Risk Parity Radio

Episode 420: Wrestling With Roths And 401ks, Assorted Shenanigans, And Portfolio Reviews As Of May 2, 2025

• Frank Vasquez

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In this episode we answer emails from Anderson, Ian, FFS, and Michael.  We discuss using Roths earlier in accumulation and tax considerations, wrestling with an expensive 401k plan with limited options, and the various and sundry deficiencies of this program and its website.  Rest assured, we have "top men" working on it.  Top.  Men.

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

Breathless Unedited AI-Bot Summary:

Welcome to the dive bar of personal finance, where frank conversations about investing happen without sponsors, guests, or corporate jargon. In episode 420, Frank Vasquez serves up practical wisdom alongside his signature blend of humor and no-nonsense advice.

The heart of this episode centers around listener questions that reveal common investing dilemmas. When a father of six asks about Roth conversions while in a low tax bracket, Frank not only endorses the strategy but takes the opportunity to debunk widespread myths about future taxation. "The fear of future taxes is often overblown," Frank explains, noting how this anxiety is frequently exploited by financial professionals selling expensive products. He articulates why most people actually face lower tax rates in retirement—a perspective that runs counter to conventional financial advice but makes perfect mathematical sense when examining income sources and tax treatment.

Another listener struggling with limited 401(k) options receives thoughtful guidance on transitioning from 100% equities to a more balanced risk parity approach. Frank's explanation of the "macro allocation principle" illuminates why focusing on the percentage of stocks across all accounts matters more than perfect diversification within any single account. His pointed criticism of target date funds—describing them as "easy but not simple"—offers a refreshing counterpoint to the retirement industry's oversimplified solutions.

The episode culminates with Frank's detailed review of eight sample portfolios, revealing how diversification strategies are performing in today's volatile markets. While the S&P 500 struggles with a 3.02% year-to-date decline and small cap value plummets 13.16%, gold shines with a remarkable 23.2% gain. More importantly, the risk parity portfolios demonstrate remarkable stability compared to single-asset approaches.

Whether you're considering tax strategies, rebalancing your portfolio, or simply looking for straight talk about investing, this episode delivers valuable insights without the financial industry's typical marketing hype. Subscribe, leave a review, and visit riskparityradio.com for more resources to help guide your investment journey.

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Voices:

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

Voices:

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer, a different drummer.

Mostly Mary:

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:

Thank you, Mary, and welcome to Risk Parity Radio. If you have just stumbled in here, you will find that this podcast is kind of like a dive bar of personal finance and do-it-yourself investing.

Voices:

Expect the unexpected.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

It's a relatively small place. It's just me and Mary in here and we only have a few mismatched bar stools and some easy chairs. We have no sponsors, we have no guests and we have no expansion plans.

Voices:

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

Mostly Uncle Frank:

What we do have is a little free library of updated and unconflicted information for do-it-yourself investors.

Voices:

Now, who's up for a trip to the library tomorrow?

Mostly Uncle Frank:

So please enjoy our mostly cold beer served in cans and our coffee served in old, chipped and cracked mugs, along with what our little free library has to offer.

Voices:

Welcome but now onward, episode 420 stay off the weed duh one of those thematic numbered episodes and you're getting high in the middle of the afternoon. Off some weed.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Today on Risk Parity Radio, it's time for our weekly portfolio reviews of the eight sample portfolios you can find at wwwriskparityradiocom on the portfolios page.

Voices:

I'm putting you to sleep.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And we'll also talk about our monthly distributions for May.

Voices:

Boring.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

But before I put you to sleep with that, I'm intrigued by this how you say Emails. And First off. First off, we have an email from Anderson.

Voices:

You know, back in Baton we could have fed 600 men in the time. It's taken you ham and eggers, just to take my order.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And Anderson writes Uncle Frank.

Mostly Mary:

another question from me, this time about Roth conversion. I'm 38, income gross approximately $130,000. I have six kids, so my taxes are very low. My retirement plan allows for in-plan Roth conversions. I'm about 50-50 in Roth versus traditional 401k. My employer allows both. We do not max out retirement counts but do max in HSA. Our savings rate, excluding charitable donations, is about 20 to 25 percent depending on the year. I'm wondering if I should convert a portion every year while my taxes are low. In 15 years we will have significantly fewer dependents and my wife may want to return to work, increasing our income another 50 to 100 thousand dollars. Upside is obviously it being in a Roth with 20 plus years of tax-free growth. The downside is increasing my taxable income in what I imagine will be our most expensive years. I'd love to hear your thoughts and, as always, thanks for your help, anderson.

Voices:

All the old boys are going to be here this year Dick Peter Rod Johnson.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Well, first off, let me apologize for not getting to this earlier.

Voices:

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

I see it was from January and I missed it at the time. We are into the emails for February, if anybody's counting, and so if you sent one in January and it didn't get answered already, you may want to send me a reminder.

Voices:

Hello, this is Chuck to remind Bill to shut up.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And I'll put my crack email team on it right away.

Voices:

We have top men working on it right now. Who Top?

Mostly Uncle Frank:

men. Now getting to your question, yes, if you are in the 12% tax bracket, that is really generally when you want to use Roths for everything you can, because it's probably never going to be any lower. So I would go ahead and take advantage of that in your case.

Voices:

Didn't you get that memo for everything?

Mostly Uncle Frank:

you can, because it's probably never going to be any lower. So I would go ahead and take advantage of that in your case, didn't you get that memo?

Voices:

At least until you rid yourself of those pesky dependents. I don't care about the children, I just care about their parents' money.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

But I suppose separately. I should caution all of you that the fear of future taxes is often overblown and it is actually stock and trade marketing for people who offer free steak dinners, bing and sell annuities.

Voices:

Bing again.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And it's almost guaranteed that such people are associated with some kind of financial product.

Voices:

Always be closing.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Because it's part of what you call FUD marketing fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Voices:

Am I right or am I right, or am I right, right, right, right.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And fear of future taxes is one way to get people really wound up and to buy really stupid things.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Tell me have you ever heard of single premium life? Because I think that really could be the ticket for you. I got a really fancy one for a dinner at a French country restaurant nearby Actually came in an envelope recently. Wow, that's very nice. But this is also one of the litmus tests I use to gauge how knowledgeable people are generally about tax issues and retirement issues, because the truth is, in most cases, your taxes are going to go down in retirement.

Voices:

Surely you can't be serious.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

I am serious, and don't call me Shirley At least if you make any effort whatsoever to manage them. And even if you don't, at least if you make any effort whatsoever to manage them, and even if you don't, and the reason for that is that you'll be going from paying ordinary income taxes plus FICA to generally only paying capital gains taxes or taxes on qualified dividends, and that's one of the reasons, in our case, that our overall expenses have dropped in retirement.

Voices:

And Leon's getting larger.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Because our income taxes keep going down and since we are going to be doing some conversions long before we get to RMD ages, there's another thing you need to do. That is not going to be a problem either. Forget about it. The people who generally have that kind of problem are generally hoarder types who fail to spend enough money in their 60s.

Voices:

Help. Okay, Dad, back here. What's with you? Anyway, I can't help it. I'm a greedy slob, it's my hobby. Save me.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

So the next time you're listening to somebody babbling and foaming at the mouth about the national debt and claiming that taxes have to go up in the future, they have to.

Voices:

Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies, rivers and seas boiling Forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

No, they don't.

Mostly Mary:

That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

They don't have to do anything. More importantly, your taxes, which are the only ones you should be caring about, are still likely to go down Because your income sources are going to be changing. And if you don't understand that well, you're just not very well informed, and it's time to go get some edumacation about how taxes actually work.

Voices:

Children do learn when standards are high and results are measured.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Anyway, sorry for that little mini rant.

Voices:

You can't handle the dogs and cats living together.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And sorry for the delay in my response to your email.

Mostly Mary:

Don't be saucy with me, Bernays.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And thank you for your email.

Voices:

Because only one thing counts in this life Get them to sign on the line which is dotted.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Second off. Second off we have an email from Ian.

Voices:

No way.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And Ian writes Hi.

Mostly Mary:

I am currently invested in 100% equities in my 401k but would like to transition to more of a risk parity type portfolio as I get closer to FI. I am currently about 10 years away from withdrawing the funds. I am limited by the funds available. There are a lot of TRP target date funds, with some of those more bond heavy and focused on income. Some of the more conservative TRP funds have about a 6% annual growth since inception but have about a 17% drawdown period when I entered them on PortfolioVisualizercom. Is that an acceptable range? There are also the large slash, mid slash, small cap funds, as well as Vanguard Index funds, S&P 500, what I am in currently small-slash-mid-cap index and INT index. There are a couple more like that, like the PIMCO Income Bond Fund, PIMIX, but the expense ratio is 0.86%. All the TRP funds are. Any guidance would be appreciated, Ian.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Well, sorry for your predicament here. I'm assuming that TRP in your email stands for T Rowe Price and yes, there are a lot of expensive retirement programs sponsored by T Rowe Price. Honestly, if you have one of those and you have any say or pull at work, I would be asking whomever runs the retirement program there to get a new sponsor.

Voices:

Third prize is your fine.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Because there's no reason that 401k plans should be that expensive anymore, unless your employer is very small, and even then there are better solutions than some of these older, higher-priced plans. You definitely should not be using target date funds, whether they're T Rowe price funds or anybody else's target date funds. Yes, that includes Vanguard's target date funds. If you want to know more about that, you can listen to episode 369 to get an artificial intelligence generated podcast based on episode 333.

Voices:

I thought I was supposed to be the robot.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

But it's suffice to say that target date funds are never going to have what anybody actually wants in their personal portfolio and in most cases, they're going to be too expensive. And they are not simple. They are easy, but they are not simple Because in order to know what's in them, you have to open them up and then find out how they change their algorithm, which may not be predictable at all in the future.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

So, unless you are comatose- dead is dead and don't know how to invest at all and are not paying any attention to it whatsoever. You should not be using target date funds. They're only really there as a CYA for the employer supplying the plan, so that comatose people do not fail to invest their money at all. So if you're not comatose, it does not apply to you.

Voices:

Forget about it.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Now you also mentioned that you're about 10 years away from withdrawing funds, but you did not indicate how close you are to actually accumulating enough money to retire, which is a critical component.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

It's actually more critical than any date in the future, and you should listen to the last episode where I talked about considerations for that. That's episode 419. And the other episodes I mentioned about transitioning from a accumulation portfolio to a retirement portfolio. The other thing that's unclear to me is what assets you have that are outside of this 401k, because you should have an IRA where you have free reign to put whatever you want. In that you should be treating all of your invested assets as one big portfolio, so you don't necessarily have to diversify what's in your 401k if you can do the diversification in an IRA or somewhere else. Now if, for whatever reason, you do not have money in an IRA right now, I would start contributing to that, even if you have to contribute less to the 401k, because you do want that flexibility and you do have 10 years to do it. And if you have a spouse, they can also have an IRA.

Voices:

Groovy baby.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

So you've got some flexibility and some room there to do these things, because ideally you would keep this 401k weighted more to the S&P 500 than anything else. I don't know what your small and mid-cap index funds look like. That might be a parking place for some of the money. It's probably not ideal. The PIMX fund is not a terrible fund, other than its cost. It is kind of a strange fund. It's overly complicated for what you ultimately get out of it. It's actually got leverage in it, but it kind of plays more like a short to intermediate term basic bond fund. I'd be curious to know what other bond funds you might have in there, whether there might be one that's just straight intermediate treasuries or something like that. Anyway, it looks like I mean you could transition this as you go forward to something that looks just like a basic two-fund S&P 500 and bonds through the PIMX fund, which would get you a substantial way to where you want to be in the end.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And what you want to think about here is the macro allocation principle, because the truth is it's the percentage of stocks in the portfolio overall that is most likely to dictate its long-term performance.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

So I can see moving this portfolio to something that is more like 50 to 60 percent in stocks overall, even if you can't get it to exactly where you want it with the other things outside of the 401k, for example, and then when you do leave the job, move the 401k to an IRA and switch it to exactly what you want.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

But at least that would get you to the ballpark in terms of the risk profile of the portfolio, because that's your real risk here is sticking with something that's 100% equities as opposed to something that's like 60% equities or 50% equities. That's just a whole risk shift involved here, and just doing that basic shift will get you a long ways towards where you eventually want to be. Now. Whether and when you should do that depends on the other questions that I asked earlier about how close are you to having enough money to retire? And then, what other investment vehicles do you have available besides this 401k? Just remember to treat all of your invested assets, not just this 401k, as one big portfolio, and it'll make your life a lot easier in the end.

Voices:

This is the end, my only friend, the end.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And stay away from target date funds.

Voices:

That and a nickel get you a hot cup, a jack squat.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Hopefully that helps and thank you for your email.

Voices:

You're gonna end up eating a steady diet of government cheese and living in a van down by the river.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Next off, we have an email from FFS. This is pretty much the worst video ever made, and FFS writes the worst video ever made.

Mostly Mary:

And FFS writes I really appreciate the content, but for the love of all things holy, would you please pay a kid $100 to make the website readable? It sucks real bad.

Voices:

Just come up.

Mostly Mary:

Change the font.

Voices:

Do not implore him for compassion.

Mostly Mary:

Add spacing, add bullets, get rid of the background. It's all just awful. The changes wouldn't change the performance or server load in any statistically significant way at all. Something, please. It's crap. I am quote offended unquote FFS. It's crap. I am quote offended, unquote, ffs. It's crap.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

In case some of you who don't know, the poor quality of my website is an ongoing joke around here. It's crap, unfortunately, because when I decided to create a podcast in the middle of COVID, I didn't realize until after I'd begun the process that I actually needed a website to put the thing on so people could find it and at least have some information about it there. So, having literally no experience in constructing websites, I bought a Wix package and used their little templates to construct something. Gosh Idiot. And it's proudly and unashamedly a very amateur effort. Such an idiot, although I did entertain myself when I was fooling around with it Lucky, anyway. I did have a listener volunteer earlier this year to take a look at it and try to do something with it, but unfortunately he had other things to do something with it. But unfortunately he had other things to do in his life that fiddled around with that I'm out making some sweet moolah with uncle rico so he had to bow out.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

I'm afraid it probably would take a little bit more than a kid with a hundred bucks to really amend it. Let me try, and I'm kind of loathe to do it just because of the humorous emails it incites, because, you have to remember, this is a retirement hobby for me and was never intended to be a commercial venture. That's what I'm talking about. So what I'm most likely to do is just wait and see if any other volunteers step up to the plate at some point can you take hats in a dignified and sophisticated manner?

Voices:

you mean like a weenie? Okay, may I take your answer. May I take your answer?

Voices:

All right, I've heard enough. You've got the job.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Because, although it's quite amateurish, it does do what it's supposed to do, which is simply just to hold some information and the sample portfolios and a direct way of accessing the podcast. It's probably not what you wanted to hear, although maybe it is because I think you enjoyed writing this email, as I am laughing in response to it.

Voices:

What's wrong with?

Voices:

you.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

So I'm not sure this really helps, but thank you for your email.

Voices:

Now go home and get your shine box Last off.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Last off, we have an email from Michael.

Voices:

Let's get Mikey.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And Michael writes.

Mostly Mary:

Just wanted to say that I appreciate the concept of the AI summary episode. However, if you do it again, please dial down the conversational feedback the AI employed far too often. Okay, yeah, mm. It made for a very painful, inauthentic listening experience and made me want to stop early on.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Thanks, well, michael, I'd have to say you're probably in the minority who appreciates the ai summaries that I occasionally post. The last one was in episode 400, if you're looking for it, and also in episode 369, which I mentioned before. I actually use it mostly as a joke response to people who hate the sound bites, as in. You thought I sound bad. Just listen to this now. As for dialing down the conversational feedback, I have no way of adjusting that thing whatsoever. It is actually the freebie from Google if you go to their LLM site. It's an interesting site because you can upload whatever you want into it and then it will create some outlines and summaries, but it will also create a little podcasts of whatever you upload into it. But it literally has no settings whatsoever that you can alter, at least not that I could find. So it is what it is, but it does serve its purpose in making my own presentation style sound much more desirable.

Voices:

Yeah, hi, it's Bill Lumberg again. I just wanted to make sure you knew that we did start at the usual time this morning.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

At least to most people.

Voices:

Oh, oh and I almost forgot I'm also going to need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday too.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

So I'm probably not going to make a whole lot of use of it in the future, but I will make some use of it and hopefully it will improve on its own and perhaps I can put my crack AI team on that.

Voices:

I thought we'd settled that it has to be researched and it will be, I assure you, dr Brody, dr Jones, we have top men working on it right now.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

After they get done finding the emails I missed and fixing the website. Who?

Voices:

Top men.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

So I'm not sure this answer is very helpful either, although it explains a couple of things, but thank you for your email all the same.

Voices:

Now we're going to do something extremely fun.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And the extremely fun thing we get to do now is our weekly and monthly portfolio reviews. Of the eight sample portfolios you can find at wwwriskparryradarcom On the portfolios page, I am told the markets are in recovery mode and have had one of the best runs in the last 20 years. Have had one of the best runs in the last 20 years Probably makes up for the first part of April, but we're kind of going nowhere fast when all is said and done. Anyway, just looking at those markets the S&P 500, represented by the fund VOO, is down 3.02% for the year. The NASDAQ 100, represented by QQQ, is down 4.24% for the year. Small cap value continues to be the big loser this year. Representative fund VIOV is down 13.16% for the year so far. Gold continues to be the big winner this year.

Voices:

I love gold.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Even though it's down a little bit from its highs earlier this month. Representative fund GLDM is still up 23.2% for the year so far. Long-term treasury bonds, represented by the fund VGLT, are very boring this year. Despite all of the headlines about bonds, they are up 2.14% for the year so far. They are up 2.14% for the year so far. Reits, represented by the fund REET, are up 2.99% for the year so far. Commodities, represented by the fund PDBC, are down. They are down 3.46% for the year so far. Preferred shares, represented by the fund PFFV, are up 0.86% for the year so far and managed futures, represented by the fund DBMF, are down 3.53% for the year so far. Very similar to commodities, but they are related.

Voices:

That is the straight stuff. Oh funk master.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

So, as you'll see, this all translates into very bland performances nicely bland performances for these sample portfolios. The first one is the all-seasons portfolio. This is a reference portfolio that we keep around for comparison purposes. It is only 30% in stocks in the total stock market fund, vti. It's got 55% in intermediate and long-term treasury bonds and the remaining 15% in gold and commodities. It is down 0.22% for the month of May so far. It's up 1.87% for the year and up 10.59% since inception in July 2020. For the month of May, we are taking a distribution of $31. It'll come from the accumulated cash that's at a 4% annualized rate and that'll be $156 year-to-date and $1,846 since inception in July 2020. These all started with about $10,000 each in these portfolios.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Moving to our kind of bread and butter portfolios, first one's Golden Butterfly. This one is 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 20% in gold GLDM. It is down 0.03% for the month of May so far. All two days of the month of May it's up 2.22% year-to-date and up 36.9% since inception, july 2020. For the month of May, we have distributed $45 out of accumulated cash. It's at a 5% annualized rate. That's $227 year-to-date and $2,528 since inception in July 2020.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Next one's golden ratio this one's 42% in stocks divided into a large-cap growth fund and a small-cap value fund, 26% in long-term treasuries, 16% in gold, 10% in a managed futures fund and 6% in cash. It is up 0.15% for the month of May so far. It's up 0.27% for the year and up 30.31% since inception in July 2020. For the month of May, we are distributing $43 out of it In this portfolio. We always take from the cash portion and refill it at rebalancing time, so it's coming from cash again. It's at a 5% annualized rate. That'll be $216 year-to-date and $2,478 since inception, july 2020. Next one's risk parity ultimate.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

I will not go through all 14 of these funds. It is kind of the kitchen sink of these portfolios where we just put a little bit of everything just to see how it all plays out. It is up 0.18% for the month of May so far. It's up 0.16% for the year so far and up 20.71% since inception in July 2020. For the month of May, we were distributing $39 out of it in accumulated cash. That'll be at a 5% annualized rate. That's $197 year-to-date and $2,647 since inception in July 2020. Now moving to these experimental portfolios that you're not supposed to try at home.

Voices:

Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave with a box of scraps.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

Because they have leveraged funds in them and they are very volatile and they do strange things sometimes.

Voices:

You have a gambling problem.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

First one is the Accelerated Permanent Portfolio. This one is 27.5% in a levered bond fund TMF, 25% in a levered stock fund UPRO, 25% in PFFV, a preferred shares fund, and 22.5% in gold GLDM. It is down 0.6% month-to-date for May. It's up 1.02% month-to-date for May. It's up 1.02% for the year so far and up 2.06% since inception in July 2020. We are distributing $37 out of it for May. That's at a 6% annualized rate. It'll come from the gold fund. You'll note that everything comes out of cash or gold these days for these distributions because gold has been such a good performer for really the past couple of years. That will be $193 year-to-date and $2,823 since inception in July 2020. Next one's the aggressive 50-50. This is the most levered and least diversified of all these portfolios and the worst performer by far. It is one-third in a levered stock fund UPRO, one-third in a levered bond fund TMF, and the remaining third divided into preferred shares and an intermediate treasury bond fund, which really serve as ballast for the levered funds. It is up 0.06% month-to-date for May. It's down 5.85% year-to-date and down 17.08% since inception in July 2020. For the month of May, we are distributing $30 in accumulated cash. That's at a 6% annualized rate That'll be $162 year-to-date and $2,831 since inception in July 2020. Moving to our more recent entries, these last two portfolios. The next one is the levered golden ratio. This one is 35% in a composite levered fund called NTSX that's the S&P 500 and treasury bonds, 20% in gold, gldm, 15% in a international small-cap value fund, avdv, 10% in a managed futures fund, kmlm, 10% in a levered bond fund, tmf, and the remaining 10% in two levered funds, udao and UTSL, which track the Dow and Utilities Index. It is down 0.05% month-to-date. For May, it's up 2.42% year-to-date. It's one of our best performers year-to-date, but down 2.11% since inception in July 2021. They had a very inauspicious start date right before the crash of 2022. For May, we are distributing $33 out of it from GLDM, the gold fund. It's at a 5% annualized rate. That'll be $167 year-to-date and $1,723 since inception in July 2021.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

And the last one is our newest portfolio, the Optra portfolio. One portfolio to rule them all. Yes, that's a joke. This is a return-stacked portfolio. It is 16% in a Leverett S&P 500 fund, upro, 24% in a worldwide value fund called AVGV, 24% in a treasury strips fund, govz, and the remaining 36% divided into gold and managed futures. It is up 0.35% month to date. It's up 3.06% since inception last July 2024. For the month of May, we are distributing $49 out of it. That's at a 6% annualized rate. It's going to come out of gold, of course, and that'll be $252 year-to-date and $512 since inception last July 2024. And that concludes our weekly and monthly portfolio reviews.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

It's an interesting year that, although a lot of individual components of these portfolios have been very volatile, the overall effect has been a very dampened performance, which hopefully will improve over the remainder of the year. But even if it doesn't, they are actually mostly on pace to cover their distributions for the year, which you can't say about the stock market this year. I guess the popular label for what's going on is the tariff tantrum, which I thought was amusing. It evidently has already been converted to a single word in german, although I do not know what that word is at the moment and my artificial intelligence failed me this time because it gave me too many options. Sorry for all the rambling. This has been quite an episode for that, hasn't it?

Voices:

One trick is to tell them stories that don't go anywhere, like the time I caught the ferry over to shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I decided to go to morganville, which is what they call shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah.

Mostly Uncle Frank:

But now I see our signal is beginning to fade. If you have comments or questions for me, please send them to frankatriskparityradiocom. That email is frankatriskparityradiocom. Or you can go to the website, wwwriskparityradiocom. 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 and be some stars of follow or view. That would be great. Okay, thank you once again for tuning in. This is Frank Vasquez with Risk Parity Radio Signing off.

Voices:

Don't call it a comeback. I've been here for years. I'm rocking my peers. What's up with the fear Making the tears rain down like a monsoon. Listen to the bass go, boom, explosion, overpowering over the competition. I'm towering wrecking shots. When I drop these lyrics, that'll make you call the cops. Don't you dare stare. You better move.

Voices:

Don't ever compare Beat to the rest, that'll all get sliced and diced. Competition's paying the price. I'm gonna knock you out. Mama said knock you out. I'm gonna knock you out. Mama said knock you out. I'm gonna knock you out. Mama said knock you out. I'm gonna knock you out. Mama said knock you out, I'm gonna knock you out. Mama said knock you out. Todd Todd, get upstairs and take out that garbage. Not you, ow. Todd Todd, get upstairs and take out that garbage.

Mostly Mary:

The Risk Parody Radio Show is hosted by Frank Vasquez. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment tax or legal advice. Please consult with your own advisors before taking any actions based on any information you have heard here, making sure to take into account your own personal circumstances.

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Frank Vasquez

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