flesh

I don't think Kim would allow anything, in his control, to continue for long that would dis-intermediate his power. If everyone cuts of their oil, starting with china, they will capitulate. The US could buy all of N. Korea's proportion of chinese oil to facilitate. This isn't my idea but it's the best I've heard presently.

Awesome book , think I read it a decade ago. Having read hundreds of books on getting rich, like many of you, I believe this one is the most relevant to entrepreneurs. If you aren't willing to do what Felix is, you'll lose to his type of character, most of the time. Perhaps I'm projecting but almost everyone I know who is rich, is of Felix's character. Excluding those who made decent money and invested regularly at moderate index like rates of returns over decades. One of the few books with getting rich in the title that's not bull shit (coming from someone who studied the art of bull shit for a long time). Read it.

added dva, added a lot to nc, added a little to esoa.

Exactly, it is now up to the early adopters, blockchain companies, and institutional investors with deep pockets to lobby for favorable crypto laws. If crypto mkt cap was 400 billion or 4 trillion.... with many transactions that are otherwise taxable going untaxed, wouldn't the govt consider this a priority?

1. Another way to increase money supply=achieving inflation goals. Basically this is the crux for me, if govt's begin to criminalize these, there will be problems. I'm trying to understand why governments would support crypto.

I read this a year or so ago and enjoyed it, worth reading, heads up.

I research on autotrader primarily and sell privately on ksl.com.

My heloc and the money from car are not invested. They will be doing nothing until a good size correction 20% plus. Not even all my cash is invested, I simply like the low hurdle rate and having the ability to pounce when truly cheap things come about. Also, my nut is nothing, cheap house with a mother in law in the basement being rented, only debt is 8 year car loan and mortgage. If needed I can live on 20k/year. My heloc itself can sustain me for three years if needed while still having 20% equity remaining if it's maxed out. Just pointing this out before some young investors get too many ideas about maxing out debts to invest in equities, I expect once or twice a decade at opportune times I'll be in that position.

No braina IMO, get mortgage put 20 down no pmi. I'm long debt. If they would mortgage me for double the homes value I"d take it, at today's rate. You don't have to do anything with it, don't you simply have to beat 4% - deductions over and above stardard minimum deduction over the period? Buy brk cheap once in ten years and your there. Or pay cash, get heloc from america first credit union, fixed for five at 4.4, adjusts, then fixed for another five. Balance below 100k are still deductible afaik. I also have 8 year car loans at 3.4%. GIVE ME ALL THE MONEY.

Not including insurance, literally everything else but gas. They were all under bumper to bumpers throughout my ownership period. Between 6-7% sales tax throughout period in question. Married no kids. Personally, this wouldn't change anything for me. I have her do the same thing. Return on time is 100s/hour, why not do it unless you make 7 figures currrently. Usually own 2.5 years. Usually 4 year bumper. Doing same thing with dirt bike now, ROT is not as high ;)

New cars: Wait until next year and buy last years model. In january of this year, I bought a new 16' msrp 51000 for 36500, german not american fyi. This car was 600 miles away. Dont look local, check uship.com, only once in the last 6 cars have I found the best price in my state even when adding on the cost of shipping the car from out of state. Many of my cars have come from 2000 miles away, there are some arbitrage opportunities. AWD sells for more in rocky's than florida for example. Buy in florida sell in rocky's. Conversely, rwd is a pain to sell in rocky's and in warm climates they don't care. Buy in rocky's sell in florida. Estimate what you can sell your car for by looking at your local car prices for comparable models that are however many years old. If you want to sell in three years, look at the three year old models selling in your area with similar miles, to be conservative, use the lowest numbers. Don't trade in, if using the strategies above while being patient for the right price you will almost never do better by trading in than you would selling privately, even considering the tax impact. As a rule of thumb, the trade in offers I get inclusive of tax savings are between 1-3k lower than I can sell in private market. When selling in private market plan on it taking 1-3 months. Out of 5 privately sold cars 100% sold when 3 or less people physically viewed the vehicle, two of them the first. Tip, it's easier to sell privately a car with remaining bumper to bumper, even if it's only months. They have nothing to fear. Tell them that/advertise it. Used cars: Buy 1 year old car with 4 year bumper to bumper and sell it with 6-12 months left on warranty. Look nationwide. Look at local prices to estimate cost of ownership. In the used market optioned out cars don't command the same price increases as they do new. Ig, 40k highly optioned sells used for 25k, same model lightly optioned that sold for 32k new sells for 24k used. Buy low optioned, low miles cars at the best nationwide price. Again estimate your sale price by looking at same model same mileage that's 2-3 years old locally being sold privately, again use the lower numbers, look to make sure they aren't salvage, obviously don't use those. Using these strategies I've driven new or nearly new cars for the last decade priced at 30-40k at a total cost of ownership including taxes, everything but gas of 100-200/month. For all cars, negotiating is playing their game, look nationwide for the lowest price, offer them less than asking say you'll make a deposit now, done. When buying used cars that are around 1 year old get them with 10k or less miles. Tip: On new or used, pick a category of car/options you want, don't pick a manufacturer, buy whichever is cheapest. Ig, want a sports coupe? Don't get the 335i look at Acura, bmw, audi, benz, lexus, etc, be dispassionate, it will save you a lot of money. Once I bought a 6k mile/1 year old used benz suv (I wanted the bmw equivalent) drove it for 2.5 years and sold it for 500 less than I paid for it.

Took large position in dnow and small one in mrc, bought a few calls on dnow as well.

Just took my first ever position in frfhf, only 5% of equity portfolio, long time lurker. Personally, I hated all the non sense going on before and I hope they don't go back to it.

As of today, it looks like around 1.19 x current (todays) book value, you guys getting around there as well?

Like the subject says, any recommendations? Ideally with a value tilt but not necessary, and covering at least the last century. Thanks.

You've experienced a great salesman when you didn't know you were being sold. The opposite experience that's perpetuated by the typical used car salesman narrative. I was a great salesman, I trained great sales people for a decade. I helped dozens of sales people go from slightly better than minimum wage to six figures in a year or so. A great salesman creates a situation where the client/customer volunteers to open up. At once, they don't care about any particular sale and focus on their craft. It's a process of being willing to do what most people won't, in every sense you can imagine, the good and the bad. The best "closer's" don't have to close a deal, the deal was already closed in the first half of the sales process, introduction/probe/value creating/pain inducing. The best sales people aren't closing the deal at the end, they are taking an order. The sale had already been made. If you find yourself battling at the end of the process, rework the beginning, You neglected to create the rapport/trust/pain in the first place. They have perfect voice inflection, based on what the client desires, they can change the pitch/tempo in their voice and body language, modify enthusiasm levels at will, they are real life actors. They can differentiate between the feelings on the inside versus what's being displayed. Nobody knows what your feeling if you don't show them. You've got to be careful not to delude yourself after doing this for some time, most end up with a irreversible residual self image that's difficult to recover from and become centered again. In retrospect, I needed sales to prosper as a result of a difficult young adulthood experience. It's a way for someone who's unqualified to make a great living and build confidence. That said, it's not a great way to live the better part of one's life. 95% of salespeople who make six figures save nothing. I recall a guy asking me for a 4k advance on his weekly check, 4 days in advance, I denied him. He quit, he was my best sales person at the time, this was the third time in two month's he had done this and I was sick of it.

None of them meet my buy thresholds at today's prices.

At the low last year I had 75% net worth in stocks, currently 30% :'( There's always great opportunities somewhere but where that place is confounds me. Feeling out of step with this market. Nothing moves. It seems absent something extreme and obscure happening things will be frozen until tax reform is finalized. I told two of my neighbors in the last couple weeks I'd buy there house, at appraisal value, no realtors fee's whenever they are ready to sell. I wasn't sure how to phrase this without them frowning on the offer, oh well. The one place I've been finding opportunity lately is real estate. Basically I find areas where it's against city covenants for more than one single family (based on blood relatives) to live in a home and yet in certain areas in these markets this is abused, everyone is doing it, the street is littered with cars etc. Hopefully, it isn't enforced, I know the areas and it hasn't been for a decade so...... Then I find homes with mother in law apt like situations, basically, they are separable, and I rent it to two separate renters, only allowing single people to live there without pets, and I give em a bit of a deal so they are happy. This ensures there aren't any extra cars in the streets and insulates me a bit. Basically you get a duplex without duplex pricing. Say the house costs 300k, 60k down, you rent one unit for 1500 and the other for 1000, your payment is around 1400. Depending on up keep and vacancy, you do quite well. If there's appreciation, that's a huge bonus. I happen to live where the birth rate is top five in the nation which bodes well for future prices. Anyways, I guess that's my addition to this what are you buying thread, lol.

I can't find anything to buy last few months. First time I've gone so long without any ideas. I'm debating whether or not to simply add to companies selling at relatively low multiples with high tax rates that have less downside and are less economically sensitive. It's funny because I've actually become a bit depressed about the lack of ideas. If anyone can inform me or something worth digging in to I'd appreciate it.

I disagree. Liberals often distrust people. RichardGibbons in other thread doubted that people were smart enough to make intelligent decisions in healthcare. For very similar reasons liberals are against school choice. Liberals also doubt that people can be trusted to manage their retirement funds. The divisions between liberals and conservatives has more to do with interest group alliances, tribalism, historical factors and other ideological differences like for instance the liberal belief in big government vs the conservative belief in markets/big business. What for instance does the historical liberal support for socialist dictatorships such as USSR, Cuba or Hugo Chavez have to do with trusting people. For that matter how are any of the following connected: abortion rights, environmental protection, pro-immigration, high taxes, ending rape culture,decriminalization of marijuana. Historically none of these things were connected. For instance many early feminists were for alcohol prohibition, against immigration and against abortion. The fact that these things are connected to liberals today has nothing to do with a coherent worldview and everything to do with political interest group alliances which are reinforced by the media and the tribalism of people. This. What is isn't considered r/left is constantly changing. It's quite clear there's good ideas on both sides. If you can't find any good in the opposition's ideas, you aren't looking. I read the wsj and nyt every day, good stuff all around. If you really dive into any long term issues, the reason they haven't been solved yet is because they ARE complicated, it you don't see they are complicated, you haven't spent enough time studying the issue. You know, if you don't think this stuff is hard, you're stupid etc... Quick anecdote, although I don't really care a whole lot about the abortion issue. In march I was in france for a month climbing and I spent some time with a group of four, two from Atlanta, two from SF, I mentioned I had recently watched a few abortion debates and found it strange that a pro choice women wouldn't admit that a baby is a baby at 8 months, only 8 months specifically, which I reiterated three times. This was the beginning of a two hours conversation, the end result was that not one of the four would admit this, which seemed absolutely bizarre to me. However, I loved this result, I loved it that these four, educated (two phd's one master's) thought of an 8 month old as a "fetus" and a "parasite". At the beginning of this conversation I thought I could start with general acceptance that an 8 month old is in fact alive, a baby, a person, with all the rights and that would lead to a reasonable conversation about at what point a baby is a baby and not a fetus. We discussed a few things such as what states allow abortion up until what time, the fact that at around 7.5 months, a baby(fetus?) has lungs developed enough that it doesn't need additional support, babies(fetuses?) can live outside the womb at this point which seems to me a pretty clear point at which you have to accept it is a person. We discussed that the time period at which a baby can survive with support has come down over time. They continuously pointed out the political/legislative problems with ever accepting a baby is a baby at any point in the process. I'm pro choice to a point, 8 months is clearly beyond that point to me. After accepting that I couldn't get them to admit that an 8 month old is a baby, I tried reductio ad absurdum. I asked them if we lived in a star trek world, and I could simply beam the baby out of the mother using a transporter, at again, 8 months specifically, with no possible harm to the mother, if they would be okay with that. Considering clearly an aborting mother doesn't want the baby, why not beam the baby out? I was convinced they would agree to such a proposition. They continued to ask what would happen with the placenta, what would happen to the mother, etc etc to my astonishment. I assured them that transporters work at the atomic level and that all and only the unwanted parts could be beamed out at no harm and no cost to the mother. I can't say for sure why, maybe it's because of one's propensity due to ideologies, tribalism, or what seems to be most people's inability to hold two diverging ideas in their mind simultaneously, they would not agree with this proposition. It is a mother's choice whether or not a baby is beamed out of her womb or dissected, apparently. It was at this moment, I gained a whole new level of confidence regarding the potentially massive divergence of opinion in the stock market.

I learned about copy writing a few different ways. I had various products I was selling through Direct mail marketing and then rented my own buyer list. I would look to see who rented my list, because they rented my list I had access to their mail piece. I would then order there cheap introductory product or service thereby getting on their customer list, then I would read through the 50 or so mail pieces I received each month for anything from sex toys to business opportunities. During the depth's of the recession, with my response rates down from 3% to 1.25% and my dollar per lead down from 200 - 90 I learned to innovate. Dollar per lead is the amount of revenue derived from each lead generated. There really is nothing like a great recessions to teach you about business. Especially when your on the front line. From 2007-2010 profits were down 85%. Which was effectively going from hero to mediocre. One, everyone's credit sucked so I signed up with a billing company and designed a financing program where I basically covered my hard costs, of COGS, and the rest was received over 18-36 month contracts, I had no idea how many people would pay and for how long, but my costs were covered. No downside, high upside. As it turned out, about 70% of total contracted monies were received, much better than I expected. This is turn changed my business from a cash machine with huge up's and downs to a stable grower. Basically, for the first three years of this program, sales and profits had to go up because the finance portfolio was always growing. After three years I knew it would continue to improve, having to do with the maturity of the portfolio. If sales are constant, and the portfolio reaches maximum capacity at the 3 year mark of from when the financing started due to a maximum of 36 month contracts. I didn't realize at the time how much maturity would matter. Basically, in a portfolio with an average duration of 22 months and a maximum of 36 months, what happens is the 30% who don't pay become a smaller and smaller % of the total portfolio over time. Reminds me of cacc in some ways. Another thing I did that relates to copy writing, against my copy writers advice was I changed my promotional offer from a 100% money back guarantee to a 200% money back guarantee. Of course this was a test and I only did it with 100k mail pieces. My copy writer said that he had never seen it done before and he thought that people would order it to simply send it back at a profit. He also said that the DPL or dollar per lead average (up sell sales) would decline because the quality of the lead would decline caused by the profit seekers. My contrarian point of view at the time of initiation was the following: -I thought people were too lazy to send it back -I thought people would forget they could make a profit -I thought more people would order item(s) and some of them would be up sold -I thought because it was an uncommon practice it would build credibility in the products -I thought it would shock people into ordering who normally wouldn't have -I knew that I didn't know and should always be testing something The result was that my response rate immediately went from 1.25% to 2% and the DPL went from 90 to 120. There was increased returns of the products, they went from 3% to 7%. The cost of the increased returns were about 1% of the additional profits. Anyways not to derail thread but all this drm stuff brought back memories. Scott, I know some great copy writers if you're interested.

2016 results are impossible without leverage? Or overall results? They've definitely used large amounts of leverage in the past (leveraged BRK position) but he seemed to imply he was net cash in 2016. I know they levered brk in 2013 heavily ,otherwise it hasn't been clear in the past 4 years I've followed the portfolio closely whether or not they have in other years. In 2016 they most certainly did. Of course I have no idea what hedges they had in place. Even if you assume avm caught nearly the bottom in most holdings jan/feb 16', a yuge assumption, they had to use some leverage. It's not hard to see they should have been around 20%, which is good.

Looks like they are using leverage.Based on my math results are impossible without

Omfg, I just read this again after some whiskey and couldn't stop laughing. You've encapsulated a meaningful part of my life thesis here.

That last bit was the first time I've LOLed on COBF. That doesn't happen often so thanks. It's like tears, I get about 2-6 tears a year. In a sense I use to write copy for my direct mail marketing, basically, I took the copywriters work and changed about 10-20% twice a year for a decade. It's absolutely astounding what people respond to when in a emotional state. For some this is most of their lives. I use to think I was a scoundrel, fooling people and all, now that I've experienced the other end of the spectrum, unabashed honesty with others, they think I'm a scoundrel.