Mad Money Machine

MMM-143: Gingerbread Man [ 29:27 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Mad Money Machine is proud to advertise Index Funds Advisors at ifa.com

Topics in this week’s show include:

• Show produced in Logic Pro on my MacBook. I think I had the expander turned up a little too high because after each pause in speech, I hear some buzzing sound that dies down in about one second.
• A glitch on show 142 had the first few hundred people downloading the show through iTunes to get the Harry Browne radio show. Why does WordPress combined with PodPress automatically put an .mp3 file into my feed when all I simply do is put in a hyperlink to the .mp3 file. Just another problem to chase.
• Please bring me the Gingerbread Man geocache travel bug! Looks like it is in College Station Texas today .
• Backups: Recommendations for Mozy.com and SuperDuper, but I am waiting for GDrive, the long-promised online backup from Google. (And why not, they have all my other data.)
• GrandCentral, new accounts? Looks like they say they are STILL in Beta. I don’t know how to send out invitations.
• Caller wants to know what I think of Mint.com . First thing I say is that it sure looks pretty. But I am REALLY HESITANT to give ANY third party access to my financial data. Anyone think it is safe and OK to use?
• Microsoft Live CashBack program did indeed come through and pay me the 25% cash back on my purchases from eBay. But it looks like they’ve shut me down. Does anyone else still have access to it? Do links to eBay still show up in the search results?
• Risk that is specific to ONE COMPANY is called non-systematic risk. Systematic risk is that of the entire market. Who cares?
• Feedback from Rick says Mish is full of mush. P/E ratio is not a way to measure a stock’s price. Instead, Rick says that the lower the discount rate, the higher the price of the stock. P = E/i. Since the drop in i is steeper than the drop in E, prices should be higher.
• Lazy Portfolios are not idiotic. One bad year does not a dumb strategy make. The active managers never show their long-term performance and especially never show the amount of risk they took. By risk, we mean the standard deviation of the portfolio’s value. And know that the Lazy Portfolios mostly focus on the equities. Yet the majority of investors will temper their portfolios with some fixed income and bonds.
• Craig at crawlingroad.com keeps track of the Harry Browne permanent portfolio . Says it is the closest thing to an Austrian portfolio. Over time the CAGR is 9-10% a year.
• What is the best way to own gold? Buy gold coins? Seems like you’d pay too much commission. How about the GLD exchange traded fund? Or how about the CEF? I’ll try to report to you the differences between these and advantages/disadvantages of each.
• Jim Rogers says commodities will be the first asset class to rise after the end of the recession because they still have good solid fundamentals.
• LEARNING EARNING: IFA Investment Principles #4: The greater the risk, the longer the time required to obtain the expected return.

• TOOL: Callan Period Table of Investment Returns . Guess the order of asset classes in 2009!
• Got a serious question about your investments or finances? Go visit Bogleheads.org
• Subscribe in iTunes to "Index Funds Advisors " podcast!

Got feedback? Leave it at drop.io/MadMoneyMachine

Music from music.podshow.com:
Runaway Train – Under Feather

Email me: feedback at Mad Money Machine dot com or call the Mad Money Machine voicemail line 206-734-4763