I just received word that the Taylor Larimore 3 Fund and 4 Fund lazy portfolios that I have listed on this site are in error.

There should only be a 3 Fund portfolio comprised of the following (and the %’s vary for individual investors):

40% Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSMX)
20% Vanguard Total International (VGTSX)
40% Vanguard Total Bond Market (VBMFX)

I will correct this in future portfolio analysis updates.

Here’s your monthly Lazy Portfolios update (not that you’re watching that often).

click for full-size ugly graphology

Let’s look at 1 and 2 month returns just for fun, ok? First, returns for September 2011:

Next, returns for August and September 2011 combined:

Ouch Rick Ferri! I think it was this time last year when I went to the Bogleheads convention and Rick Ferri laughed at the idea of owning gold. Who’s laughing now, Ricki? Difference between bottom and top is almost 22%. That’s shocking.

And of course, full Year-To-Date returns for 2011 through September:

Wow, only two Lazy Portfolios are positive this year. Guess who???

It is striking that the PRPFX mutual fund is off so significantly from the pure Harry Browne ETF version. It is probably due to the fact that PRPFX holds some silver, which got killed, and foreign currencies, which were down against the dollar. 

Harry Browne, thank you.

Whoosh, getting whipsawed in 2011. Let’s step back and take a slightly longer term view of the performances of the Lazy Portfolios. (Caution, none of these portfolios were rebalanced!)

One thing that is particularly striking is that PRPFX took a much sharper dip so far in September than the pure Harry Browne 4xETF portfolios.  I suspect this is partly due to the fact that PRPFX owns some silver (down very sharply) and also some foreign currencies (down due to rising dollar).

Me still likey the Permanent Portfolio, even though what was once up about 12% for 2011 is now up (only) 6.5%.

Biggest Losers on the chart (caution, not rebalanced) were Dilbert (-1.9%) and Vanguard Windsor (-1.5%), and MMM Do It Yourself Funds (-0.7%). Glad I got out of that idea.

The divergence between the Permanent Portfolios and the other Lazy Portfolios might actually cause me to turn on the microphone and fire up a new podcast. Wow, lovin’ the PP.

I was feeling a little left out earlier this year… on my portfolio returns that is. But now I am feeling pretty good. Not that feelings should have anything to do with it! Table as of 10 August 2011.

One-twelfth of 2011 is already behind us and it appears that the Permanent Portfolios have decided to give the other Lazy Portfolios a head start on the year. Said another way: The Permanent Portfolios are ON SALE! Here is the table of returns through January.

The individual components of the Permanent Portfolios are as follows:

VTI +2.0% – Total Stock Market

TLT -3.1% – Long Term Bonds

IAU -6.4% – Gold

SHY  +0.1% – T-bills

—-

VBR +0.6% – Small Cap Value

VWO -3.4% – Emerging Markets

And for reference, here the components of all of the Lazy Portfolios we track here.

For those of us who love to back-test different lazy portfolios, today we can spend our snow day using Simba’s spreadsheet, newly updated with 2010 returns.

I forgot that his comparison page only goes back to 1985 and that I was the one who modified the page to go back to 1972. Guess I’ve got some work to do.

Have fun.

In the FWIW category, here is a chart comparing the annual performance of select Gold ETFs. What’s up with GTU?

The fund expense ratios (according to morningstar.com except GTU* ) are as follows:

GLD: 0.40%

IAU: 0.25%

GTU: 0.38%*

SGOL: 0.39%

DGL: .75%

UBG: 0.30%