hasilp89

Thanks for the tips @jaygo

Haha, I’ve been hesitant but I’m excited. He’s 72 and finally retiring in December from working his tail off as a doctor for many many years. Loves to travel but wouldn’t go to India solo.Having the Indian son in law helps! I told him he could head back after the touristy stuff but he insisted on coming to the village in gujrat where my 90 something grandma still lives to pay his respects. Bringing a 2 and 4 year old on the other hand….. (actually if anyone has some tips for this please share, have done North American domestic trips with them, but never something big like this!))

Last time i went was Dec 2016 and typically have only ever been in Dec. Nice time to visit IMO. Not boiling and no rain. Might actually be a bit cold in the north. Don't think you should have an issue with Visa. I've enjoyed Rajasthan and would recommend visiting there. Last time i went to Goa was when i was a kid, remember it just being beaches but prob missing something there. We went to Rishikesh in 2016 to spread my dad's ashes. Not sure i would go back but was an intersting place. Big yoga/spiritual scene if you're into that stuff. Mumbai is a whirlwind lots of great food. I'm actually going this dec/jan with my young kids and Father in Law (it's on his bucket list to get a pic with the Taj Mahal!). Delhi/Rajasthan/Gujrat/Mumbai.

I’ve always enjoyed your perspective. Your post above reminds me of Buffett’s quote: “Most of man’s problems arise from forgetting what he is trying to do” WEB Seems you focus on what you are trying to do and go from there. Managing risk and not losing money is paramount. You’ve achieved your goals by focusing on what they are first and then focusing on the process. How you manage liquidity on some of these smaller names given the sums I imagine you’re investing is another question.

No. French listed benefits card issuer. Similar to a Wex for HSAs in the US but for meal benefits in countries that offer that as a tax free benefit.

Great thread @dealraker PARA was a large purchase for me this year that I recently bailed on. Was chasing returns and made a mistake. Thankfully nowhere close to fatal, but opportunity cost stings. Hopefully I learn from this. I took a 6% position in APG (API group) during the Japan flash crash / post weaker earnings and guide. great business I’ve wanted to own for a while but have always sucked my thumb. Sprinkler inspections aren’t going anywhere. Sticky. Good people involved. Something you may like. I also doubled lvmh to about 6% and Dominos london to 8%. GTX is another one I took up (from 9->14%) after weaker earnings /guide in the last few months. CWK is interesting, someone had written it up a while back as a take out candidate by one of the others. Need to take another look and thanks for sharing.

Any view on how TPG gets handled?

*his. And agree. (i got blocked by him on twitter for questioning his thinking...)

It's an interesting topic and trend. From what I understand what the ALT's are doing is different from BRK/FFH though. My understanding is that they're are sticking to more annuity type insurance business - I don't believe they do significant P/C or reinsurance. Also I don't believe they are matching Athene annuity liabilities with much if any private equity assets (pg 8 of link below shows asset mix) lots of alt fixed income (CLO's, mortgages, private credit etc). Their private equity funds are still made up of traditional insitutional LP's. It seems simple but to do what BRK/FFH are doing takes something special. https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_daa2d19294221014c85571d1c996fa66/athene/db/2271/21954/pdf/Athene-2024-Asset-Risk-and-Stress-Considerations.pdf

i bought some more of this today as well. I like Rennie, although sometimes wonder how DPE ended up where it is (maybe valuation just got ahead of itself there). Along with the growth in stores over the next 5 years I think they'll make a good return on the Shorecal acquistion after they operate and refranchise. The DP Poland investment is interesting, there's another DPE guy who worked with Rennie running that. Not thrilled with the comments on "additional brands" but we'll see where that goes. Fits that same bucket for me.

correct mentioned 2.7 years on the call. sounds like buybacks will continue to be in focus given 1) premium growth slowing and insurance businesses requiring less capital + 2) holding company is well funded with cash and has no near term debt maturities.

I think that criticism is misplaced and incorrect. It misses the fact that Buffett treats his shareholders like partners. Why would he want the stock to be volatile in order to take advantage of people who invest alongside him as partners? Also, as a shareholder, I’ve never felt he’s tried to manage the stock price. He’s addressed the reality of the price (IIRC when the issued B shares he explicitly said he wouldn’t buy at this price) but never tried to manage it. In fact he does the opposite by not doing quarterly calls, not providing guidance etc.

remind us of the process/timing/probability of this. (apologies i know you've discussed it before)

Powell has commented on US deficit a few times this year. https://www.ft.com/content/bb4fb36e-9669-408f-8b73-7091fbb6fae0 https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2024/02/fed-chair-powell-its-past-time-to-address-our-national-debt Buffett's view is higher taxes. (2024 AGM) "And one thing that may surprise you, but we… Almost everybody I know pays a lot more attention to not paying taxes, and I think they should. We don’t mind paying taxes at Berkshire, and we are paying a 21% federal rate on the gains we’re taking in Apple. And that rate was 35% not that long ago, and it’s been 52% in the past when I’ve been operating. And the government owns… The federal government owns a part of the earnings of the business we make. They don’t own the assets, but they own a percentage of the earnings, and they can change that percentage any year. And the percentage that they’ve decreed currently is 21%. And I would say, with the present fiscal policies, I think that something has to give, and I think that higher taxes are quite likely, and if the government wants to take a greater share of your income, or mine or Berkshire’s, they can do it. And they may decide that someday they don’t want the fiscal deficit to be this large, because that has some important consequences, and they may not want to decrease spending a lot, and they may decide they’ll take a larger percentage of what we earn, and we’ll pay it."

@Dinar assuming you still own this. Any thoughts on this post earnings downgrade? Keith Meister from Corvex was appointed to the board and owns 13%. Assume he will be pushing for shareholders.

@Eng12345 Really interesting stuff. Thank you for sharing.

great insight. Thank you for sharing. Two follow ups. - the points you make regarding baseload power, dispatchable power and the need to instantaneously match supply to demand are very simple, make sense and should be easy to understand. So why have we gone of the rails with renewables? Maybe it just gets back to the local needs and politics as you say. - regarding nuclear not being a solution for disptachable power. Doesn’t it make sense to keep adding nuclear as baseload and having gas / coal as the dispatchable? Additionally do the small reactors terraform/gates is working on solve this problem.

@Eng12345 Would love to hear more on your perspective re grid. in terms of opportunities, are you saying value you gap has closed given recent run up in certain utilities (Vistra/Constellation etc.), or some other reasons. The industry opportunity here seems straight forward. More demand for power than supply. Making an investment based on that has been more difficult for me (regulatory risk - gvt limits returns, technological risk - Gates spending Billions on small Nuclear reactors and it actually works).

interesting. i'm guessing you know it better than most then!

Something you've been following for a while or results downgrade (and price decline) got you interested?

Buyback?

wow never heard of the guy but he really went after Rubenstein. Thanks for sharing.

yup he's a legend, he's getting up there with Sachin Tendulkar and still has some years in him. He'll be in the states this summer. India vs. Pakistan tickets going for $1k+ . Definitely someone positive to have Digit's name identified with. one quick snapshot of what he does and then i'll be quiet.

I've be re-reading that first line and reflecting on it a lot. Thanks for sharing the original @gfp. WEB's response to the question is also instructive and pasted below. I'm know being corny, but i think folks who share their insights and wisdom on this site attempt to do just that. It's a lovely thing. Q: If you were to make an ethical bequest to Berkshire shareholders, what duties would you impose and why?” Warren: “I’d probably say read Charlie. I mean, he’s expressed it well, and I would say that if you’re not financially well off, if you’re being kind, you’re doing something that most of the rich people don’t do, even when they give away money. But that’s on the question of whether you’re rich or poor. And I would say, if you’re lucky in life, make sure a bunch of other people are lucky, too.

With respect Greg you know why it happens - people make "investments" in pieces of paper as % holding in a portfolio that needs to keep up with the S&P. As a result the psychological tendencies and misbehavior mentioned above occurs. You on the other hand - 1) Treat your investments as an ownership interest in a business. 2) Periodically reflect on your basis vs. intrinsic value. 3) Remind yourself that you won't get rich by selling great business just because they went up a lot or because it became a tremendous part of your net worth. Its Buffett/Munger 101. (as for me, I've been guilty of the mistakes and I'm constantly trying to reform)