You always may lose money when you invest. The Permanent Portfolio is a strategy which gets consistent returns, but it has periods of time when you lose money.

Take a look at some of my articles below, you will see that the permanent portfolio is the one whose losses are lower (but it loses sometimes). The prize to pay is that the permanent portfolio returns are also lower.

https://mario-rodriguez.medium.com/understanding-investment-risk-exploring-drawdown-and-drawdown-duration-6131b51488da?source=user_profile---------2----------------------------

https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/common-portfolios-permanent-portfolio-warrent-buffet-90-10-portfolio-and-coffeehouse-portfolio-1c55e325a645