AzCactus

+1

Looks like Mr. Malik better find himself a very good attorney.

A company that has the ability to make consumers feel "special" or "exclusive" has the ability to charge more and still maintain a very high retention rate. To me its the power of a brand name. If you go to the store and see Skippy peanut butter for $4.00 or store brand peanut butter for $3.40, you will typically pay more for the Skippy and feel like you are getting something better.

I appreciate the post but have no interest in reading about someone getting rich this way.

BAC

Some BAC

Great quote, better interview :)

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1061768/000114036115005127/doc1.htm

Interesting news....but for Baupost this is such a small drop in the bucket.

Yes. But very few people generate 5% annual alpha spread by acting vs sitting. Are you one of them? ;) I think you can of course go wrong taking a profit especially in retrospect. Also, those expecting Berkshire to generate 20% or even 15% per annum will likely be disappointed. Size is the anchor to performance and to me Berkshire doing between 11-12% per year is more likely.

As much as I like this thread I think a better question would be what are your average yearly household living expenses as a % of your take home pay? Someone who has 150K in expenses but brings home 300K a year could logically still be considered frugal based on the fact that they are saving 50%.

MH--If you don't mind me asking how did you conclude/hear that Meachem earned 28% last year?

2 of the 3 are likely to be dead within that time frame.

Dshachory, those MM would be people that are starting out with very little capital. For example, if you put your money with Einhorn in the 1990s ya. But he is too big now IMHO. Sure we'd all love to know who is the next upstart. If I knew I'd be rich. But I think it is as difficult as picking the next top draft pick in the NFL. I would add that it would be like trying to pick him at the age of 7... I respectfully disagree guys. Einhorn is in his late 40's, Kevin Byun is probably is in his 30's as is Mecham. If you took this approach with Buffett saying Berkshire was too big in the 80's you would have left A LOT of money on the table.

We have all seen articles if you had invested $10K with Buffett when he started it would be worth $50 MM or so today. With that in mind, if there was just one money manager you could leave the vast majority of your net worth (minimums aside) with for 15 years or so who would it be? My top pick would probably be Einhorn.

For anyone who is owns real estate that they rent out---when did you know you were ready to take the plunge? For example-Was your first home paid off? At least six months of cash for mortgage due to vacancies? Homes only 20 miles from your present home? Only Foreclosures, etc? Thanks in advance for the guidance.

Yes he was clearly saying jokingly I'm sure that Buffett is the scrub lol

There are LOTS of issues in my judgment with making ANY investment that needs things to go perfectly for the valuation to be justified. Something like this would really lack a margin of safety in my view.

I would humbly submit that you are asking the wrong question. Or, at the very least, focusing on the wrong attributes. There are plenty of reasonably smart people who look at companies all day that don't end up becoming above average investors. Instead, perhaps the question should be "how do I develop the temperament to become an above average investor, assuming some basic level of intelligence?" +1---There are definitely qualities that one needs to possess that goes beyond intellect. We've heard Buffett say that if you have a 160 IQ you could give 30 points away. Additionally, Ben Graham spoke of the investor controlling his/her emotions that should really be the focus. Some of that is based on behavior: How often do you check stock quotes? Whats your turnover? That takes patience and discipline. It probably took me around a year when I finally realized that checking stock quotes only really matters if I KNOW I plan to buy or sell.

Charlie--I think the one issue is that Berkshire usually does not get involved in bidding wars. Nonetheless this does sound like a great business.

Daniel, meet BRK, FFH, etc. Jurgis I am sure some other folks on here would also include BH

The question was for 'household' expenses, so that would include you and your girlfriend (so 24k, if you split down the middle). We don't need to split hairs but in my situation the 12K number includes funds that I use annually. "Our" household expenses:rent, food, utilities etc are split (and probably $7500 of the $12K) but "my" personal expenses such as: car insurance, cell phone, clothes etc are paid on my own. However, my girlfriend probably spends a little bit more than me on clothes, make up and other items so the figure is probably in the $26-$28K range.

I'm thinking about 12K...granted I'm in my 20's and my girlfriend and I split household expenses right down the middle.

Very Nice :)

I hardly think a four minute song about investing would sell many copies. The closest thing I have seen is the Forbes interview with Buffett and Jay-z