Castanza

Man every time I find myself trying to justify a 50% weighting in a high conviction idea I try to reel myself back in and say “do I need a 40% return to be happy and financially secure? What if my 50% idea trades flat for 5 years, how much does that impact my future required growth for financial independence?” I usually come back to I only need 10% but I’m happy with 15% and really don’t need 30%. It’s tempting though…

Sorry, typo its....CNSWF (constellation software)

Only added a small chunk in 2020. the majority was added between 2016 and 2018. Especially during that weird market thing in 2018 where everything dumped in December. That was pretty early in my "investment career" if you can even call it that. It was a time when I surfaced from the r/wsb mentality and actually thought longer term. Just happened to get lucky. Moves prior to that were buying NVDA in 2013 when it was around $30 and then selling when it was like $50 or something. Can't even remember exactly. Did a similar thing with AMD.....bought them both because you know...."computer games and such." I like to think we all have those "wasted years" in investing....Maybe it was just me lol Anyways...

Current MSFT - last add ~2020 (20%) RTX - last add ~2020 (13%) FRFHF (20%->18%) BRK.B (10%->8%) GOOGL (8%) CNSWF (6%) New add JOE (5%) - Reduced from 10% to 5% in light of current short-term headwinds CPRT (5%) WFG (5%) MELI (3%) New add Cash ~9% I did lighten up on FFH and BRK.B just a bit. Mainly just because they are near ATH and will trade around them a bit etc. Probably won't reduce either anymore than I already have. I'm looking in increase CNSFW as a long-term position. Plus raising a bit of cash just in case JOE drops like a rock. Overtime MSFT and RTX will become smaller positions for me....but they just keep chugging along.... AIV Sold out of with a small profit back when the COBF RE team was discussing the disappointing sales numbers. NNI Sold on the bump, don't want to follow long-term and felt there are better opportunities elsewhere. Still a fine company though OXY Decided to avoid energy as it's too complex for me. I'll leave that to Buffett From Share your Portfolio thread August: MSFT RTX FRFHF BRK.b JOE GOOGL AIV NNI OXY CPRT WFG

I’ve been trying to focus more on building core anchors for my portfolio and not get involved in unnecessarily complicated market timings, sectors, or situations. In short I don’t need the money in the foreseeable future and I think FFH will be worth more than it is now over the next 2,5,10 years.

Yes change your email and all the utilities you use it for. ____________________________________________________________________ Security is just layers so you can go as far as you want... What I do: Email for Billing (utilities) Email for Banking (Credit Cards, store cards, etc.) Email for Investing (Brokerage accounts, retirement accounts) Email for Online Shopping Email for Entertainment accounts (Netflix, Hulu, Spotify etc.) eg: [email protected] Complex passwords - Change them every 6 months (keep a hard copy offline) two-factor authentication Recovery email for the above emails (only for recovery) two-factor on the recovery email as well Other things you could do: Freeze your credit at all of the credit agencies (unique email for this as well) Have a chrome book dedicated to online shopping etc. (or a VPN for your home network)(setup a guest wifi network at home for IOT devices and guests. You would be amazed at how many IOT devices connect to servers in China for no "apparent" reason) Google Password manager (specific to each email account) Don't use SMS two-factor authentication if you can help it (not applicable everywhere)...use an actual authenticator like Google authenticator.

+1

Ron Paul probably

You also need a bond market

Grocery stores don’t even take $50 bills anymore (which is insane). Doubt they’re taking gold! In fact most banks won’t take gold if you walk in with some.

Article for anyone interested https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2003/11/10/352872/index.htm Clip of Buffett and Munger on it:

Does Prem discuss their hurdle rate when looking for acquisitions? I know Mark Leonard over at Constellation noted they had to lower theirs from ~20% to somewhere in the mid teens (likely) primarily due to competition in North America for their investment space. Wondering if Fairfax is having to do the same?

The entire history of China pretty much boils down to them prioritizing the survival of they system. Sometimes in the short-term this comes at a cost to it's citizens, sometimes it benefits them. I just think it's really hard to make arguments about China turning over a new leaf. It's not a judgement, just an observation taking into account thousands of years of survivorship.

Mhmm and who controls the currency? Didn't China experiment with a currency that expires the other year?

It hasn’t been long enough to come to that conclusion yet imo. Even Bertrand Russell said that humanity rarely goes more than 100 years without a major screwup.

Yeah I was reading on that a bit more. Does sound like one major headache to deal with in a Trad or Roth IRA. Having to deal with a K-1 is annoying enough and has made me pass on a few other investments. Dealing with the extra paperwork and potentially sizable tax bill makes it a tough call. 37% tax rate….ehhh

Small adds to GOOGL and FRFHF

You don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun everyone else.

Doesn't seem like there is a clear cut answer to this. The IRS has some cases on their website and one of them seemed to indicate that if you're not improving the land you could make the case to maintain your exempt status. But this is just a guess from what I was able to find. Seems like the standard is not cut and dry. Not sure if @Gregmal has ventured down that rabbit trail. Their latest 10-Q is worth a read if you have not done so. Some good tidbits in their. "4. Statements of Net Assets in Liquidation Net assets as of June 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023 would result in estimated liquidating distributions of $35,387,309 and $30,721,034, respectively, or approximately $16.09 and $19.51 per common share, respectively, based on 2,199,308 and 1,574,308 shares outstanding, respectively (see Note 12– Rights Offering). The increase of $4,666,275 in estimated liquidating distributions is mainly attributable to the rights offering (net proceeds of $4,418,380) that closed on March 7, 2024. Approximately $3.39 per share of the reduction in net assets per share was driven by the issuance (stemming from the Rights Offering) of 625,000 shares at $8 per share (reflecting a discount of $8.12 per share to the proforma net assets in liquidation as of December 31, 2023)." I have no position in this, but looks interesting pending the UBTI outlook...

I've been to too many whiskey nights with the boys where they pull up in their 60k Jeep Rubicon, talk about their 5 bedroom home (mind you no kids), bitch and complain about cost of living and salaries; but can't even answer what their 401k allocation percentage is lol.....it's mind numbing after a bit (and the whiskey doesn't help). Most bitching is self induced these days. We're all homeless, but some of us drive nice cars.

Definitely true as well. No shortage of people out there who were sucking their thumbs during the 2020 crash that are “waiting for the next dip.” I just think for the average Joe this mentality comes from using non-expendable cash for investing. If you “might need it soon” you’re going to miss dips or engage in fomo as you try to play catch-up. I was definitely emotion driven when I started investing for some of the above reasons. We live in a culture of max efficiency now. So as a young investor you want to feel like you’re getting max return on your small capital outlay. r/wsb is a great example of this. But it’s a nasty feedback loop of poor decision making. I still struggle with emotional decisions from time to time, but it really wasn’t until I felt my investment money was “just numbers that didn’t matter in my day to day” that I could better engage with investments and timeframe for expected returns. The more valuable your money is to you for investing the more you nitpick on things that are really noise. Investing is used car shopping. If you’re more worried about every little scratch or ding than how it runs you’re too emotionally involved in the decision. For me it’s now more learning what type of investments I want to avoid and how to better handicap situations. This last year has been a good lesson for me. I will likely underperform the market by a few points for 2024, because of situational investing and sizing mistakes. Not the end of the world, and I feel the lesson at the cost of a few percentage points is well worth it.

People miss the forest for the trees with these headlines. If you're selling in a major drawdown what's the likely cause? Debt, expenses too high, cashflow too low. If you are seriously concerned about market conditions moving forward maybe you should leave that 401k and brokerage account alone, divert some funds and reduce your debt and bump up your emergency fund. Lot of people out there with 50k Robinhood brokerage accounts, underfunded Roths, 401ks, HSAs sitting on $1k a month auto loans, 2k a month mortgage loans, 10k +CC debt and a stack of Amazon boxes on their porch every time they open the door; all being nursed by their talentless middle management job that could be replaced with a snap of the finger. Either make yourself more valuable, or your personal finances unbreachable by emergency situations.

"I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will." One would hope Berkshire has taken a similar approach to their own business. With the companies they own/have stakes in, and the amount of cash on hand, I don't think there will be any reason to run for the door when Buffett passes. Money buys time and gives options. Ted, Todd, Greg, and Jain (although not young themselves) have plenty of time to figure things out and communicate with their shareholder base. I highly doubt it will be a silent in the dark transition, I would imagine first order would be to assure the unique shareholder base that they plan to continue the legacy of Buffett and Munger.

I always prefer to stay local with my charitable donations (personal pref). Could always stop by a local church (big or small) and talk to their leadership to see what their needs are to better serve their local community. Example: there are a lot of local churches that would have food pantries, but cannot due to increased regs like “having a walk-in freezer/fridge for proper food storage.” A lot of food banks end up having food go to waste because there aren’t enough places to distribute the food too. Those things aren’t cheap and simply out of the budget for a lot of places. This was exacerbated during covid when demand surged well past supply. Having the facilities goes a long way. Might be below the scale you’re after though.

$SNCAF experienced with nuclear buildout.