Episode 456: Lions And Leverage And RP Plans (Oh My!) -- And Portfolio Reviews As Of October 11, 2025

In this episode we answer emails from Jimmy, Anonymous and Matthew.  We discuss financing a home with portfolio leverage via ETFs or margin, revel in the generosity of our listeners and real-life encounters, and review a risk parity style portfolio and plan.  And touch on our recent vacation to South Africa.

And THEN we our go through our weekly portfolio reviews of the eight sample portfolios you can find at Portfolios | Risk Parity Radio.

Additional Links:

Father McKenna Center Donation Page:  Donate - Father McKenna Center

New Father McKenna Center YouTube Channel:  Father McKenna Center - YouTube

SOAR Gala Information:  2025 Washington DC Awards Gala - SOAR! - Support Our Aging Religious

Breathless Unedited AI-Bot Summary:  

A near-miss with lions on safari sets the stage for a different kind of risk: how to fund a new home when most of your wealth sits in a taxable portfolio. We dive straight into the trade-offs between selling positions, taking a margin loan at a low-cost broker, or using a return-stacked ETF like RSST to maintain exposure while freeing up cash. The core question isn’t just, “Can I do this?” but “Can I live with it through a full market cycle?” We break down taxes, financing costs, and the behavior premium that separates clever from fragile.

From there, we build a clean, high-conviction risk parity allocation anchored in three pillars—stocks, Treasuries, and gold—and show why that can be enough to lift a safe withdrawal rate if you respect correlation math and rebalance discipline. Within equities, we pair large-cap growth with small value and international value to spread factor and regional risk. In the bond sleeve, we weigh a simple one-fund approach against a two-fund split (VGIT + VGLT) for small fee and flexibility gains. We also get practical on withdrawals: monthly trims from winners can quietly rebalance your portfolio while matching real-life bills, while quarterly or annual withdrawals suit planners who prefer fewer moves and more cash on hand.

Finally, we pull up the dashboard. Gold’s massive run challenges narratives that cherry-pick 1980 as a starting point; bonds have life; small value lags; and our sample portfolios highlight why diversification and costs matter more than headlines. The classics keep compounding, while the leveraged set underscores that concentration plus leverage is a rough mix, and thoughtful “return stacking” needs clear rules and flexible spending. If you’re weighing a home purchase, chasing a higher safe withdrawal rate, or simply trying to keep your strategy steady, you’ll find concrete steps you can use today.

Enjoy the conversation? Follow the show, leave a quick review, and share this episode with a friend who’s planning a big financial move.

Support the show

Episode Transcript

Voices (00:00):
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little statesmen andphilosophers and divines.
If a man does not keep pacewith his companions, perhaps it
is because he hears a differentdrummer.
A different drummer.

Mostly Queen Mary (00:18):
And now, coming to you from Dead Center
on your dial, welcome to RiskParity Radio, where we explore
alternatives and assetallocations for the
do-it-yourself investor.
Broadcasting to you now fromthe comfort of his easy chair,
here is your host, FrankVasquez.

Mostly Uncle Frank (00:36):
Thank you, Mary, and welcome to Risk Parity
Radio.
If you are new here and wonderwhat we are talking about, you
may wish to go back and listento some of the foundational
episodes for this program.

Voices (00:49):
Yeah, baby, yeah!

Mostly Uncle Frank (00:51):
And the basic foundational episodes are
episodes one, three, five,seven, and nine.
Some of our listeners,including Karen and Chris, have
identified additional episodesthat you may consider
foundational.
And those are episodes twelve,fourteen, sixteen, nineteen,
twenty-one, fifty-six,eighty-two, and one hundred and

(01:15):
eighty-four.
And you probably should checkthose out too, because we have
the finest podcast audienceavailable.

Voices (01:26):
Top drawer.
Really top drawer.

Mostly Uncle Frank (01:30):
Along with a host named after a hot dog.

Voices (01:34):
Light in the Francis.

Mostly Uncle Frank (01:37):
But now onward, episode four hundred and
fifty-six.
And we are back.

Voices (02:12):
Yes!

Mostly Uncle Frank (02:13):
And we had a wonderful time.

Voices (02:15):
The best, Jerry.
The best.

Mostly Uncle Frank (02:18):
Seeing everything from Cape Town to
Kruger, and every animal fromAfrican penguins to African
lions.

Voices (02:27):
Do you suppose we'll meet any wild animals?

Mostly Uncle Frank (02:30):
We might.

Voices (02:32):
Animals that that eat straw?
Uh some, but mostly lions andtigers and bears.
Lions and tigers and bears.
Lions and tigers and bears.
Oh my! Lions! Lions and tigersand bears! Oh my!

Mostly Uncle Frank (02:51):
Speaking of lions, I narrowly escaped being
eaten while I was taking a videoof some lions sleeping on a
rock.
The guide and Mary made thefollowing suggestions in the
narration to the video.

Guide (03:07):
The only thing that we we need now, Frank, for your
beautiful photos or best photosis if you maybe go and sit on
that rock.

Mostly Queen Mary (03:19):
Go there.
Yeah, and uh hang pieces ofmeat on yourself.

Guide (03:23):
Yeah, we'll be taking videos.

Mostly Queen Mary (03:26):
Make yourself a nice necklace of warthog
ribs.

Voices (03:30):
Yeah.

Mostly Uncle Frank (03:32):
Needless to say, I did not take them up on
their suggestions.

Voices (03:37):
That's not an improvement.

Mostly Uncle Frank (03:39):
And so I am still with you today.

Voices (03:45):
Go away and let us alone.
Oh scan, huh?
Afraid, huh?
How long can you stay fresh inthat can?
Come on, get up and fight, youshivering junk.
Put your hands up, you lopsidedbag of hay.
No, that's getting personal, Iam.
Yes.
Get up and teach him a lesson.

(04:05):
Well, what's wrong with youkicking him?
I hardly know.

Mostly Uncle Frank (04:11):
And today on Risk Party Radio, it is time
for our weekly portfolio reviewsof the eight sample portfolios
that you can find atwww.riskparty radio.com on the
portfolios page.

Voices (04:24):
You can't handle the dogs and cats living together.
But before we get to that, I'mintrigued by this.
How you say emails.

Mostly Uncle Frank (04:34):
And first off.
First off, an email from Jimmy.

Voices (04:40):
Hey Jim Baby! I see you brought up reinforcements! Well,
I'm waiting for you, Jimmy Boy.

Mostly Uncle Frank (04:48):
And Jimmy writes.

Mostly Queen Mary (04:50):
Hi, Frank and Mary.
I just became a Patreon memberbecause your podcast is the
straight stuff.

Voices (04:56):
That is the straight stuff, oh funk master.

Mostly Queen Mary (04:59):
But I'm concerned I'm developing a
gambling problem.

Voices (05:02):
Oh, there it is.
Winner winner chicken dinner.

Mostly Queen Mary (05:09):
My portfolio is 50% stock, 25% VGLT, 10%
gold, 10% ZBMF, and 5% cash, andI need to buy a house.

Voices (05:21):
My boys need a house.

Mostly Queen Mary (05:28):
That's nice.
Outside the portfolio, I haveset aside 50% of the purchase
price for a down payment.
For the other 50%, I am lookingto finance.
Suppose my portfolio is about$5 million and I'm looking to
finance $500,000 on the house.
So I have to come up with 10%of the portfolio.
I listened to your episodediscussing margin loans versus

(05:50):
mortgages, so I have some ideason that.
But one other option I'mthrowing around is utilizing
some leverage within the ETFholdings.
You have a gambling problem.
For example, could I replace10% of my stock and the 10%
managed futures with 10% RSST,return stacked SP plus managed

(06:12):
futures, and use the 10% leftover on the house?
Or some combination of RSST andG O V Z if I want to spread the
leverage.
RSST uses rolling futures, andG O V Z is just a slightly
different product, so thetheoretical cost of borrowing
should be lower.
I am retired early, 40%,working with a roughly 4.8%

(06:34):
withdrawal rate, but able toflex spending and have options
to make side income if I reallyneed to.
Do I have a gambling problem?
Jimmy.

Voices (06:45):
You want to see a man, boy?
I'll show you a man.
Kick me in the Jimmy!

Mostly Uncle Frank (06:53):
No way.

Voices (06:54):
I said do it!

Mostly Uncle Frank (06:56):
Well, first off, Jimmy, thank you for being
a donor to the Father McKennaCenter.

Voices (07:01):
Yeah, baby, yeah!

Mostly Uncle Frank (07:03):
As most of you know, we do not have any
sponsors on this program.
We do have a charity wesupport.
It's called the Father McKennaCenter, and it supports hungry
and homeless people inWashington, D.C.
Full disclosure, I'm in theboard of the charity and am the
current treasurer.
But if you give to the charity,you get to go to the front of
the email line, which is apretty long line these days

(07:23):
since I've bet on hiatus.
It's not that I'm lazy, it'sthat I just don't care.
It's about three months long,and I do have a stack of donor
emails to go through, includingall the ones today, which I'm
sure will cause further backups.
We do have some nice news toreport from the Father McKenna
Center.

(07:43):
While Mary and I were gone, thewalk for McKenna was held that
you all participated in to raisemoney in the top of the t-shirt
campaign.
And I'm pleased to report theFather McKenna Center raised
over $180,000 in that campaign,which is well over 10% of our
budget for the year.
And I'm even more pleased toreport that you, our listeners,

(08:05):
were responsible for about athird of that total.
And then we had over 450 peoplecome for the walk itself on
September 27th.
And we're still putting out alittle social media about that.
We have started a YouTubechannel for the Father McKenna
Center with a couple of videosup there right now featuring our
director, our executivedirector, Dennis D, who's a

(08:29):
former client of the FatherMcKenna Center, and one of our
volunteers.
We are fortunate to have arecent intern who has majored in
media communications come onboard, who's going to help us
put that together.
But I'll see if I can link tothat in the show notes.
And in other news, ourexecutive director, Dennis Dia,
has also been nominated as anhonoree at the annual dinner put

(08:54):
on by SOR.
SOAR stands for Support OurAging Religious, so supports
retired priests and sisters.
And that is an awards gala thatwill be held at the Embassy of
Italy on November 7th, 2025.
Mary and I will be attending.
But if you're interested inthat, I will also put that link

(09:14):
in the show notes so you cancheck that out.
But it's quite an honor forDennis and it's well deserved.
There are two ways to give tothe charity.
You can become a patron onPatreon, which you can do
through our support page atwww.riskpartywriter.com, like
Jimmy has done.
Or you can go directly to theFather McKenna Center website on

(09:34):
the donation page and give thatway.
Either way, you get to go tothe front of the email line, but
make sure you flag yourdonation in your email so that I
can duly move you to the frontof the line.
But now getting to yourquestions in your email, Jimmy.
Looks like you are doing quitewell.
Yes, Cat, now I should be rulerof the world.

(09:56):
With or without a gamblingproblem.
And you pose an interestingquestion as to whether you could
use a small amount of leveragein your portfolio.
I think the answer is probablyyes.
Although I don't have anyscientific or databased analysis

(10:17):
for this, since these funds arerelatively new.
But it doesn't sound likeyou're making any significant
changes here to the portfolioand you are maintaining
essentially the same proportionsof stocks to bonds to
alternatives, which I think isthe important thing really here,
so that the portfolio does notget out of balance.
What I really don't know iswhether the managed futures

(10:40):
component of RSST is going toperform like DBMF or like
typical managed futuresallocations, although I don't
have any reason to suspect thatit would not.
You may have to be moreflexible on your withdrawals
simply because adding leveragedoes add more volatility to the
portfolio, as you can see fromthe sample OPTRA portfolio in

(11:03):
particular, which follows thisreturn stacked kind of model.
But that portfolio haseffectively about forty percent
leverage in it, or one pointfour to one.
Whereas what you're talkingabout seems to have a leverage
component of only about onepoint one to one.
So it's not really significant.
That's what I'm talking about.

(11:25):
I think what might be moresignificant is the potential tax
liability if you are selling alarge portion of your funds to
fund $500,000 on the house.
That could potentially give youa big tax bill depending on
what you're selling and whetheryou can tax laws harvest against
that in some way.

(11:46):
And that argues more for thetaking the margin loan on it,
because the interest on themargin loan is going to be tax
deductible against the ordinaryincome in the account itself, if
it's a taxable account.
So in deciding what to do here,I would definitely take into
account the tax implications ofwhichever avenue you choose to

(12:06):
adopt here.

Voices (12:08):
Well, you have a gambling problem.

Mostly Uncle Frank (12:11):
If you do take a margin loan, make sure
you are doing it at a place likeInteractive Brokers, where you
are going to get the best rates.
Because you are not going toget good rates at places like
Schwab or Fidelity for somethinglike this.
I am quite interested to seehow these return stacked funds
perform over time since they'rerelatively new.
So you'll have to report backto us after you lose most of

(12:33):
your money at the casino.
Just kidding.
The money in your account.
It didn't do too well, it'sgone.
But that's the best answer Igot for you at this point.
Hopefully it helps.
Thank you for your donation andthank you for your email.

Voices (12:51):
See, Jimmy was one of the most feared guys in the
city.
I mean, he was first locked upat 11 and he was doing hits for
mob bosses when he was 16.
See, hits never bothered Jimmy.
It was business.
But what Jimmy really loved todo, what he really loved to do
was steal.
I mean, he actually enjoyed it.
Jimmy was the kind of guy whorooted for the bad guys in the

(13:13):
movies.
They called him Jimmy the Gen.
Tommy, help the lady.
Drivers loved them.
They used to tip them off abouttheir really good loads, and of
course, everybody got a piece.

Mostly Uncle Frank (13:24):
Second off.
Second off, we have an emailfrom Anonymous.

Voices (13:30):
I have no name.

Mostly Uncle Frank (13:34):
And Anonymous Rights.

Mostly Queen Mary (13:36):
Frank and Mary, thanks for all you do for
the Father McKenna Center as anadvocate for children and for
the DIY investor community.
A receipt from my company'scharity program is attached, and
they will be matching mydonation.
Please have the center use thecharity donation ID in case
follow-up is needed to receivethe match.

Voices (13:55):
Show me the money! Jared, you better yell! Show me
the money!

Mostly Queen Mary (14:00):
Risk Parity Radio has given me a solid
blueprint for investing andconfidence to go into retirement
in the next few years.
I was referred to Risk ParityRadio in February this year and
started in episode one.
I've never had a need to submita question because your finest
audience always seems to ask thequestion I would have had.
Maybe I will submit a questionone day now that I am listening

(14:25):
in real time.

Voices (14:26):
I'm sorry, but all questions must be submitted in
writing.

Mostly Queen Mary (14:30):
No questions at this time, and I wish to stay
anonymous over Podcast Land.
However, I will reach out toyou guys one day when my wife
and I are driving down I-95 onthe way to the beach for a week
in the summer.
Maybe we can meet for a cup ofcoffee.
In the meantime, I will keeplistening and will sign off with
the only piece of advice Icould fit into short

(14:51):
correspondence.
Do not put ketchup on your hotdog.
Best regards, Anonymous.

Voices (15:01):
Get your hot dogs! Hot dogs!

Mostly Uncle Frank (15:06):
Well, first off, I will certainly take that
advice.
I prefer my hot dogs with alittle spicy mustard, along with
some relish and onions ifavailable.
Second off, thank you for beinga donor to the Father McKenna
Center.
Your donation is greatlyappreciated.
And I'm glad we are performinga service for you here and that

(15:27):
you are getting something out ofit as you go into retirement in
the next few years.
Mary and I would love to meetwith you and your wife if you
are around.
We recently met with anotherone of our listeners just before
our vacation, our listenerRafa, and we had a very nice
dinner.

Voices (15:45):
Ah, good afternoon, sir, and how are we today?
Better better?
Better than a bucket on mythrow up.
A gasto, a bucket for monsieur.

Mostly Uncle Frank (15:55):
Including some squid ink paella at a fine
Spanish restaurant.

Voices (16:01):
A wise choice, monsieur.
And no, how would you like itserved?
All uh mixed up together in abucket?
Yeah.

Mostly Uncle Frank (16:08):
I am always amazed at how interesting,
talented, and generous thisaudience is.
It truly is the finest podcastaudience available.

Voices (16:18):
Top drawer.
Really top drawer.

Mostly Uncle Frank (16:22):
And so I look forward to your questions
in the future and meeting youfor a cup of coffee, so as it
might be.

Voices (16:30):
One trick is to tell them stories that don't go
anywhere.

Mostly Uncle Frank (16:34):
Perhaps you'll have a name next time.
Thank you again for yourdonation, and thank you for your
email.

Voices (16:43):
But first, first you must travel a long and difficult
road.
I cannot tell you how long thisroad shall be, but fear not the
obstacles in your path.
For fate has vouchsafe yourreward.
Do the road may wise.

(17:05):
Yeah, your hearts grow weary,still shall ye follow the way,
even unto your salvation.

(17:31):
Last off.

Mostly Uncle Frank (17:34):
Last off an email from Matthew.

Voices (17:37):
What does Matt Damon say on that Bitcoin commercial?

Mostly Queen Mary (17:39):
Fortune favors the brave!

Mostly Uncle Frank (17:42):
And Matthew writes.

Mostly Queen Mary (17:43):
Hi Frank, I made a donation to the Father
McKenna Center.
My partner and I recentlyretired and have traditional
portfolios.
We are looking to transition torisk parity style portfolios to
take some risk off the tableand enjoy higher safe withdrawal
rates.
We are putting together a planwe can easily implement, stick
to, and execute.
I'm curious to hear yourthoughts on this portfolio.

(18:05):
In episode 7, when defining theHoly Grail principle to find
and combine the least correlatedasset classes we can find, you
mentioned that you probably needfour or five asset classes.
Well, this portfolio only hasthree asset classes, stocks,
bonds, and gold.
But when I ran it through theportfolio matrix at portfolio
charts and it came back rankednumber one by a nice margin and

(18:28):
has a 6.2% safe withdrawal rate.
With that being said, do youthink a fourth or fifth asset
class is absolutely necessary?
Or is this portfoliosufficiently diversified and
uncorrelated?
The portfolio assets andallocations are 20% US large cap
growth, 20% US small cap value,15% ex US international large

(18:50):
cap value, 20% gold, 15%long-term treasuries, 10%
intermediate treasuries.
So that's 55% stocks, 25%treasury bonds, and 20% gold.
The subclasses of stocks arefairly uncorrelated.
I was looking at VUG withDFIV.51 correlation and AVUV.62

(19:14):
correlation.
However, AVUV's correlationwith DFIV is .73, so not great
there, but not bad.
Also, I could use VGIT and VGLTfor the bond funds, which have
a correlation of 0.87, andtogether would have an effective
duration of 11 years andmaturity of 16.7 years.

(19:35):
Or I could use a single bondfund, TLH, which seems to
effectively replace both in this23rd and 13rd setup.
It has a duration of 12 yearsand maturity of 17 years.
Would it be better to hold thetwo separate bond funds, or
would this one fund work just aswell?
Not sure if it's better to havethe two to take advantage of

(19:55):
Shannon's demon in some unusualinterest rate slash yield curve
slash bond prices situations, orfor some other reasons.
Lastly, do you have anyguidance on withdrawal
frequency?
Is there any real advantage ordisadvantage to monthly,
quarterly, or annualwithdrawals?
Thanks so much for what you dofor us DYI investors.

(20:16):
Our gratitude and appreciationhonestly can't be expressed in
words.

Voices (20:28):
So I have to say I love you in a song.

Mostly Queen Mary (20:47):
And that is simply awesome.
Regards, Matthew.

Voices (20:51):
And we have the tools, we have the talent.

Mostly Uncle Frank (20:55):
Well, first off, Matthew, thank you also for
being a donor to the FatherMcKenna Center.
And your donation is greatlyappreciated.
Now, as to your questions.
First, I would consider theportfolio that you're describing
with stocks, treasury, bonds,and gold to actually have four
asset classes if you're talkingabout retirement, because we can
include cash as a separateasset class.

(21:18):
But whether or not you do that,you are well within the
parameters that we look at asrules of thumb for constructing
a portfolio with a high safewithdrawal rate.
And just to remind the audiencewhat those parameters are, it's
to have somewhere between 40some percent and 70% in stocks
in the portfolio dividedessentially into growth and

(21:42):
value, to have between 15 and30% in intermediate and
long-term treasury bonds, tohave between 10 and 25% in
alternative assets that areuncorrelated with stocks and
bonds, such as gold or managedfutures, and then to have less
than 10% in cash or cashequivalents.
And the portfolio you havedescribed definitely falls into

(22:04):
all of those parameters.
And so it's not surprising thatit is a high safe withdrawal
rate.
Now, as I've also said before,the main use of tools is simply
for comparison purposes, and allof the portfolios that have
safe withdrawal rates within,say, half a percent are going to
be relatively similar.
And so whether it's one is 6.2and another one is 6.1 or 6.0 is

(22:29):
probably not a relevantconsideration.
It's when you look at thosefull 1% differences between
well-diversified portfolios andnot so well-diversified
portfolios that say only havestocks and bonds in them.
That's when you're looking atsome real comparative
differences.
The main key here is that onceyou've settled on something like
you have is that you are goingto stick with it and not be

(22:53):
making major changes when yousee certain assets perform
poorly over periods of time,because they will.
If you have a well-diversifiedportfolio, you are probably
always going to have somethingperforming poorly and it may
perform poorly for many years.
Whereas some other asset mayperform very well for many
years.
And one of the biggest problemsthat amateurs have is that

(23:17):
they're looking at the past fiveyears as if they're going to
predict the future or as ifthere's been some paradigm shift
or we're in a new era of suchand such or whatever.

Voices (23:28):
A crystal ball can help you, it can guide you.

Mostly Uncle Frank (23:32):
That is where people get into trouble
because then they skew theirportfolio to the best recent
performing asset, whichtypically will then underperform
in the next period.

Voices (23:44):
Now you can also use the ball to connect to the spirit
world.

Mostly Uncle Frank (23:49):
And that is exactly what you do not want to
do.
You do not want to make bigchanges in your portfolio based
on recent performances.

Voices (23:57):
Forget about it.

Mostly Uncle Frank (23:59):
I think your fund selections seem fine to
me.
They are well-performing fundswith relatively low expense
ratios and all the categoriesyou're talking about here.
So I don't really have anycomments on those.
As for your selections of bondfunds, I probably would go with
the two funds, the intermediateand the long-term fund, rather

(24:19):
than the single bond fund TLH.
I think the relativeperformances of the funds is
going to be very similar overtime, but using the Vanguard
Intermediate and Long-TermTreasury bond funds will get you
a slightly lower expense ratioon those.
And so if you don't mindholding two rather than one in
that instance, that would bejust fine.

(24:40):
It's not a big decision pointthough, and it should work well
either way.
Now your last question wasabout withdrawal frequencies,
considering monthly, quarterly,or annual withdrawals.
And I think this has more to dowith the way you do your
budgeting or allocating forexpenses.
For us, it's more convenient todo it monthly because we look

(25:01):
at this every month and kind oflook at our expenses and
evaluate whether we're having alarger expense in a particular
category in a certain month,whether due to property taxes or
some other thing, and then makea larger withdrawal to cover
those sorts of things, and thatway we're only selling pieces of
our portfolio as we go to coverthe expenses we actually have.

(25:24):
If you are going to doquarterly or annual projections
of expenses, then it probablymakes sense to do your
withdrawals on that kind ofbasis as well.
But this choice has a lot moreto do with managing cash flows
than it does with anything else.
Obviously, the simplest way todo it would be the way we are

(25:45):
handling the sample golden ratioportfolio, where we have just
allocated a year's worth ofexpenses or more than a year's
worth of expenses into a moneymarket fund and are just pulling
from that the whole year round.
That's the simple way to do it.
I'm not a smart man.
It's probably not the mostefficient way, however.
And I can tell you, in yearslike this where we have one

(26:08):
asset gold that's up now over50% for the year, we are very
pleased to be selling pieces ofthat as we go to fund our
retirement expenses, because italso works as a kind of
rebalancing along the way, sothat we have a smaller
rebalancing to do once we get toour real rebalancing date.
I'm very pleased you're gettingso much out of the podcast.

(26:31):
The tools and the talent, as itwere.

Voices (26:34):
Real Wrath of God type stuff.
Exactly.

Mostly Uncle Frank (26:37):
And that you are not paying extraordinary
fees off to financial advisors.

Voices (26:50):
And starts to drink your milkshake.
I drink your milkshake.
I drink it up.

Mostly Uncle Frank (27:03):
Because I think that money is much better
used either giving it away ortaking extravagant vacations to
exotic locales, where you toomay be eaten by lions someday.

Voices (27:16):
Lions and tigers and males.

Mostly Uncle Frank (27:42):
Thank you for being a donor.
And thank you for your email.

Voices (27:59):
Look at the bees.

Mostly Uncle Frank (28:03):
Well, yes, the bees did show up in the end
of last week, at least in thestock markets.
Things like gold and treasurybonds were actually up last

(28:24):
week.
But just looking at thosemarkets, the SP 500, represented
by VOO, is now up 12.30% forthe year so far.
The NASDAQ 100, represented byQQQ, is still up 15.74% for the
year so far.
Small cap value continues to bethe big laggard this year.
Representative fund VIOV isdown 1.06 for the year so far.

(28:46):
But gold continues to be thebig winner.
And I think it's having itsbest year since about 1979.

Voices (28:53):
I love gold.

Mostly Uncle Fra (28:56):
Representative fund GLDM is up 52.80% for the
year so far.
And I think a lot oftraditional financial advisors
are having a lot of difficultyexplaining this to some of their
clients.
There's this odd story thatthey tell themselves and tell
their clients that the 70s arenever going to happen again.

Voices (29:15):
Wrong!

Mostly Uncle Frank (29:16):
And therefore, I've heard at least
two of them on podcast look atthe price of gold in 1980 as the
starting point, which, as weknow, is not the starting point
for tradable gold.
That was ten years earlier.

Voices (29:29):
That's not how it works.
That's not how any of thisworks.

Mostly Uncle Frank (29:33):
But the reason they seem to pick that
date is that was an intermediateterm high at the time, and so
it makes the price of gold lookworse subsequently.
But that's just bad use ofdata.

Voices (29:46):
Are you stupid or something?

Mostly Uncle Frank (29:48):
This is also problematic in a lot of these
calculators like Bolden that doprojections for gold of like
1.5%, which is completelyridiculous since it's
outperformed the S P 500 system.
Since the beginning of thecentury.

Voices (30:01):
Stupid is and stupid does, sir.

Mostly Uncle Frank (30:04):
But you have to ask yourself if all of these
people are essentially lyingabout this and using bad stories
to justify what they're doing,then what else are they screwing
up with?

Voices (30:15):
Am I right or am I right or am I right?
Right, right, right.

Mostly Uncle Frank (30:19):
Anyway, moving on.
Long-term treasury bondsrepresented by the fund VGLT are
up 7.41% for the year so far.
Rates represented by the fundREET are up 5.71% for the year
so far.
Commodities represented by PDBCare up 1.31% for the year.
Preferred shares represented bythe fund PFFV are up 2.3% for

(30:41):
the year so far.
And managed futures aremanaging to be up 5.87% for the
year so far, at leastrepresented by the fund DBMF.
Moving to these sampleportfolios.
First one's the all seasons.
This one is a referenceportfolio.
It's only 30% in stocks, 55% inintermediate and long-term

(31:02):
treasury bonds, and theremaining 15% in golden
commodities.
It's up 0.29% for the month ofOctober.
It's up 11.78% year to date,and up 21.35% since inception in
July 2020.
Moving to these kind of breadand butter portfolios, first
one's gold and butterfly.
This one's 40% in stocksdivided into a total stock

(31:23):
market fund, and a small capvalue fund, 40% in treasury
bonds divided into long andshort, and the remaining 20% in
gold, GLDM.
It's down 0.02% month to date.
It's up 14.78% year to date,and up 53.72% since inception in
July 2020.
Next one's Golden Ratio, and Ihave a new favorite clip to roll

(31:47):
out thanks to a math video fromPBS that I found.
This one's gonna be one of myfavorites.
Here it is.

Voices (31:56):
The Golden Ratio.
What's the answer?
What's the answer?
What's the answer?
The Golden Ratio.
The Golden Ratio.

Mostly Uncle Frank (32:13):
But looking at the portfolio, this one is
42% in stocks divided into alarge cap growth fund and a
small cap value fund, 26% inlong-term treasury bonds, 16% in
gold, 10% in managed futures,and 6% in cash and a money
market fund.
It's down 0.28% for the monthof October so far.
It's up 14.2% year to date, andup 48.41% since inception in

(32:39):
July 2020.
Next one's the Risk ParityUltimate.
This is our kitchen sinkportfolio with a little bit of
everything in it, and I'm notgoing to go through all 12 of
these funds, but it's down 0.53%now for the month of October.
It's up 13.92% year to date andup 35.96% since inception in
July 2020.
Moving to these experimentalportfolios involving leveraged

(33:04):
funds.
Don't try this at home.

Voices (33:14):
Uh what?
It's gone.
It's all gone.

Mostly Uncle Frank (33:18):
First one is the accelerated permanent
portfolio.
This one's 27.5% in a leveredbond fund TMF.
25% in UPRO, a levered SP 500fund, 25% in PFFV, a preferred
shares fund, and remaining 22.5%in gold, GLDM.
It's up 0.44% for the month ofOctober so far.

(33:39):
It's up 19.64% year to date,and up 20.87% since inception in
July 2020.
Next one's the Aggressive50-50.
This is the least diversifiedand most levered of these
portfolios, and also the worstperformer by far.
It's one-third in a leveredstock fund UPRO, one-third in
TMF a levered bond fund, and theremaining third divided into

(34:02):
preferred shares andintermediate treasury bonds.
It's down 1.08% for the monthof October so far.
It's up 10.65% year to date anddown 2.53% since inception in
July 2020.
Next one's the levered goldenratio.
This one's a year younger thanthe first six.
It is 35% in a compositelevered fund called NTSX.

(34:24):
That's the S P 500 in TreasuryBonds, levered up 1.5 to 1%.
15% in AVDV, which is aninternational small cap value
fund, 20% in gold, GLDM, 10% ina managed futures fund, KMLM,
10% in TMF, a levered bond fund,and the remaining 10% divided
into a levered fund that followsthe Dow and a levered fund that

(34:48):
follows the utilities index.
It's up 0.55% for the month ofOctober so far.
It's up 21.27% year to date andup 15.91% since inception in
July 2020.
And the last one is the OPTRAportfolio, one portfolio to rule
them all.
This one's only a little over ayear old now.
It is 16% in UPRO, a leveragestock fund, following the SP

(35:11):
500, 24% in AVGV, which is aworldwide value fund, 24% in
GOVZ, which is a Treasury Stripsfund, and the remaining 36%
divided into gold and managedfutures.
It's down 0.75% for the monthof October so far.
It's up 18.33% year to date,and up 21.78% since inception in

(35:34):
July 2024.
And that concludes our weeklyportfolio reviews, which we
haven't done in several weeks.
Oh, these portfolios had one oftheir best months ever in their
existence in September.
Surely you can't be serious.
I am serious, and don't call mesurely.
And October hasn't been too badso far.
But we'll see what happens nextweek.

(35:56):
It is October, after all.

Voices (35:58):
You're not going to amount to jack squats! You're
gonna end up eating a steadydiet of government cheese and
living in a van down by theriver.

Mostly Uncle Frank (36:12):
But now I see our signal is beginning to
fade.
We had a couple of birthdays tocelebrate on our trip to South
Africa, mostly Bill's, but mineis actually today.
And at one of the lodges westayed at, the staff did sing
Bill Happy Birthday in the locallanguage, which we will put at
the end of this in a couple ofminutes here.
If you have comments orquestions for me, please send

(36:33):
them to Frank atRiskPartyRader.com.
That email is Frank atRiskPartyRader.com.
Or you can go to the websitewww.riskpartyrador.com, put your
message into the contact form,and I'll get it all 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, a review.

(36:54):
That would be great.
Okay.
Thank you once again for tuningin.
This is Frank Vasquez with RiskParty Radio.
Signing off.