DooDiligence

I'm up to 16.1% BRK.B with half in an IRA (at $195) and half in taxable (at $274). Seems like a good backstop and I'll likely be adding more in taxable.

Greg Abel buying A shares. www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000108131622000039/xslF345X03/wf-form4_166482914221983.xml

I tried growing crabgrass but the centipede keeps choking it out

dimethylamine salt does the job for sure

Same, re: the balance sheet and personal experience with their products.

I'm a lawn freak and used to use Scotts products but switched to WalMart's Expert Gardener brand quite a few years ago. I battled weeds for a long time using Scotts Bonus S Southern Weed and Feed with virtually no effect on weeds, and yes I do follow the directions on the bag. Now I use the Expert Gardener fertilizer product(s) + 4 to 6 week applications of Spectracide Weed Stop for lawns with a hose end sprayer and the results are significantly better than Scotts. The war on weeds is never ending and you gotta use the right weapons. My lawn is green and lush at half the price. --- edit: that reminds me, I'm buying winterizer today.

Here's a few interesting threads on Reddit: ---

I'm assuming the "excluding auto" cohort will see the biggest portion of claims? When I switched to GEICO for auto, a few years ago, I tried bundling home and auto but they wouldn't write a homeowners policy. I was very happy to see this.

www.netflix.com/title/81166791

More BRK.B & GOOGL for the 2034 bucket.

Pat Dorsey - The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing "This first section then continues on to introduce the investor to the techniques of stock analysis. Topics covered include detailed explanations of each financial statement, the points of emphasis to look for in a good investment (such as growth potential and financial health), how to spot accounting blowups before they happen, how to value a stock, and so forth. For everyone interested in stock analysis, from 10 year pros to those just beginning to dip their toes in the market, these chapters contain invaluable and vital information. Nearly every investor will learn something new about evaluating companies and valuing stocks. One particularly valuable chapter is titled "The 10-Minute Test", which will help you quickly throw out stocks that are not worth your time, while highlighting investment opportunities that warrant additional research." "The second half of the book is equally useful. In this section, Dorsey calls upon Morningstar's sector analysts to lay out the intrinsic moat qualities and the factors that separate good and bad companies in a variety of sectors, including Health Care, Consumer Services, Media, Banks, and so on. It's no secret to MagicDiligence Members that some industries are inherently better investment hunting grounds than others, and this book explains why. For example, retail is generally a difficult place to invest - there are no customer switching costs, tons of competition, and constantly changing consumer trends. On the other hand, most medical device makers have very high switching costs, as surgeons are trained on one company's products and are loathe to learn the intricacies of a competing product, unless there is a very good reason to do so." --- Heather Brilliant - Why Moats Matter

Way to spin a good deed. Now do Buffett.

Not sure how accurate this visualization is but yeah, more Google.

I just Googled this and the internet says you are correct.

Thanks

I can't read the article but from personal experience, I get $142 discount on my policy (enrolled a few years ago), by enabling "Drive Easy" which allows the GEICO app to always access data. See screenshot below for virtue signaling. Zero hard braking or sharp cornering, but I keep my phone in my lap which counts as "in hand", and lowers my score. I'll start dropping it in the console and see if my score improves.

The 401K fund choices from my previous employer were terrible. Fortunately, I discovered that they allowed employees switch to a self directed Fidelity Brokerage Flex account, which opened up a whole universe of equity and fund choices. No micro-caps or options trading allowed, but I'm not interested in those anyway. I left that employer around 2017 and last year I finally got around to rolling the Flex account into an IRA. It was a massive pain in the butt to get done, but it eventually happened. FWIW, OneAmerica sucks hard. This may not be an option with all employers but it's worth asking your HSE department.

Nice find! I'm reading Cunningham's, "Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of Values" and coincidentally, just finished reading the section about Nebraska Furniture Mart, Jordans, Star, etc. I couldn't put the book down as it lead into the multi-generational jewelers Ben Bridge and Helzberg. It's very interesting to see explanations of what would lead these families to sell to Berkshire. I hope Byron Trott doesn't snap this one up like he did Whataburger.

I like a good story that's based on my realistic expectations. A business is a good investment when it has products and / or services that address the wants and needs of a large TAM (while maintaining the ability to fend off competitors), and has proven ability to design, manufacture and deliver at a profit, while managing its balance sheet and cash flows responsibly and intelligently. Having significant opportunities to reinvest cash flows at attractive returns for an extended period of time is a huge gravitational slingshot. It all boils down to whether I expect this business to continue operating successfully or not. The best times to enter are when a big herd rolls through with a bad attitude or as in the case of BRK, the business fails to excite the imagination of the broader market (DCA in and wait for the scales to tip). The best and most prominent professionals make huge mistakes all the time. Bad behavior is the enemy of good performance. I expect that I'll behave badly from time to time.

Edwards Lifesciences & Novo Nordisk

I've been living off my investments since around 2017 and have built a spreadsheet to calculate drawdowns to cover living expenses which includes increases in costs and generous miscellaneous expenses (which I almost never use). By my conservative growth estimates (includes potential stagnation due to multiple contractions), and very liberal expenses, I figure I can make it stretch until I hit my 82nd birthday (22 more years), and this is not taking into account Social Security income. At that time I'll still have an unencumbered waterfront home in a desirable location which I could reverse mortgage (my ace in the hole). My holdings are listed in my profile and the only 2 issues that I have strong fears for are CLB (bought a long time ago in a fit of stupidity), and SoftBank. My calculations include both of these issues going to zero. Many would say sell them and I will if I ever need to harvest a tax loss. For now, screw it. Call me an ape or whatever.. There's something very satisfying about developing an owners mindset. I'm debt free and getting less materialistic every day.

I'm not a fan of student loan forgiveness and believe there are significantly better ways to provide educational opportunities, but since we're making jokes about hypocrisy... www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-shines-light-republicans-are-criticizing-student-debt-canc-rcna44904

I love the way this thread lights up on certain Saturday mornings. Thanks to all who dig in to these buyback numbers.

We'll see if that inventory build is a new Fall console or just locking in materials.

epub on z-lib (you can convert to .mobi for Kindle) Capital Allocation: The Financials of a New England Textile Mill 1955 - 1985