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warrior

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Everything posted by warrior

  1. I just wonder, where is Warren Buffet. No op-ed this time...
  2. Welcome back Bro.we missed you
  3. explore "the RRSP/RRIF meltdown strategy", if you interested PM for more info .
  4. I agree with Norm. Those events in Toronto are the best. I could compare with few that i attended : Valuexvail, few tmes from Manual of Ideas, Sohn conference. The atmosphere, crowd ,investments ideas are the best inToronto. Sanj , Thank you and please do not give up. P.S .4 of us coming ,buying tickets tomorrow.
  5. i have been working at one of the "big" Canadian bank for over 18 yrs ( i worked in US banking industry as well) so ,just to clarify that for bank to have a profit for opening bank accounts , increasing limits /opening overdraft protection , issuing line of credits or credit cards , these products must be used. deposits /transactions on bank accounts, utilized credit limit on LC or transaction fees on credit cards. if credit not used it is liability on the balance sheet, if accounts have no deposit base or transactions, banks earn "O" . one of the idea of" cross selling" is to gain market share in terms of clients base. the more products client has with bank , the better is relationship . goals/targets always were present and will be present in the industry, retail banking job is about selling, gaining clientele and keeping them happy and this job is not easy one.
  6. Russian's military aircrafts have been violating Turkish borders for a while There were numerous warnings Made by Turkish officials to Russians about violating their border. in October this year ,Russian's drawn was shot down at the Turkish border etc.. in 1978 and 1980 , Soviets shot down 2 South Korean passenger aircraft with 270 people on board ,for violating their border , they did not warn them , Soviets even had denied that they did so. And If you look on the map, isis operates mainly in different part of Syria. So, Im not sure about Mr Putin's consistency
  7. I whould recommend to rent it at your local library , if you like it you always can buy later, i just finished with "the Worlds at war : the 2,500-year struggle between East and West " great book.
  8. No, you're not being bitchy but it's pretty clear you don't understand. I will help you here. I could give you a long winded explanation, but instead I will go a step further. There are several truisms in the investing world that the sooner you commit to memory, the easier your investing will be. If after reading through these and digesting them you still don't understand please let me know and I will discuss further. In no particular order, here they are: 1. Any decision by Buffett is correct. 2. Any statement by Buffett or Munger is witty, profound and embedded with the truth of the universe. 3. Fairfax will compound book value at 15% a year. 4. Any time the market falls more than 0.1% Fairfax's hedges are proven correct. 5. Eddie is a genius and the more his decisions are incomprehensible to the average person, the more genius they are. 6. Eddie is a kick ass capital allocator and, thus, his capital allocation decisions are kick ass. Hope this helps. Classic! +1… , Indeed, classic Kraven
  9. In Canada like many countries in the world ,taxes based on residency status. For instance, if one decides to became non -resident ( to be out of Country for more than 6 month and have no financial and residential ties) ,he/she still will remain to be a Canadian citizen. Hence, it will trigger deem disposition on all one's property, including real estate , investment etc... 25% withholding tax applies for registered plans- depend on the province . In some cases it makes sense to become non -resident in Canada. I think that the U.S. is the only country that requires its citizens to file a tax return and report their worldwide income, no matter where in the world they might live and regardless of whether they hold another country’s citizenship.
  10. what specifically should USA do? stuff "happens". I am pretty sure Russia was not crazy about USA unilaterally invading Iraq and installing a puppet regime. The history of our empire reveals these kind of activities are par for the course. this is why we don't have a lot of credibility on this issue. a paper tiger. miltary action is off the table. after all the Russian Bear is no Iraq. if Russia declared a war . I wonder , doesn't this declaration of war against US , as we had garanteed Ukrainian sovereignty. I hope putin just bluffing, I think he wants to create tension in the region, sort of frozen conflict. So Russia can be a "peacemaker" in Ukraine
  11. in fact, it is not a friendly takeover. it is a military occupation of a sovereign country. Where we had guaranteed sovereign status .I'm not sure if Crimea historically belongs to Russia, I thought to Crimean Tatars ,who are by the way opposing Russian intervention. It is not funny , how Putin wants to protect Russians in Ukraine who do not need his help . Interesting, how market will react on Monday.
  12. So why did Crimea vote for a referendum? Why did Ukraine abolish the second language law? Coincidences? At this moment , It seems that pro Russian military forces occupied Crimea , Took over parliament of Crimea and admin buildings ( made the head of Crimea parliament to resigned) and proclaimed the referendum in 28 days. How legal this call for referendum ?
  13. Ukraine is not split as West and East , as some media try to present, people of Ukraine in general opposed the corrupt t government killing innocent people. It is propaganda stating that nationalists took the power in Ukraine. And Russia as always wanted to “help”, 1939 pact Hitler with Stalin when Russia invaded west part of Ukraine-Poland, Hungry 1956, Afghanistan -1979, Georgia -2008. 2014- Ukraine? and think about the statement ,” to preserve peace and help our people “...
  14. Kraven you have a good point. Or one was expecting to retire in 10yrs -15 , and due to investment poor result all objectives need to be adjusted or retirement postponed ,well, it would be hard… naturally, individual should question the plan or an retirement adviser . if one is wrong , wrong, wrong for 15 years … and than right ,may not work for some people. So ,as of now it remains to be seen , if 100% hedging in 2009 at the lowest market valuation was worth it. as, of today , FFH shows no growth, 1.16x BV at the top end of its historical range which is not cheap for me .
  15. [amazonsearch]Give and Take[/amazonsearch] Mohnish Pabrai recommended the book “give and take” by Adam Grand. Good book, in the same category as Influence : the psychology of persuasion by Cialdini. Thanks Mohnish for recommending a good book.
  16. Yours Truly, I have more or less done that for years. We financed a major home reno from a Heloc, and other life related items rather than increasing the mortgage. Then I deduct the interest against investment gains. After the market run up the Heloc is empty, and I am paying whatever advances the bank allows me on the mortgage each year. If there is a major market downturn I can borrow the money back instantly to invest. Of note: we got the Heloc in winter 2010, a year after the meltdown. The drawback is the flexible interest rates (its 3.75%) but it looks like the BofCan wont raise rates until the Fed does, and judging by the "disinflation" numbers that isn't happening soon. From what I understand, if you use your HELOC to invest, you cannot use it at the same time for other stuff like home reno. Or I should say, you can do that, but you won't be allowed to deduct your interest. You can deduct interest only if your HELOC is use as an investment vehicle only. Am I right on this? You can only deduct the portion of the interest used for investments. So if you have a 100k heloc and 50k is stocks and 50k is a new kitchen, you can only deduct interest on half. The proportion holds for the life of the loan too, so you can't pay back 50k and then start deducting it all. I assume the Uccmal actually sold investments to pay for the renos, then borrowed money on the HELOC to buy new investments, thus making the interest tax deductible. Interest on debt for home renos isn't tax deductible in Canada, whether borrowed on a heloc or any other way. HELOC should be segregated for personal use and investment with 2 separates accounts. you can have one charge against the property but 2 different-segregated # ,as CRA may not allow to expense interest, if one use the same line of credit for investment and personal use.
  17. I never audited companies this large so take this with a grain of salt. 1. It will certainly be more work for a new firm, but it won't necessarily take more time. Usually you can increase resources (staff) on an audit to get through it quicker. 2. It probably would be a similar picture, but I'd use something else to compare audit fees in an industry (% or revenue, net income or assets). More work = more fees, more audit work could be from changes in the nature in the business, high M&A activity, restatements, overly complex corporate structuring or increased scrutiny required because of poor internal controls. Taking 1+2 together makes it really stink though. I bet there was some major disagreement over accounting treatment between management and E&Y. I don't think there is really any significant difference between any of the Big 4 firms. If E&Y disagrees with you, so will PWC, D&T and KPMG. 1) Most likely, but not always, will depend on agreement between the firm and Deloitee, and all due diligence process from the new Auditor that translates into more time and cost, I also feel that there was some disagreement between E&Y ,as it is difficult for the firm in financial distress to fire auditor, perhaps E&Y put them on “notice”. I glanced at the firm’s financial and I did not notice any “Mickey mouse accounting”, however with all the cost, it is not a good sign. 2) all valid points from Ostog
  18. Accounting – audit, Investment Portfolio management over 10years
  19. 3 years ago, at our board dinner meeting, one of our board member asked Francis Chou how he valued MNKD. (Francis Chou had invested into stocks and bonds, actually he bought stocks twice) He admitted that he made a mistake buying stocks, and he sold it with the loss. However, he has been making money with bonds he bought at big discount. I don't invest in MNKD ,too speculative for me, even though at may help a lot of people. As Mr. Buffett said"as investor, however, our reaction to fermenting industry is much like our attitude towards space exploration, we applaud the endeavor but prefer to skip the ride"
  20. Gio- Thank you! Hopefully your important topic will sway away our community from FFH/BBRY conversation. So, I would suggest that you tell her about your contribution/writing on our message board of BRK/FFH community. I think she might be interested to read about . She even may ask our family/community opinion about you... And, I m sure we will not let you down , specially our heavyweights members as Kraven , Norm and others who has a poetic gift that even the best Italian poets would not stay close. Good luck! and please keep us inform , we will be thinking about you
  21. in business as in politics no friends, no enemies, only interests
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