My gold funds have helped the Whole Banana this month. However, I really don't own that much gold...  I have about a 10% position in USAGX my USAA IRA and less than 4% in TGLDX in my Schwab 401k. Ergo, it wasn't my gold pushing up my 401k. There are several positive and/or stable investments that have contributed to my 401k's *positive* YTD return (yippee!! --finally some good stuff). I've been up over 25% with my CHMP Champion Industries; my TGLDX jumped into gear this past week or so; and my separate sector and 2-fund KISS experiments in our Simples and 401ks are holding up nicely. On the other hand, I've been down about 20% on my CHINA... I will persevere.

For the Whole Banana, the big negative is still the emphasis on financials. Even so, I will continue to emphasize financials and continue to add to them. Yes, I do believe that strongly in Financials for longterm ownership.

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Rick's Simple assets are still hanging in limbo between Thrivent and Principal, but they should finally move over within the next week or 2. If it doesn't, I'm going to start rattlin' some bones. It has been 4 weeks since the transfer papers, etc were given to the rep.

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I'm happy to see that I'm still hangin' in there with most of the indices.

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Regards,