this total of just
over $60,000 are 52 individualgifts, and so that's 52
listeners, 52 donors that, fromthe addresses that we see when
(10:00):
they fill out the forms, reallycome from all over the country,
sort of pitching in to helpsupport the work that we do here
at the center and sort of doingwhat we can to support and
elevate the lives of men thatare struggling with homelessness
and then families experiencingfood insecurity as well.
Mostly Uncle Frank (10:15):
All right.
Well, some of my listenersactually do want to get a hold
of these t-shirts when they comeout.
Do you have any idea when wemight start seeing some of those
?
Voices (10:24):
Yes, when they come out.
Do you have any idea when wemight start seeing some of those
?
Yeah, so the Walk for McKennaregistration is currently up and
running on our website, and thesurefire way to get your hands
on a t-shirt is to register.
I know that some of yourlisteners might be from sort of
out of town, and so if theyregister and then reach out to
us, we're happy to coordinate tomake sure that we can get those
shirts into their hands.
(10:45):
But they're going to beentering production soon with
the RPR logo right at the top,and we should be getting our
hands on them in mid-Septemberand at that point we can send
them out where they're needed.
But we hope that the supporters, especially any that are local,
are able to come and join us inperson on the morning of
Saturday, september 27th for thewalk.
(11:08):
If I could maybe add oneadditional point, frank, the
fact that we've now broadenedour network to go nationwide, as
we have through this program.
It's inspired us to do thatmuch better of a job being
transparent in terms of theservices we offer on social
media, both Instagram andFacebook.
And so please, if you haven't,try to keep up with us or take a
(11:31):
look at our offering andprogramming that we're putting
on Facebook and Instagram,because our desire is to be
again be transparent with whatwe offer so that you can see
what your money is doing, and Ithink, frank, you made it clear
early on that.
Encourage us to do that, andwe've done so, and we try to do
a good job, with two or threeposts a week showing the kind of
work that gets done here.
Mostly Uncle Frank (11:52):
Well, I guarantee it'll probably be one
of the most inspiring things yousee in your Instagram or
Facebook feed these days, giveneverything else that's out there
.
But I want to thank you bothfor participating in this
interview process, because Iknow you're not podcasters by
training Our listeners really,really have enjoyed
participating in this and wehope to continue on supporting
(12:16):
the Father McKenna Center.
Voices (12:18):
Well, I think we're both happy to do it.
I'm excited to be, I believe,or for us to be, I believe the
first ever guests on the RiskParity Radio podcast.
Mostly Uncle Frank (12:28):
This is true .
We made an exception.
We made an exception.
Voices (12:31):
Other than family members.
Mostly Uncle Frank (12:36):
Other than family members.
All right, well, thank you verymuch.
Voices (12:41):
Thank you.
Mostly Uncle Frank (12:43):
Well, I hope you enjoyed that because I
enjoyed meeting with dennis andben and making our little
interview segment.
Just one little correction oraugmentation ben mentioned 52
donors, but there's actually awhole lot more because he was
not counting all of the patronson patreon and so I think it's
(13:03):
closer to 100 donors whoparticipated in the Top of the
T-shirt campaign.
When I was down there in thebasement with them, we were
sitting around this little tablein Dennis's office doing this
interview and, as you canimagine, his office is a jumble
of materials because of all thedifferent jobs he actually has
(13:25):
there.
But one of the things sittingthere on his table was a copy of
Theodore Roosevelt's poem theman in the Arena.
Now, many of you are probablyfamiliar with that.
I'll just give you a littleexcerpt from it.
Voices (13:39):
read by John F Kennedy, he said Theodore Roosevelt once
said the credit belongs to theman who is actually in the arena
, whose face is marred by dustand sweat and blood, who knows
the great enthusiasms, the greatdevotions and spends himself in
(14:02):
a worthy cause, who, at best,if he wins, knows the thrills of
high achievement and if hefails, at least fails while
daring greatly, so that hisplace shall never be with those
cold and timid souls who knowneither victory nor defeat
(14:33):
victory nor defeat.
Mostly Uncle Frank (14:33):
Now I've noticed that this poem has
become very popular amongst techbros and finance bros, who will
often get a designer version ofit and have it framed and put
it up, say, on the wall behindthem for their YouTube videos
etc.
So on and so forth.
But I often think they're kindof missing the point because
you're not in the arena.
If you're sitting behindscreens or behind a microphone
or in front of a camera, it'snot the arena we're talking
(14:57):
about here.
Dennis and Ben and Abby and allthe other people who work at
the Father McKenna Center andsimilar places they are the ones
that are in the arena dealingwith people's day-to-day
problems with limited resources.
So I thought it was fittingthat Dennis's copy of the poem
was not framed, was not fancy.
(15:19):
In fact it looked like it hadjust been printed out of a
printer a long time ago and waswell worn, even though is now
behind a plastic protector itwould not be made out of gold.
Voices (15:44):
That's the cup of a carpenter.
Mostly Uncle Frank (16:21):
There's only one way to find out.
You have chosen wisely, becausehe's been in the arena a long
time with that piece of paperand continues to work in that
arena with his colleagues thereand all the volunteers and the
clients they serve, and it'sreally been humbling and
gratifying to see and experiencehow many of you listeners have
chosen to jump in that arenawith them, with Matthew 63
leading the charge, of course,putting up that first $15,000 as
(16:45):
matching funds.
Voices (16:46):
It's all the same to you .
Mostly Uncle Frank (16:50):
I'll drive that tanker and inviting you all
to come in.
Voices (16:57):
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Mostly Uncle Frank (17:04):
You should all be pleased, proud and happy
to have participated in thisexperience, Because I certainly
am.
Voices (17:11):
This story shall the good man teach his son From this
day to the ending of the world.
But we in it shall beremembered.
We few, we happy few.
We band of brothers.
(17:32):
For he today that sheds hisblood with me shall be my
brother.
Be he ne'er so vile.
This day shall gentle hiscondition and gentlemen in
England, now abed shall thinkthemselves accursed they were
not here and hold their manhoodscheap whilst any speaks.
(17:52):
that thought with us upon StPresbyterian Day.
Mostly Uncle Frank (18:02):
And although I've taken my turn in various
arenas from time to time, I wasvery happy to be able to play
Mickey to your Rockies in thiscircumstance.
Voices (18:13):
You know, kid, I know how you feel about this fight
that's coming up, Because I wasyoung once too.
And I'll tell you somethingWith you, kid boy, I got a
reason to go on, and I'm goingto go on and I'm going to stay
alive and I will watch you makegood and I'll never leave you.
And I'll never leave you untilthat happens, because when I
(18:38):
leave you, you'll not only knowhow to fight, you'll be able to
take care of yourself outsidethe ring too.
Is that okay?
Mostly Uncle Frank (18:47):
It's okay.
Voices (18:54):
Okay, thank you so much again for taking part in it, but
now let's move along to ournext segment, which, of course,
is your emails.
Mostly Uncle Frank (19:05):
And so, without further ado, here I go
once again with the email.
Voices (19:11):
And first off, first off , an email from Jamie.
Mostly Mary (19:21):
And Jamie writes, reduce risk, based on the idea
that recessions usually push oilprices down.
I know you've experimented withVXX before, but found it tough
to get past the fund's drag.
I took it a step further andtested using both VXX and SCO as
a bond replacement.
It's been pretty interesting.
I could only backtest to 2006using USO as a crude oil proxy
(19:47):
and I'm sure this wouldn't haveheld up in the 70s or 80s, but
the results are worth a look.
Benchmarking against GoldenButterfly and Permanent
Portfolio, it showed much betterreturns with only slightly
higher volatility.
Here's the test I ran onTestfolio, curious to hear your
thoughts.
Is it time to reconsider addingVXX and SCO into the mix?
(20:08):
Ps.
If the link doesn't work, letme know.
Testfolio has been a littleglitchy for me.
Thanks, jamie.
Voices (20:15):
Well, I'm waiting for you, Jimmy boy.
Mostly Uncle Frank (20:19):
Well, my first thought has to do with
benchmarking, because yourportfolio is about 70% in stocks
and so you would want tocompare that to other portfolios
that have about the sameallocation to stocks.
And that's just the macroallocation principle that those
portfolios are likely to havesimilar performance
(20:41):
characteristics because theyhave similar risk profiles,
whereas something like a goldenbutterfly or permanent portfolio
is a much more conservativeallocation and you would not
expect it to have the same kindof overall returns as a
portfolio with a much higherallocation to stocks.
But when you compare what you'vedone to a 70-30 portfolio, yes,
(21:01):
it looks really good.
I think you have hit on thelimitation, however.
I think you have hit on thelimitation, however, which is,
since you're only going back to2006, that is really not a very
good data set to be relying onfor any kind of forecasting in
the future, because you onlyhave that basically, one bad
crash at the beginning of theperiod and then after that,
(21:23):
anything with a lot of stocks,and particularly a lot of growth
stocks and things like QQQ, isgoing to just outperform
everything else.
But you might use this as somekind of conservative
accumulation portfolio andcompare it to other kinds of
accumulation portfolios.
As you've mentioned, I'veexperimented with allocations to
(21:46):
the VIX in the past, eitherthrough VXX or other methods,
and I haven't found anythingthat really seems to be a good
idea long term, because it doeshave a negative expectation for
the most part.
Most of these VIX-related fundshave negative expectations, so
I would think you would needsome kind of trading strategy to
(22:06):
go with something like that.
Otherwise it's just going toend up being a drag on the
portfolio overall, and anythinginvolving crude oil is going to
be highly unpredictable.
Mostly Mary (22:19):
Oh, what it's gone, it's all gone.
Mostly Uncle Frank (22:22):
So you would generally only want to allocate
to something like that inconjunction with some kind of
overall commodities allocationor managed futures strategy.
That being said, what you'vedone works really, really well
for the period that it works for, and I'll link to it in the
show notes, and while I am notinclined to do anything in
particular with it, that doesn'tmean other listeners might not
(22:44):
want to check it out and seewhat they think about it.
Voices (22:54):
In any event, I applaud your creativity and your
curiosity and thank you for youremail.
Many men have tried.
They tried and failed, theytried and died second off.
Mostly Uncle Frank (23:06):
Second off we have an email from Camille.
Voices (23:09):
For the next 10 hours I'm going to try to learn
Camille in three steps.
Mostly Mary (23:13):
And Camille writes Hi, frank, it's Camille.
I wrote in on your episode 376.
I am trying to get my portfolioin order for early retirement,
but I am still stuck on figuringout where to put my treasury
bonds.
I currently do not own any.
I understand that the bestplace to put them is in my
retirement accounts, 403b.
(23:34):
My problem is that my employerdoes not offer any treasury bond
funds for my 403b.
I am hoping to quit my job inthe next one to two years and
then I could roll my 403b intoan IRA and invest in treasury
bonds.
But up until that point, whatshould I have my 403b invested
in?
Currently it's 90% stocks, 10%bonds.
(23:57):
Once I reach my FI number, Iwould have about $300,000 in my
403b which, if invested inlong-term treasury bonds, would
reach the golden ratio portfoliorequirement for treasury bonds
In my entire portfolio.
I am pretty exposed to riskright now as I have about 12% in
bonds, 10% in gold andalternatives, 70% in stocks, 8%
(24:19):
in cash.
Should I be holding treasurybonds in my brokerage portfolio
till I reach financialindependence?
I am scared I will be caughtwith my pants down.
That's not an improvement.
On another note, I was hopingyou could consult your crystal
ball and let me know yourthoughts on what would happen to
US treasury bonds if the US isno longer the world's reserve
currency.
(24:39):
A crystal ball can help you.
It can guide you.
What are your thoughts toalternatives to long-term US
Treasury bonds?
I have listened to many of yourpodcasts and I'm guessing there
is not an alternative.
But maybe things change as theworld changes.
Thanks for all you do, camille.
The crystal ball is a consciousenergy.
Mostly Uncle Frank (25:01):
All right, you got two questions here
essentially.
First, about this 403B.
Now, although you probablydon't have specific dedicated
treasury bonds in that 403b, Iwould bet you have something
that is akin to a total bondfund, either a Vanguard-like
product, or maybe it's a T Roweprice, maybe it's a PIMCO thing.
(25:23):
It probably has intermediateduration and you can check these
things out by putting it intothe Morningstar analyzer and
looking at the portfolio to seewhat's in it.
But any of those would be agood parking place to move money
into right now until you canactually roll out the 403b into
(25:44):
an IRA and then buy the bondfunds you actually want.
While it's not ideal for thelong term, for the short term,
if you're just trying to takerisk off the table, any
broad-based intermediate bondfund is going to be good enough
for that.
For the short term, until youcan buy exactly what you want,
and in most circumstances thatis going to be a better solution
(26:05):
than holding excessive amountsof bonds in a taxable account,
because you're just payingexcess taxes on those things and
since there isn't any taximplications to buying and
selling things in retirementaccounts, it'll be an easy
switch if you will both rightnow to move into that bond
allocation and then later on tomove it to a different bond
(26:27):
allocation when you get toactual retirement and can put it
in an IRA, and then you willnot get caught with your pants
down, as you so eloquently putit.
Now your second question ismore esoteric and atmospheric
actually.
Now your second question ismore esoteric and atmospheric
(26:50):
actually.
A really big one here, which ishuge what would happen to US
Treasury bonds if the US is nolonger the world's reserve
currency?
Voices (26:58):
Real wrath of God type stuff.
Mostly Uncle Frank (27:01):
I think the problem here is you are looking
at the US dollar not being theworld's reserve currency as a
cause of something, when inreality that is going to be the
effect of something.
The way that, historically, theworld's reserve currency has
changed has been a diminution ofone economy and society over
(27:22):
time, while another one isrising and eventually takes its
place, and usually this takes anumber of decades.
Going from the British pound asa world's reserve currency to
the dollar took essentially thefirst half of the 20th century
and involved a couple of warsand the Great Depression.
So we would need to know whatis the cause of the US dollar
(27:44):
not being the world's reservecurrency anymore.
And you can imagine, maybe wehave a war and US society breaks
apart and so nobody wants touse a dollar anymore.
Voices (27:56):
Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies,
rivers and seas boiling Fortyyears of darkness, earthquakes,
volcanoes, the dead rising fromthe grave.
Mostly Uncle Frank (28:04):
You'd probably have bigger worries
than whether to hold US Treasurybonds or not at that point in
time.
Want to go back to the CivilWar, though?
You can see that the end resultof that was that the
Confederate bonds were neverpaid and were completely
defaulted upon and went to zero,whereas the Union bonds were
(28:25):
paid in accordance with the 14thAmendment.
But we can do another thoughtexperiment if you like that.
What if the cause of the USdollar not being the world's
reserve currency was not somecataclysmic event or decline or
something like that, but wasjust a decision that got made
one day?
Imagine if the US and theEuropean Union got together and
(28:48):
jointly decided we don't wantthe US dollar to be the world's
reserve currency anymore.
We don't want the US dollar tobe the world's reserve currency
anymore, we want it to be Euro,and we are just going to swap
all of the Euro currency for thedollar and vice versa tomorrow
and then go from there.
Voices (29:06):
Human sacrifice dogs and cats living together mass
hysteria.
Mostly Uncle Frank (29:11):
Now you can think of a million different
ways why that wouldn't work ordoesn't make any sense, but you
can also just look at thecurrent state of things.
So if you go to any otherdeveloping country, whether it's
Japan or Germany or France orwhatever, they have sovereign
bonds that are trading every dayand they have interest rates
that are kind of similar to thedollar.
(29:32):
So if we were to say, well, thedollar is going to be in their
position and they're going to bein the dollar's position, you
wouldn't think there'd be thatmuch change in what goes on with
the dollar and treasury bonds,because if there was going to be
a big change, you'd havealready seen that in all of
these other developed countriescurrencies and bond markets that
(29:53):
you're not seeing.
So, since they are not blowingup or doing anything
spectacularly strange, youwouldn't think it would have any
effect or much of an effect onthe US dollar and treasury bonds
itself.
Now, as it happens, the realityof the situation is more
dollars in US debt are beingused in the world than ever
before, and that's been the casesince the end of the Cold War
(30:16):
and there is no heir apparentother currency on the rise.
Voices (30:21):
That is the straight stuff.
Oh funk master.
Mostly Uncle Frank (30:25):
Because countries like China do not
float their currency and theypeg it to the dollar, so they
can't be the world's reservecurrency.
The world's reserve currencyhas to float, so the upshot is I
wouldn't be spending any timein this conundrum and wouldn't
be making any decisions based onyour thoughts about it.
Voices (30:44):
Forget about it.
Mostly Uncle Frank (30:45):
If you are going to try to predict the
future, you should be trying topredict the cause of why the
dollar is no longer the world'sreserve currency and thinking
about what that implicationmight have or might not have.
Mostly Mary (30:59):
I would place it over a candle and it's through
the candle that you will see theimages, into the crystal.
Mostly Uncle Frank (31:11):
And not just some kind of magical event
where you wake up one day andthe dollar's not the world's
reserve currency.
Mostly Mary (31:18):
Now the crystal ball has been used since ancient
times.
It's used for scrying, healingand meditation.
Mostly Uncle Frank (31:27):
What you would actually do in that kind
of circumstance is move a lot ofyour dollar-denominated bonds
into whatever the bonds were ofthe new world reserve currency.
But there doesn't seem to beany reason to be rushing into
thinking about that or doingthat, because there are plenty
of other sovereign bonds in theworld that are acceptable to
(31:48):
many people and are traded everyday.
So that's the way I would thinkabout that.
Voices (31:53):
That and a nickel.
Get your hot cup a jack squat.
Mostly Uncle Frank (31:59):
Hopefully it helps you think about it if you
really do want to think aboutit, but I would turn off
whatever you're consuming,that's whinging about that, and
get on with your life in otherways.
Thank you for your questionsand thank you for your email.
Voices (32:16):
I hope we were of some help to you.
Mostly Uncle Frank (32:18):
Yes, you were.
Thanks, middle-aged man.
Voices (32:20):
My pleasure.
Just quit looking at my gut, I'mworking on it.
Last off.
Mostly Uncle Frank (32:31):
Last off of an email from John.
What are you serious?
Mostly Mary (32:36):
Well, yeah.
Mostly Uncle Frank (32:38):
John, you want to do that to the kid.
Mostly Mary (32:40):
And John writes Hi Frank and Mary.
I've been binging your podcastfor the last several weeks and
love it.
It feels like there are so manymore people out there who have
not discovered your podcast butcould really use it.
Mostly Uncle Frank (32:52):
No more flying solo.
You need somebody watching yourback at all times.
Mostly Mary (32:58):
First a bit about me.
I am 54, married, and my wifeis 53 and semi-retired.
She picks up consulting workfrom time to time but it does
not amount to much income.
I am planning on retiring inthe next couple of months and
looking for a way to give backwith my time.
I have always thoughtvolunteering or working for a
non-profit.
I am planning on retiring inthe next couple of months and
looking for a way to give backwith my time.
I have always thoughtvolunteering or working for a
(33:18):
non-profit I am passionate aboutwould be the route.
This is still the plan and nowI am getting serious about
finding ways to do it.
Our money situation we have anet worth of 30 plus times our
expenses, so I am not concernedabout having enough.
We have held about two-thirdsin 401k and one-third in
after-tax brokerage.
On to my question, I had athought and I want help deciding
(33:42):
if it is a good thought or abad thought.
After listening, absorbing andlearning from Risk Parity Radio,
I am ready to start trying someof what you teach.
Currently we have most of our401k funds and target date funds
which I want to get out ofafter listening to episode 333.
My plan is to move intosomething like the golden ratio
portfolio.
My question centers on how totransition.
If I look at the differentcomponents, some have been on a
(34:05):
run up, some down.
Gold is way up and managedfutures and long-term treasuries
are down.
If I had been holding theseassets for the last few years,
they would have given me severalopportunities to rebalance.
Since I am just getting in now,I feel like I can use that
rebalancing thinking to myadvantage.
I am thinking of putting moreweight in the assets that are
(34:25):
down and less weight in theassets that are up, almost as
though I rebalanced after thefact.
Over time, I would move theweights of each asset class to
their target weights throughrebalancing.
I want to know your thoughtsabout this methodology.
I suspect you will say this isjust a form of market timing,
but I am interested in what youhave to say.
Voices (34:45):
You are correct, sir.
Yes.
Mostly Mary (34:48):
If this strategy does not make sense, is the best
method to just rip the bandageoff anytime and make the
portfolio moves, especially inmy 401k where there are no
immediate tax implications.
Thanks, John.
Mostly Uncle Frank (35:03):
Well, I think you're probably thinking
about this a little too hard.
You know, I got friends of minewho live and die by the
actuarial tables and I say, hey,it's all one big crapshoot.
Anywho, when you're doing atransition, if you don't feel
comfortable doing it kind of allat once, all you really need to
do is put that on some kind ofa schedule.
But which choice you make iskind of a coin flip, because
(35:27):
there's no way of knowingwhether making this transition
now or in six months is going tobe the better choice.
Voices (35:34):
We don't know.
What do we know?
You don't know, I don't know,nobody knows.
Mostly Uncle Frank (35:40):
Ultimately, you don't even really care about
it, because what you care aboutis where you're going to be in
10 years.
That's the time frame we'rethinking about.
So whether you do thistransition quickly or not
quickly is not something you canreally make a meaningful
decision about.
Just get it done is the upshotof it is, Because the real
danger is having a market crashwhile you're still in an
(36:04):
accumulation portfolio.
I always have to laugh aboutthis sometimes when I hear
people talk about why theyshould or should not own a
particular asset based on recentperformance.
So I've heard recently thingslike well, I wouldn't want to
buy any bonds now.
Look how badly they'veperformed in the past few years.
(36:24):
Okay, well, aren't you supposedto buy low and sell high?
And if they're low now,shouldn't you be buying low?
Voices (36:33):
Buy low, sell high.
Mostly Uncle Frank (36:34):
Fear.
That's the other guy's problem.
And then often the same personout of the other side of their
mouth will say something likewell, I don't want to buy gold
right now.
It's had a big run-up.
You can see that both of theseare just lame excuses based on
recent performance, not to dosomething, not to diversify,
(36:55):
because people often the samepeople will not apply that
reasoning to their holdings instock index funds.
The reasoning there will bewell, I should always keep
buying.
They're going to go up into theright eventually, aren't they?
Well, maybe, but eventuallycould be in 10 years hence.
Meanwhile, things like gold alsotend to go up and to the right
(37:15):
over time, simply because theunit of account we use, the US
dollar, is going to decay overtime.
And as long as the world isimproving economically, the
demand for gold is going to goup over time worldwide.
So you can do this in any waythat makes you feel comfortable.
It's just get it done in somereasonable amount of time,
(37:39):
whether that's a month or even ayear or three.
And obviously, if you have taxissues with selling things in
taxable accounts, you do need tobe mindful of that, so you're
not incurring large tax bills inany one year.
The simplest way to do itobviously is the one you
mentioned as ripping the bandageoff and just making the change
when you've won the accumulationgame and just getting it done,
(38:04):
at least with a portion of yourassets you plan to use as a
retirement portfolio.
Now, if you're stillaccumulating in this kind of
portfolio, or using a portfoliolike this as an intermediate
accumulation portfolio which ouradult children do, to save for
the next car or house downpayment or solar panels or
(38:25):
whatever is on the horizon nextin terms of a big amorphous
expense sometime in the future,game morph expense sometime in
the future, in thosecircumstances it is generally
better to just add to whateveris low in the portfolio as you
are putting more money into theportfolio, because that just
minimizes all of yourtransactions and minimizes the
(38:47):
need to sell things to rebalanceand incur taxes on them.
I think, all else being equal,anytime you can minimize the
number of transactions you needto do in a portfolio or
circumstance, the better offyou're probably going to be.
So I'm glad you're enjoying theshow.
Keep binging away.
Binge, early binge.
Voices (39:08):
Often I always say you are talking about the
nonsensical ravings of a lunaticmind.
Mostly Uncle Frank (39:16):
And hopefully that answer helps and
thank you for your email.
Voices (39:22):
And now for something completely different.
What is that?
What is that?
What is it?
Oh no, not the bees, Not thebees.
Mostly Uncle Frank (39:34):
And the something completely different
is our weekly and monthlyportfolio reviews.
Of the eight sample portfoliosyou can find at
wwwriskpartyreviewcom on theportfolios page.
And we did have a few bees thisweek, at least towards the end
of the week, with respect to thestock market, although it
really didn't affect ourportfolios that much.
(39:55):
Just looking at where thesemarkets are this year so far the
S&P 500, represented by VOO, isup 6.73% for the year so far.
Nasdaq 100, represented by QQQ,is up 8.62% for the year so far
.
Small cap value, represented bythe fund VIOV, is still the big
loser this year.
It is down 7.62% for the yearso far.
Small cap value, represented bythe fund VIOV, is still the big
(40:16):
loser this year.
It is down 7.97% for the yearso far, while gold continues to
be the big winner.
Mostly Mary (40:24):
I love gold.
Mostly Uncle Fra (40:27):
Representative fund GLDM is up 27.83% for the
year so far.
Long-term treasury bonds,represented by the fund VGLT,
are now up 3.64% for the year sofar.
This week was a good week forthose.
Reits, represented by the fundREET are up 3.31% for the year
so far.
Commodities represented by thefund PDBC are up 1.31% for the
(40:51):
year so far.
Preferred shares, representedby the fund PFFV are up 1.31%
for the year so far.
Preferred shares represented bythe fund PFFV are up 1.86% for
the year so far, and managedfutures, represented by the fund
DBMF, are back down.
They are down 1.45% for theyear so far.
Moving to these sampleportfolios, first ones of all
seasons, this one is 30% in atotal stock market fund VTI, 55%
(41:16):
in intermediate and long-termtreasury bonds and 15% in golden
commodities.
It's actually up 0.21% month todate.
For the one day of the month wehave so far, it's up 6.7%
year-to-date and up 15.83% sinceinception in July 2020.
We will be distributing $32 outof it.
(41:39):
It'll come out of theaccumulated cash.
That's for August.
It's at a 4% annualized rate.
It'll be $251 year-to-date and$1,941 since inception in July
2020.
All of these started with about$10,000 in them.
Next one's, golden Butterfly.
This one is 40% in stocksdivided into a total stock
(42:01):
market fund and a small capvalue fund, 40% in treasury
bonds divided into long andshort and 20% in gold GLDM.
It's up 0.09% for the month ofAugust.
So far.
It's up 6.84% year-to-date andup 43.09% since inception in
July 2020.
For the month of August, we'redistributing $46 out of it Comes
(42:25):
out of accumulated cash.
That's at a 5% annualized rate.
It'll be $364 year-to-date in$2,665 since inception in July
2020.
X1's a golden ratio.
This one's 42% in stocksdivided into a large cap growth
fund and a small cap value fund,26% in long-term treasury bonds
(42:45):
, 16% in gold, 10% in managedfutures and 6% in cash in a
money market fund and 6% in cashin a money market fund.
It's down 0.24% for August 1stmonth.
To date.
It's up 6.07% year to date andup 37.84% since inception, July
2020.
For the month of August, we aredistributing $45 out of it.
(43:07):
It'll come out of the cash, asit always does with this
portfolio.
That's how we manage it.
As it always does with thisportfolio.
That's how we manage it.
That'll be $349 year-to-dateand $2,611 since inception in
July 2020.
Next one's the risk parityultimate.
I'm not going to go through all12 of these funds, but it's
down 0.21% for the month ofAugust.
(43:29):
So far, it's up 5.45%year-to-date and up 25.85% since
inception in July 2020.
We'll be distributing $41 outof it from accumulated cash for
the month of August.
It's at a 5% annualized rate.
It'll be $317 year-to-date and$2,767 since inception in July
(43:51):
2020.
Now moving to these experimentalportfolios that all involve
leverage funds and lots ofvolatility.
Don't try this at home.
First one's the acceleratedpermanent portfolio.
This one's 27.5% in a leveredbond fund TMF, 25% in a levered
(44:11):
stock fund UPRO, 25% in apreferred shares fund PFFV and
22.5% in gold GLDM.
It is up 0.26% month-to-date.
It's up 7.9% year-to-date andup 9.01% since inception, july
2020.
We were distributing $39 out ofit out of accumulated cash for
(44:34):
the month of August.
It's at a 6% annualized rate.
It'll be $308 year-to-date and$2,938 since inception, july
2020.
Next one's the aggressive 50-50.
This is the most levered andleast diversified of these
portfolios.
It's one-third in a leveredstock fund UPRO, one-third in a
levered bond fund TMF and theremaining third in Ballast in a
(44:56):
preferred shares fund and anintermediate treasury bond fund.
It's down 0.5% month-to-date.
It's up 2.52% year-to-date anddown 9.71% since inception in
July 2020, continuing to be theworst performer.
We'll be distributing $32 outof it from the levered stock
fund, upro, for August.
(45:18):
That's at a 6% annualized rate,be $256 year-to-date and $2,924
since inception, July 2020.
Next one's a levered goldenratio.
This one is 35% in a compositelevered fund called NTSX that's
the S&P 500 and treasury bonds.
20% in gold GLDM, 15% in AVDV,an international small cap value
(45:44):
fund.
10% in KMLM it's a managedfutures fund.
10% in TMF, which is a leveredbond fund, and the remaining 10%
divided into UDOW and UTSL,which are a levered Dow index
fund and a levered utility indexfund.
It's up 0.22% month-to-date.
It's up 10.39% year-to-date,still leading the pack and up
(46:08):
5.51% since inception, july 2021.
You're younger than the otherones.
For the month of August, we'llbe distributing $35 out of the
NTSX holding.
It's at a 5% annualized rate,be $271 year-to-date and $1,827
since inception, july 2021.
(46:29):
And the last one is our returnstacked portfolio, our newest
one.
And the last one is ourreturn-stacked portfolio our
newest one, the Optra portfolio.
It's 16% in UPRO, a levered S&P500 fund, 24% in AVGV, which is
a composite worldwide valuefund.
It's got 24% in GOVZ, which isa government strips fund, and
(46:57):
the remaining 36% divided intogold and managed futures.
It's down 0.58% for the monthof August.
So far, it's up 7.5%year-to-date and up 10.64% since
inception in July 2024.
For the month of August, we'llbe distributing $52 from the
Gold Fund, gldm.
It's at a 6% annualized rateand it'll be $406 year-to-date
(47:18):
and $666 since inception in July2024.
Voices (47:24):
Woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil sends the
beast with wrath, because heknows the time is short.
Let him who hath understandingreckon the number of the beast,
for it is a human number.
Its number is 666.
Mostly Uncle Frank (47:49):
And with that beastly number we conclude
our weekly portfolio reviews andmonthly distributions.
But now I see our signal isbeginning to fade.
If you have comments orquestions for me, please send
(48:11):
them to frank atriskparityradarcom.
That email is frank atriskparityradiocom.
That email is frank atriskparityradiocom.
Or you can go to the website,wwwriskparityradiocom.
Put your message into thecontact form and I'll get it
that way.
If you haven't had a chance todo it, please go to your
favorite podcast provider andlike subscribe.
Give me some stars, a follow, areview.
That would be great.
(48:32):
Okay, thank you once again fortuning in.
Mostly Mary (48:43):
This is frank vasquez with risk party radio
signing off.
The Risk Parody Radio Show ishosted by Frank Vasquez.
The content provided is forentertainment and informational
(49:03):
purposes only and does notconstitute financial, investment
, tax or legal advice.
Please consult with your ownadvisors before taking any
actions based on any informationyou have heard here, making
sure to take into account yourown personal circumstances.
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