Investment Strategies Series: The Permanent Portfolio

The Performance of Permanent Portfolio compared to its 4 components

Craig Rowland comes from a business background and started this podcast to help people with their long-term investments, introducing them to a strategy developed in the 1980s by Harry Browne, an investment analyst and author seeking to inflation-proof his investments. The concept of the Permanent portfolio, which Craig explains in a series of podcasts, is very simple.
You basically invest the same amount and stay invested in 4 categories:
1. Stocks,
2. Long term bonds,
3. Gold,
4. and Cash.
The portfolio has been doing pretty well over time and is designed for those who don't want to have to worry about losing too much during one year, as the following table (available here) shows.
The Portfolio is being rebalanced every year, allowing to sell what ever has gone high, buying what has gone down.

The is even now an ETF, Global X Perm ETF, which you can track through Globe Investor (financial section of the Globe and Mail) that does it for you. It's MER is 0,49% and you can click on the following link to see on Global X website how the ETF was designed.