berkshire101

I guess when you say bubble/tech crash, I'm thinking that all these companies like FB, AMZN, NFLX, AAPL, etc. will simply disappear and everyone will stop using their products again. In reality, the customer base for these companies are ever growing. Think how much value they added to our lives. They made the world a better place. And I think that's something really hard to bet against. And the management behind these companies are extremely smart. Fundamentally the companies themselves are solid, as in they're taking market share and managing to stay a float somehow even with operating losses. So are you saying that you know something that these guys don't know? Are you saying that there's a bubble solely based on valuation?

Good article. http://observer.com/2015/08/why-i-stopped-angel-investing-and-you-should-never-start/

+1 Carl Icahn said it would be the treasurer for Donald if he were president.

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/c9/c933da268cbf9d426bb57dc366594015b5e92a93f50dfde94be64c1f3f981c6b.jpg

It's a very competitive business. The returns are good if you're willing to put in the work. As in going to the courthouse every day to find new liens, building connections to get new leads, dealing with evictions, etc. It's similar to buying real estate at auction. You're going to have plenty of competition for the same bid. Going to the tenant and saying I have a lien on your house. Pay me or I'll take your house. Most will give you the finger. And if they do leave, they'll most likely trash the house. They didn't pay their taxes for a reason, so the chances of them paying you is unlikely too. Some will, but that's the rare case.

I hear the Starbucks CEO is thinking about running for president too. Should be interesting. Another thing to put on your resume I suppose.

I feel like this is similar to the old tech sell for MSFT, CSCO, INTC, etc. Those companies are still growing revenue, earnings, and buying back shares. But the market kept compressing their multiple. So hopefully there will be some sanity restore. Those ala carte options aren't cheap. Paying $10-20 each for NFLX, HBO, HULU, etc. ends up being the same or more expensive than the bundle option available nowadays.

I have a position in SNI. I'm not sure why the view on this company is so negative. I guess it's because the market doesn't have faith in their international expansion. The company is growing, buying back shares, and doing everything else right in this environment. And today with DIS's good earnings, everything media related is down. I guess Netflix and is the thing nowadays.

So I randomly stumbled upon this blog. It's quite insightful, and really funny. The author hates his job, curses a lot, seems always angry, and likes to rant. However, his stock ideas are quite good. Here are links to some of the articles. http://dontfuckwithdonville.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-strange-case-of-precision-castparts.html http://dontfuckwithdonville.blogspot.com/2015/06/models-to-follow.html http://dontfuckwithdonville.blogspot.com/2015/05/davids-tea-initial-public-abusive.html Does anyone have any good blogs to share?

I would say it's a sushi buffet. It's the only one in town and there's always a line outside right before they open. Food is okay, but it's all you can eat sashimi. Walmart is the anchored tenant, so the parking lot are always full.

So market conditions are improving, but Yellen is unwilling to provide any concentrate time frame for raising rates. It seems a little weird. Mostly everyone thinks rates will increase sometime this year, but will they? I think when interest rates do rise, it won't be the Feds that will do the deciding, rather the market. It's just annoying how every month for the past several years it's been the same. "We'll raise rates, but when things improve. Things are improving, but we'll wait a little longer." What are they so afraid of?

+1

My sister works for the feds and has a pretty sweet retirement, pension plus matching 401k. They match 100% up to 5% of her gross income. So she maxes her contributions. They also offer a Roth 401k, but it's not match. Her coworkers who are close to retirement are pretty happy with their nest egg. I work for the state and they provide a pension. The 401k doesn't have matching.

I have my sister's portfolio's TSP allocated to 60% S&P 500/Large Cap, 20% international and 20% small caps. That mix has done well this year, given that international and small caps didn't do so well last year and rebounded this year. There isn't much investment options when it comes to TSP, think there's like 5 funds to choose from and you have the life cycle funds. When she gets closer to retirement, it'll probably be allocated to 90% stocks and 10% bonds. Right now it's 100% stocks.

Awesome! Added you.

Awesome! I sent you a message via Skype. If anyone wants to reach me, my skype is: classyhenry

Sent you a skype friend request.

Why? They own 50% of the market in North America. Plenty of growth globally as urbanization takes place. The rail industry requires a lot of regulations, so things have to get certified like the aerospace industry. High switching cost as trains are designed with WAB's parts in mind. Also, since everyone likes platform companies lately, management at WAB is really good with their acquisitions. And you're getting it around at 20 times FCF. Not cheap, but fair. And the business is growing sales and earnings at double-digit rates.

Started a position in WAB.

@ScottHall: Awesome! I messaged you on Skype. @doughishere: I'm sure Silicon Valley has their own little version of this. A lot of the podcasts I listen to mention mastermind groups and how it really helped them. This video gives a pretty good breakout down on how to structure one. They say you are the average of the people you surround yourself with. So why not try to better yourself? I'm sure Buffett has his own little personal board of directors he can discuss things with. http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/how-to-structure-a-mastermind-meeting/

You could create a Skype group, or something. There's no reason meetups from this board have to happen exclusively IRL. Yep, that's the plan. Ideally, it would be a group of say 3-5 people that meet biweekly over Skype or Google Hangouts. Would anyone be interested? So far, there's one person who reached out.

+1

CoBF is an amazing community. I'm forever grateful that there's such a place that exist. I think it might be more helpful to have verbal communication in addition to reading text messages. There's a sense of flow rather than waiting for a reply. Hopefully that makes sense.

I've been hearing the term mastermind group used a lot lately. It's basically a group of people that meet on a consistently basis to discuss and tackle challenges together; similar to mentoring, but as a group. Has anything else heard about this? And is anyone apart of one? It seems like an interesting concept. Here are some links I found: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chicceo/2013/10/21/7-reasons-to-join-a-mastermind-group/ http://www.lifehack.org/articles//how-to-start-and-run-a-mastermind-group.html

Happy happy birthday!!!