Voices [0:00]

A foolish consistency is the hobby goblin of a little mind. Adored by little statesman and philosophers and the mind. If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. A different drummer.

Welcome And Key Resources

Mostly Queen Mary [0:18]

And now, coming to you from Dead Center on your dial, welcome to Risk Parity Radio, where we explore alternatives and asset allocations for the do-it-yourself investor. Broadcasting to you now from the comfort of his easy chair, here is your host, Frank Vasquez.

Mostly Uncle Frank [0:37]

Thank you, Mary, and welcome to Risk Parity Radio. If you are new here and wonder what we are talking about, you may wish to go back and listen to some of the foundational episodes for this program. And the basic foundational episodes are episodes 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. Yes, it is still in my memory banks. We have also created an additional resource, a collection of additional foundational episodes and other popular episodes.

Voices [1:07]

We have top men working on it right now. Ooh.

Mostly Uncle Frank [1:14]

Top men.riskparty radio.com. Inconceivable. All thanks to our friend Luke, our volunteer in Quebec. Zacosh. We'd be helpless without him.

Voices [1:35]

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

Mostly Uncle Frank [1:41]

Because other than him, it's just me and Marion here. I'll give you the moon, right?

Voices [1:46]

I'll take it.

Mostly Uncle Frank [1:48]

We have no sponsors, we have no guests, and we have no expansion plans.

Voices [1:53]

I don't think I'd like another job.

Mostly Uncle Frank [1:55]

Over the years, our podcast has become very audienced focused, and I must say we do have the finest podcast audience available.

Voices [2:05]

Really top drawer.

Mostly Uncle Frank [2:07]

Along with a host named after a hot dog.

Voices [2:10]

Light in the Francis.

Grand Unveiling Of Money

Mostly Uncle Frank [2:14]

But now onward, episode 498. Today on Risk Party Radio.

Voices [2:20]

It's time for the grand unveiling of money.

Mostly Uncle Frank [2:24]

Which means it's time for our weekly portfolio reviews of the eight sample portfolios you can find at www.riskparty radio.com on the portfolios page. And we'll also be talking about our monthly distributions for April. But we finally had a good week. That happened once. Which we'll be talking about a little later.

Voices [2:46]

I wouldn't know Majesty if it came up and bit him in the face. It happened once.

Mostly Uncle Frank [2:51]

But before we get to that, I'm intrigued by this.

Voices [2:55]

I was saying. Email.

Mostly Uncle Frank [2:58]

And first off. First off, an email from Frank.

Voices [3:05]

Hi Frank. It's a nice doll you have there.

Mostly Uncle Frank [3:08]

Yeah, thanks. She's okay. Not me, a different Frank.

Mostly Queen Mary [3:12]

You come a long way since Frank the tank, and we don't want him coming back now, do we?

Mostly Uncle Frank [3:16]

And Frank, right?

Mostly Queen Mary [3:19]

Hi, Uncle Frank and Queen Mary. I discovered your podcast about six months ago, and it has changed the way I'm looking at investing as I near retirement.

Voices [3:27]

Frank, I know that you had an awesome time. Okay? I think the entire town knows that you had an awesome time.

Mostly Queen Mary [3:32]

I am 54 and my wife is 52. I plan on retiring in two and a half years while my wife plans on retiring in eight years. We are debt free and have calculated our annual spend to be about $100,000. This includes $15,000 a year for travel and some gifting. I will receive a pension of about $3,900 a month from retirement until age 62, at which point it will drop to $3,000 a month. And it's gone. This has a 100% joint survivor benefit. No cost of living adjustment on the pension. We will also have $35,000 a year in rental income from agricultural land I inherited this year. Our current accounts are $1.7 million traditional IRA and $401, $425,000 Roth accounts, and $350,000 brokerage. Allocation across all accounts is $8515. We don't plan on drawing on these accounts until my wife retires in 7-8 years. Now, on to my questions. Would increasing my equity holdings to say 45% be an option, given our already guaranteed income stream? Should the yield be reinvested? Around 2.5%, I believe, or taken as income? 3. Should I even include VGIT as a holding? 4. Would a US international value tilted ETF such as AVGV on the equity side be beneficial? 5. We are looking at taking 3-4% from the portfolio once retired. Excess income will go toward helping our children. 6. How close to retirement should I begin the transition to a risk parity-style portfolio? Thanks for all you and especially Queen Mary do for this community and the charities that you both support. Attached is the donation to Fairfax Casa. Always waiting for the latest podcast, Frank W.

Voices [6:10]

I'm glad to see Frank's dad made it out. That's awesome. I hadn't seen him in like eight years. That's great. Congratulations. I love you, Dad.

Mostly Uncle Frank [6:18]

Well, first off, thank you for being a donor to Fairfax Casa. As most of you know, we are running a little promotion here raising money for Mary's charity, which is Fairfax Casa, the court-appointed special advocates who are appointed to help children in the foster system as they go through that system after they are removed from their homes. The reason we're doing this now is because April is child abuse prevention month, and so we thought it was appropriate. And hopefully we'll be giving you a report next week because we've accumulated a lot of donations already. We have very generous listeners here, including a $20,000 matching donation. But you do get to go to the front of the email line if you donate to Fairfax Casa or to my charity, the Father McKenna Center, and we'll put the Fairfax Casa link in the show notes to this podcast, or you can donate to the charities at the support page at www.riskparty.com. Either way, you get to go to the front of the email line. Just make sure you mention it in your email so that we can duly move you to the front of the line. Now getting to your questions. First, congratulations are in order. You are financially independent right now, and you could both quit right now. And you don't need any pensions, any social security, any rental income, and you don't need it right now, and you're never going to need it ever. Because you have accumulated $2.475 million. Your expenses are $100,000 a year. That right there is a 4% withdrawal rate. Anyone falling off a log can handle that.

Voices [8:03]

Am I right or am I right or am I right? Right, right, right.

Mostly Uncle Frank [8:07]

So the truth of the matter is in your life, you do not have any financial issues anymore. And you can hold your 85-15 portfolio. You can hold a risk parity style portfolio. You could reduce your portfolio to maybe 30% or 20%. You could go buy annuities if you wanted to. You're gonna be fine. Anyway, you cut it.

Voices [8:28]

Yeah, baby, yeah.

Mostly Uncle Frank [8:31]

And nobody needs to work anymore. So if you guys are not enjoying work as your highest and best use of your time, you should stop working immediately. But you are missing the most important number to think about. It's not a financial number. And I think you need to shift away from the finances. I will be answering all your questions, don't worry. But your most important number right now is 15.86%. And it's not financial. 15.86% is the chance of you or your wife dying. Dying in the next 10 years.

Voices [9:17]

Dead is dead.

Mostly Uncle Frank [9:19]

So I want you to line that percentage up, that probability up, with the probability that you're gonna run out of money, which is zero, slim and none, and slim just died. So you don't have any financial questions. You have life questions that you really need to start sitting down and answering. Are you doing the most important things in your life right now? And how do you plan to spend the next 10 years? Because there's a 15% chance that the end of 10 years, one of you is not going to be here anymore. How do I know that? With the help of Gemini AI and the Social Security and Actuarial Tables, which govern longevity for a 54-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman. Just to fill this out, you yourself have a 10.74% chance of dying in the next 10 years. Your wife has a chance of dying of 5.73% in the next 10 years. Now the chance of you both dying is only 0.62%. So that's very low. But these other percentages are very high and are hundreds of times higher than any financial problems you could be running into here.

Voices [10:32]

That's the fact, Jack! That's the fact, Jack!

Portfolio Choices Versus Life Choices

Mostly Uncle Frank [10:36]

And with that backdrop, now let's get to your questions. Your question one, you were thinking of an allocation of 20% VTI, 20% AVUV, that's small cap value, 30% long-term treasury bonds, 10% intermediate treasury bonds, 10% gold, and 10% DBMF. That's a fine allocation. It's a conservative allocation. So if you want fairly low volatility, that would be a decent allocation to hold. The one thing is it is very bond heavy. You have 40% in bonds and intermediate and long-term treasury bonds. If you're really looking for the highest safe withdrawal rates, that would be limiting those to between 15 and 30%. So if anything, I would reduce your allocation to the bonds and probably add that back into the equity side of things. Or if you wanted to get creative, you could start with that and then increase the allocation to the equities over time. But there's no reason to be messing around with a rising glide path in your circumstances. Question two is about increasing your equity holdings to 45%. And the answer is yes, you can do that. I would probably do that. 40% is on the lower end of the kinds of equity allocation you want in one of these portfolios. Usually it's somewhere between 40% and 70%. Should the yield be reinvested or taken as income? I would turn off all reinvestment in this portfolio because you're going to be spending some of this and then you're just going to be reinvesting it in a rebalancing operation. And I think at this point, once you're stopping accumulating or moving to a retirement portfolio you're going to manage, I just turn off all reinvestment because it actually makes it easier to manage. It just builds up in cash, and either you spend it or you reinvest it at rebalancing time in whatever is the lowest allocation asset that you have going. Buy low, sell high. Fear, that's the other guy's problem. Question three: Should you even include VGIT, the intermediate treasury bonds, as a holding? And the answer is no, I don't think you need it, particularly since you have 30% in long-term treasury bonds. You might just reduce the holding of long-term treasury bonds to 20 and either get rid of the VGIT or keep it. You certainly don't need 40% in intermediate and long-term treasury bonds. Question four Would a U.S. international value tilt ETF such as AVGV on the equity side be beneficial? The answer is I don't think it's necessary, but it might be beneficial that it's actually a worldwide fund. So AVGV is a worldwide value fund that includes both U.S. domestic and international stocks in it. If you want something that is just international value, use the fund AVNV. And the difference between something like AVNV, which is all international value, and something like AVDV, which is international small cap value, is that the AVNV is going to have a large allocation to large cap value, which is going to make your portfolio more conservative and less volatile. And all of those are good funds. Just make sure you really know what you're getting, because if you get something like AVGV, that includes a component of AVUV. Because both AVGV and AVNV are funds of funds. And you can look inside them and see the mix of the other funds they hold. So if you're going to hold specific small cap value funds, then you probably don't want another composite fund that also holds more of that. It just makes it more confusing. But you can find all these funds either at Avantis itself or if you go to the Paul Merriman Best in Class ETF list, it will have a bunch of these funds listed as well. There's a lot of good options here between DFA and Avantis funds, but I would definitely use those for your value allocations, whether they're domestic or international. Definitely not my room. Number five, you're looking at taking a three to four percent withdrawal rate from the portfolio once retired. Excess income will go towards helping your children. The answer is yes, that's fine. Actually, you can spend more money. You could spend more money now. Because you have 46,800 coming out of the pension, and that will be 36,000 later. You also have $35,000 a year from the rental income, which I'm assuming for the purpose of this is net income. That's the way you should calculate that, not as gross income for purpose of spending. So that's already $70 some thousand dollars a year. You're gonna get Social Security later. Your wife is still working. You don't need any portfolio now to spend $100,000. In fact, I would probably start raising your spending right now to more like $200,000. Because it looks to me like you could support that right now. The one thing I think you do need to get much more clear on is what your actual expenses are, including your tax bill. Because when people come with round figures like we think we spend $100,000, to me that is an indication they really haven't sat down and added this up because nobody spends a round figure like that. It would be something like 106 or 108 or something like that. So I would sit down and stop messing around with this stuff and do a granular deep dive into what your expenses are right now and divide those up into what are discretionary and what are mandatory expenses, including your taxes, and then figure out where to go from there. But if your wife is still working, it doesn't look like you'd be spending any of your retirement money for another eight years, in which case it's going to maybe double, probably between 1.5 to two times what it is right now. And if you have a five million dollar portfolio, you can sustain $250,000 of spending out of that at a 5% withdrawal rate, or $200,000 at a 4% withdrawal rate. So you basically have money coming out of your ears, and there's no reason you shouldn't be helping your children right now. They're probably in their 20s, they probably need some extra money in their Roth IRAs or somewhere. I would get on that. And then finally, question six, how close to retirement should you be begin the transition to a risk parity style portfolio? And in your case, you can do it at any time. But this really goes more to what your ultimate goals are. Because in particular, if you just want to sleep better at night or be able to spend more money now, I would just move the whole thing over right now. It's still gonna grow, but you're taking a lot of volatility off the table and you're taking the risk of having a 40 or 50% drawdown with an 80-15 portfolio off the table and putting in place the possibility of maybe a 20% drawdown. Actually, the portfolio you have would probably only be a 15% drawdown. But on the other hand, if your goal here was to insist on only spending $100,000 a year, what you're really saying is that your ultimate goal is to die with the most money possible, because that's the consequence of that. In that case, you would leave most of this invested in equities because they're gonna grow the most over time. There's gonna be a lot of volatility, but if you're not ever spending the money, it doesn't really matter. You'd be investing it for who's ever going to inherit it. Along those lines, make sure that if you're aiming towards inheritance, that you're not leaving people the traditional IRA money, that you do eventually get that out one way or another, because that's gonna cause your heirs some tax problems. You really only want to leave them brokerage money or Roth money. But you hadn't indicated any particular desire to leave money, so I'm just mentioning it in passing. If you talk to a real wealth expert like somebody like Jim Grubman, he would tell you to start doing the transfers soon, now while you're alive, and not make everybody wait until you're hopefully dying at 80 something or 90 something, but your heirs are gonna be 60 something or 70 something, unless you skip a generation and you didn't mention any grandkids yet. So, congratulations, you are in wonderful financial shape here. And it is time to really turn your attention to how to use this wealth of yours to live your best life going forward. Because although it's possible that sitting on it and watching it grow is your best life, I would doubt that. That is not what most other people report when it gets towards the end of life.

Voices [19:23]

Death stocks you at every turn.

Mostly Uncle Frank [19:26]

For more on that, check out episode 436 of this podcast, which is about overcoming the fear of running out of money and spending more money in retirement. And I also made a little video version of part of that in the style of Vincent Van Gogh that I recently posted to YouTube. I will link to that in the show notes. But you also want to start reading books about this, and there's a nice list in episode 436. Because your challenge now is how do I maximize well-being in the second half of my life? Because all of your financial issues have essentially been solved at this point.

Voices [20:08]

Well, you haven't got the knack of being idly rich. You say you should do like me, just snooze and dream, dream and snooze. The pleasures are unlimited.

Mostly Uncle Frank [20:17]

So, thank you for being a generous donor to Fairfax Casa. Hopefully, at least some of this helps you. And thank you for your email.

Voices [20:29]

We're going streaking through the quad and into the gymnasium. Come on, everybody! We're streaking! Come on! Come on! Come on! We're streaking! We're streaking! Frank! Hey, honey! Hey! We're streaking! Frank, get in the car. Everybody's doing it now. Second off.

Mostly Uncle Frank [20:57]

Second off, we have an email from Steven. Steven and Cincy.

Voices [21:03]

David, if you ever wondered, wondered whatever became of me. I'm living on the air and cincinnati.

Mostly Uncle Frank [21:20]

And Steven writes.

Mostly Queen Mary [21:22]

Hi, Frank. I discovered your podcast a few months ago and have been binging it from the beginning ever since.

Voices [21:31]

Some kind of fun house. I'm having fun.

Mostly Queen Mary [21:34]

It was also great meeting you at Economy, and I hope you have a meetup next year. I already have my ticket. When discussing asset location, if folks Even mention HSAs at all, the standard answer is to treat an HSA like a Roth IRA. And this is probably decent enough advice for people who VTI and chill. While future medical expenses are hard to project, I've run the numbers assuming base rates, and my HSA would likely cover all my past expenses I've been saving up, all my new expenses after retirement as they happen, and a few years of long-term care at the end. The amount left over, if any, wouldn't be enough to worry about. However, since listening to your show, I have developed a bit of a gambling problem.

Voices [22:36]

You can't handle the gambling problem.

Mostly Queen Mary [22:39]

So I ran the numbers again with 100% UPRO for the next 40 plus years, and the ending balance is staggering. Inconceivable. This raises the big caveat of an HSA that few people talk about. If you run out of qualified medical expenses to reimburse, the account changes from acting like a Roth IRA to acting like a traditional IRA. Worse, any non-spouse heirs have to pay ordinary income tax on the entire amount in one year rather than spreading it over two years. That is not an improvement. That's not an improvement. I've mulled this over for a few weeks, and the best plan I've come up with so far is to treat the HSA like a Roth IRA for now. But at retirement age, start treating it like a traditional IRA for asset location purposes. And when my traditional IRA runs dry from Roth conversions, I should start making taxable withdrawals from the HSA, which keeps the lower tax brackets full rather than living solely off the Roth IRA. This seems to have the best long-term tax alpha, but I'm curious whether you see a better path. Thanks for all you are doing for our crazy little community, Steven and Cincy.

Voices [24:12]

It's time.

Mostly Uncle Frank [24:47]

We usually send it to the Father McKenna Center, but it's going to Fairfax Casa right now. And that will include your money, Stephen. So thank you. And that is also moving you to the front of the email line. Well, almost to the front. Close to the front.

Voices [25:11]

Yes!

Mostly Uncle Frank [25:13]

But now getting to your email. Well, Stephen, that's what happens to people when they start binge listening to this podcast. They often develop gambling problems.

Voices [25:29]

You have a gambling problem.

Mostly Uncle Frank [25:32]

But it's an interesting question. HSAs are odd animals because they have all these features to them. As you rightly pointed out, they are the worst inheritance vehicles of all of these kinds of accounts. If it's inherited by your spouse, that's fine. But if it's inherited by somebody else, they have to disgorge that thing all at once, right away. And so take all of the money as income in whatever year they inherited it. So you really want to disgorge it or get rid of it in some way before that happens. And for that reason, I don't think it makes the best vehicle for satisfying an urge to gamble with. The Roth IRA is actually the best vehicle for that. And it wasn't clear to me whether you have any money in a Roth IRA right now. But if you had both an HSA and a Roth IRA and were wondering which one of these should I gamble with if I'm gonna gamble, I would do it in the Roth IRA because if you win big, there's no taxes on it. Even for the person who's gonna get it when you're dead.

Voices [26:38]

Winner winners dinner.

Mostly Uncle Frank [26:43]

Whereas the HSA has these other caveats and issues with it. So I think you're correct that you ought to try and disgorge the money out of the HSA as a priority over taking money out of even traditionals, and certainly not out of the Roth. So I'm afraid I do not have another better path for you to follow.

Voices [27:04]

I've officially amounted to check you squat!

Mostly Uncle Frank [27:11]

I also enjoyed meeting you at Economy, and I feel like our little Friday afternoon meetups work pretty well for that setup there. So we'll probably do that again next year. That's what I'm talking about. At least I can't think of a reason not to. Have you ever been in a in a Turkish prison? And hopefully we'll be seeing you again.

Voices [27:34]

Hey, Steve!

Mostly Uncle Frank [27:36]

In the meantime, thank you for being a patron on Patreon. Hopefully this helps, even though I didn't have much to say.

Voices [27:44]

Are you stupid or something?

Mostly Uncle Frank [27:47]

Please send in more questions when you have them. And thank you for your email.

Voices [28:01]

I'm a W.

Mostly Uncle Frank [28:10]

Next off, we have an email from Jeff.

Mostly Queen Mary [28:14]

Oh no!

Mostly Uncle Frank [28:17]

And Jeff Wright.

Mostly Queen Mary [28:19]

Dear Frank and Mary, no questions at this time and no need to share this. Just a deepest thank you for the wisdom that gives me confidence as I see retirement on a closer horizon than I'd originally planned. You are such a blessing to so many of us. God bless Jeff.

Mostly Uncle Frank [28:35]

OB. Yeah. Well, Jeff, you may not have a reason to share this, but we do.

Voices [28:44]

Let's face it, you can't talk them out of anything.

Mostly Uncle Frank [28:48]

Thank you for your kind words. We are really hoping that the information we share here can help people to live their best lives, both now and in the future.

Voices [28:58]

I know I don't know what to do. I'm as light as a pillow. I'm as happy as a I'm as happy as an angel. I'm as merry as a schoolboy. I'm as giddy, I'm as giddy as a drunken man.

Mostly Uncle Frank [29:15]

And to pass it on to their children, as the original intent of this podcast was. But I didn't think anybody was going to listen to it anyway.

Voices [29:24]

Wrong!

Mostly Uncle Frank [29:25]

So we're glad you're enjoying it. Thank you for your compliments. And thank you for your email.

Voices [29:36]

Pure energy. Last off.

Why We Avoid Newsletters

Mostly Uncle Frank [29:43]

Last off with an email from Sally. And Sally writes.

Mostly Queen Mary [30:11]

If you have a newsletter blast or email list, please add me to it as I am a DYIR and learning all I can. Thank you.

Mostly Uncle Frank [30:29]

Well, Sally, I'm afraid we do not have a newsletter or an email list. And there are really two reasons for that. One is this.

Voices [30:39]

I don't think I'd like another job.

Mostly Uncle Frank [30:42]

And while I enjoy talking into a microphone and answering your questions. We hear that you pay good money to sing into a can. I really don't enjoy writing lots of stuff anymore.

Voices [30:55]

Worst day of my life? What do you think?

Mostly Uncle Frank [30:58]

I did so much of that as a lawyer that I'd rather not do it anymore. Unfortunately, most of the writing I do now is assisted by artificial intelligence.

Voices [31:08]

I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working.

Mostly Uncle Frank [31:13]

Because what I've learned is that you can actually just record things and have the artificial intelligence write them up for you, or even create presentations. That's something Mary and I have actually been doing with our lectures in our law school class this year, is taking the lecture material, the audio recording of it, putting it into Google Notebook LM, and then creating some nice little videos and slide presentations for the students. It makes for quite a nice pedagogical aid, actually. And I'm having more and more fun with that with various things I've been creating. Just for fun, I recently created another slide presentation about the four quadrant model and its applications to diversification and retirement portfolios in the style of Jan Vermeer.

Voices [32:00]

Will the Frickanda.

Mostly Uncle Frank [32:04]

It's very elegant, actually. But I'll link to that in the show notes so you can check that out just for fun. Still working on the video version of that. But the other reason that we don't have a newsletter or an email list is more philosophical, in that I want this to remain a retirement hobby that is fun and not as a for-profit venture where we're running around trying to collect lists of people to sell things to.

Voices [32:30]

Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent at this juncture.

Mostly Uncle Frank [32:34]

Because I'm pretty old school when it comes to financial independence material from the internet or from podcasts. And back in the day, we just shared information with each other.

Voices [32:44]

Badgets? We don't need those thinking budgets!

Mostly Uncle Frank [32:50]

We weren't trying to make money off each other, and nobody was trying to make a career out of podcasting or putting financial independence material up on the internet, which goes to our business model here.

Voices [33:02]

I got this inkling, I got this idea for a business model. I just want to run it past you. Here's how it would work. You get a bunch of people around the world who do highly skilled work, but they're willing to do it for free and volunteer their time, 20, sometimes 30 hours a week. Oh, but I'm but I'm not done. And then what they create, they give it away rather than sell it. It's gonna be huge.

Mostly Uncle Frank [33:30]

And I'd like to retain and cultivate this kind of sharing ethos that I know that a lot of you really value. And we have a lot of awesome contributors to what we do here, including Justin at Risk Parity Chronicles. If you haven't signed up for his blog and Substack, I would do that. We have Luke, who's fixed our website and made everything wonderfully searchable and findable and helped a lot of people be able to find and use this material a lot better. Sacosh.

Voices [33:59]

What does that mean? It comes from sur la coche in French, which means on the check mark. Okay, in other words, right on the mark. Bullseye. Awesome. C'est Sacosh.

Mostly Uncle Frank [34:10]

And other listeners like Brian, who recently showed me how to create custom tickers and portfolio charts. You have to be a subscription member over there, but I'd never been able to figure it out. But I was actually able to create a managed futures proxy ticker with his help, and then use that to analyze portfolios with. Maybe I'll see if I can get him to formalize that in a little YouTube video or something. Hey Brian, care to place a wager? He also showed that to my friend Optimus Bill. I am Optimus Bill. Who, of course, is spreading it all over the internet as he is wont to do.

Voices [34:54]

Wow woo, I said very nice.

Mostly Uncle Frank [34:57]

Anyway, we've created a nice little community here, and I'd really like to keep it that way. Where you feel like I'm on your side and not on the side of some content creator who's trying to sell you something or develop some kind of new career or something like that.

Voices [35:13]

A always B B C closing. Always be closing. Always be closing.

Mostly Uncle Frank [35:22]

We'll just stick to our dive bar and our easy chairs here. And our charities, of course.

Voices [35:28]

It's gold, Jerry, gold.

Mostly Uncle Frank [35:30]

Anyway, I'm glad you started listening. Do go to the website that Luke has created if you're searching for various topics and things, because we've got all the transcripts there now, we've got all the links there now. And it is really a wonderful resource to be using, particularly since we're almost up to 500 podcast episodes, and only the most deranged of our listeners will go back and trudge through all of those.

Voices [35:54]

You are talking about the nonsensical ravings of a lunatic mind.

Mostly Uncle Frank [36:00]

So hopefully that explains things. And thank you for your email.

Voices [36:06]

Now we are going to do something extremely fun.

Market Snapshot And Portfolio Distributions

Mostly Uncle Frank [36:11]

Well, I don't know if our portfolio reviews are going to be extremely fun this week, but at least they're more fun than last month. No B's this time. Just looking at the markets overall this year. The SP 500, represented by the fund VOO, is now down 3.54% for the year so far. So up a few percent from last week. The NASDAQ, represented by the fund QQQ, continues to be the laggard. It is down 4.66% for the year so far. Small cap value is doing much better. Our representative fund VIOV is up 4.9% for the year so far. Gold continues to be one of the leaders. Representative fund GLDM is up 8.33% for the year so far.

Voices [37:00]

I love gold.

Mostly Uncle Frank [37:04]

Long-term treasury bonds represented by VGLT are up 0.35%. Reeds represented by the fund of REET are up 2.99%. Commodities are the big winner this year so far. Representative fund PDBC is up 32.23%. Preferred shares represented by the fund PFFV are up 0.06%. And managed futures are managing to do pretty well. Representative fund DBMF is up 8.44% for the year so far. Moving to these portfolios. First one's the all seasons. This is a reference portfolio. We keep around for comparison purposes. It is only 30% in stocks in a total stock market fund, 55% in intermediate and long-term treasury bonds, and the remaining 15% in golden commodities. It's up 0.52% for the month of April. It's up 2.16% year to date, and up 25.93% since inception in July 2020. For the month of April, our distribution is $34. It's coming out of accumulated cash. It's at a 4% annualized rate. That'll be $137 year to date and $2,211 since inception in July 2020. Now moving to these bread and butter kind of portfolios. First one's a gold and butterfly. This one's 40% in stocks divided into a total stock market fund and a small cap value fund. 40% in treasury bonds divided into long and short, and the remaining 20% in gold. It is up 0.29% for the month of April so far. It's up 2.39% year to date and up 63.37% since inception in July 2020. We are distributing $51 out of it from accumulated cash for April. It's at a 5% annualized rate, that'll be $209 year to date, and $3,072 since inception in July 2020. Next one's Golden Ratio. This one is 42% in stocks, divided into a large cap growth fund and a small cap value fund, 26% in treasury bonds, 16% in gold, 10% in managed futures, and 6% in cash in a money market fund. It's up 0.42% for the month of April so far. It's up 1.61% year to date and up 56.88% since inception in July 2020. For April, we are distributing $49 out of it. We always distribute out of cash out of this portfolio and just refill it once a year. That'll be $201 year to date and $3,04 since inception in July 2020. Next one's the Risk Parity Ultimate. Not going to go through all 12 of these funds. It's kind of our kitchen sink portfolio with a little bit of everything. It's up 0.59% for the month of April. It's up 1.06% year to date and up 41.23% since inception July 2020. For the month of April, we'll be distributing $52 out of it. We're selling it out of gold, which is still the best performer of the year since last rebalancing last July. That's at a 6% annualized rate. That'll be $215 year-to-date and $3,182 since inception in July 2020. Now moving to these experimental portfolios that all involve leverage funds. Yes, don't try this at home. These are very volatile.

Voices [40:39]

You can't handle the gambling problem.

Mostly Uncle Frank [40:42]

And the first one is the accelerated permanent portfolio. This one is 27.5% in TMF, that is a levered bond fund. 25% in UPRO, that's a leverage stock fund. 25% in PFFV, a preferred shares fund, and 22.5% in gold, GLDM. It's up 1.04% for the month of April. It's down 1.53% year to date, but it's up 21.55% since inception in July 2020. It's been up and down 10% or more. I think that's what it was down in March. For April, we're distributing $41 out of it. It's coming out of the Preferred Shares Fund PFFV. It's at a 6% annualized rate. It'll be $175 year-to-date and $3,282 since inception in July 2020. Next one's the Aggressive 50-50. This is the most levered and least diversified of these portfolios and the worst performer by far. It's one-third in Levered Stock Fund UPRO, one-third in TMF a levered bond fund, and the remaining third in ballast in a preferred shares fund and an intermediate treasury bond fund. It's up 1.3% for the month of April. It's down 5.14% year to date and down 6.76% since inception July 2020. For the month of April, we're withdrawing $32 out of it. It's coming out of the Intermediate Treasury Bond Fund, VGIT. That's at a 6% annualized rate, $135 year to date, and $3,195 since Inception July 2020. Moving to the next one, the Levered Golden Ratio. This is a year younger than the first six. This is 35% in NTSX, that is a composite SP 500 and Treasury Bond Fund, levered up 1.5 to 1. 15% in AVDV, that's an international small cap value fund. 20% in GLDM, that's gold. 10% in KMLM, that's a managed futures fund. 10% in TMF, a levered bond fund, and the remaining 10% divided into UDOW and UTSL, which are levered Dow and Utilities funds, respectively. It's up 0.76% for the month of April so far. It's up 2.92% year to date, and up 23.37% since inception in July 2021. For the month of April, we're withdrawing $56 out of it. It's coming out of the gold fund, GLDM. It's at a 7% annualized rate. So it'll be $197 year to date and $2,157 since inception in July 2021. And moving to the last one, our OPTRA portfolio. One portfolio to rule them all. This won 16% in UPRO, it's a levered SP 500 fund. 24% in AVGV, that's a worldwide value tilted fund. 24% in GOVZ, it's a Treasury strips fund, and the remaining 36% divided into gold and managed futures. It's up 0.24% for the month of April. It's up 2.47% year to date, and up 32.21% since inception in July 2024. For the month of April, we are withdrawing $59 out of it. It's coming out of the gold fund, GLDM. Six percent annualized rate. So it'll be two hundred and forty five dollars year to date and eleven hundred and forty dollars since inception in July twenty twenty four. And that concludes our weekly portfolio reviews and monthly distributions. I'm sure you're impressed.

Voices [44:17]

This is pretty much the worst video ever made.

Mostly Uncle Frank [44:21]

Well, what can I say? It's kind of more war is bad and less war is good as far as most of these markets are concerned, other than the commodities oil market, which does actually help the managed futures funds as well.

Voices [44:49]

Absolutely nothing.

Send Questions And Support The Show

Mostly Uncle Frank [44:53]

But hopefully we'll get past all that in the near future. And now I see our signal is beginning to fade. If you have comments or questions for me, please send them to Frank at RiskPardyRadio.com. That email is Frank at RiskPartyRadio.com. Or you can go to the website www.riskpartyradio.com. Put your message into the contact form and I'll get it that way. If you haven't had a chance to do it, please go to your favorite podcast provider and like, subscribe, maybe some stars, a follow, a review. That would be great. Okay. Thank you once again for tuning in. This is Frank Vasquez with Risk Party Radio. Signing off.

Voices [45:32]

Good morning! Look at the sun. It couldn't be done. But it can be done. I never dreamed that I would climb over the moon in ecstasy. But nevertheless, I'm surely about to be. Cause I've got a golden ticket. I've got a golden ticket. I've got a golden ticket. And with a golden ticket, it's a golden The Risk Parody Radio Show is hosted by Frank Vasquez.

Mostly Queen Mary [46:18]

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