Castanza

Good points Xerxes, investment approach and how you handle your resources definitely changes with time and your situation.

Yeah I saw that in the letter. Sounded like holding large amounts of cash to reduce any risk to the underlying businesses is the plan moving forward. Can certainly see the benefit at the scale of Berkshire. @Viking I can see your point though and how cash can be like a "non-expiry" call option. I'd say that line of thinking can lead to underperformance though as it leans towards market timing. Can't remember who posted this last week, but this article was pretty interesting from a performance viewpoint. https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market-timer/

It's only 1.99 for pickup if you're not an Express member. I figure 1.99 is worth the hour I would spend once a week at the store.

It’s easy to hold cash when you’re already rich, own cash producing companies and hold billions in assets that spit out millions in dividends every year. How much cash did WB hold in his early days? Unless you already have a solid portfolio to hold cash on top of; its just a more eloquent justification for trying to time the market no?

Anyone else see grocery stores just becoming warehouses with pickup lanes over the next decade? I can't remember the last time I went in the store to get a full order of groceries. Instacart is way too convenient and Wegmans charges no fee. Fill the cart throughout the week, place my order and have my pickup time set so I can swing by after the gym. Comes neatly packed in paper bags. Never had an issue with broken eggs, expired or wilting veggies and fruit. Although one time early on instead of getting a bunch of 6 bananas I got 6 bunches of bananas... Can imagine stores might save costs on employees, store space, and spoiled food that some lazy customer decided to :put back" on some random shelf. Some items are slightly more expensive but it's like $0.10 more or something negligible.

BRK.b

Freeze the pensions, transition to a 401k, get rid of the Public Sector Unions and watch the roaches scurry.

Looks like we need a "What Are You Cooking" thread. Sorry for the derailments lol I'll see myself out

Induction is definitely a solid choice. A lot of chefs are making the switch depending on their cook style. I have an induction cook plate I use for steaks to get a good seer. You can definitely be more precise. Comes down to personal preference though. Downsides of induction are you can't move the pot or pan around. You cant "toss stuff" over heat etc. I haven't really ever noticed a smell using gas. If you have a proper hood over your oven/stovetop there shouldn't really be an issue.

Yeah definitely a concern; especially if you have young kids who could turn the knob on the stove or something.

FWIW houses that have gas appliances vs electric are less likely to have a fire. Most fires start in the kitchen. I was looking at this some time ago because I converted pretty much everything to gas except my old water heater that I will probably switch to a heat pump at some point. But it was something like electric stoves are 2.6x more likely to cause a fire than a gas stove. I do have to say cooking on gas > electric. That being said, my wife is always paranoid we left the stove on or something. https://www.nfpa.org//-/media/Files/News-and-Research/Fire-statistics-and-reports/US-Fire-Problem/Fire-causes/oscooking.pdf

Thought this was a really solid discussion with Jim Keller. The talking is 90% done by him although he can be kind of annoying talking over others. Ignore the title, and I’d also recommend ignoring the Pageau guy as he doesn’t really add anything relevant to the conversation. But Jim goes into great depth on AI how it’s trained, issues they have, what the timeline looks like, how it will coexist with humanity, etc. It has made me rethink some of my position on AI. He has some really solid comparisons to technology booms in the past. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast/id1184022695?i=1000587404781 Edit: Also did not know Jim was Jordan Petersons brother in-law

Are the lawsuits really that bad?

Hmm had no clue this was a thing. My company uses Fidelity. Will have to check this out. Did Christmas just come early?! Edit: Not offered for me....damn

Old people don't like new things. His entire life's work has been constrained to a specific framework and he was extremely successful within that framework. He is too old to engage in the new so it's simply easier to shit on it. Only 1% of Americans owned publicly traded stock in 1900. Less than 25% of Americans had indirect ownership through pension plans prior to 1950. 401k's didn't come around till 1978. 4%~ of people owned common stock in the 1950's up to 11%~ in the mid 1970's. Not sure why anyone cares what he says about crypto. His view of the financial industry is constrained to a specific time and period which he clearly greatly benefited from. When Buffett and Munger got their start, individual stock ownership was relatively low for the general populace. I'm sure there were plenty of respectable old people during their day (born between 1880-1900) who thought investing was a fools errand and that it was better to just hold cash under your mattress.

Very nice always wanted to do some big game fishing

Well some of investing it temperament and emotion. Dealraker has shown how remaining agnostic towards your positions can be beneficial in the long run.

Thats fair, and I deleted my comment so as to not ruffle feathers. When the markets are down people discuss it. Likewise when it’s up. It’s the nature of the beast. Nothing is certain and the market can change. I think most on here know that it’s a fools errand to invest solely based on macro predictions. But I still enjoy the commentary and time people put into their posts. The comment came across as “I’m entitled to specific types of posts.” Having a wide range of topics to discuss is beneficial overall to the forum. And I welcome anyone who takes a good amount of time to share their thoughts on mostly any particular topic. I’ve learned a lot from you, thePupil and BG regarding real estate. Dealbreaker has been interesting as of late discussing his investment career. Bill has been great with his Fed/treasury insights. How’d that fishing trip go?

10,000 years of humanity and for only 200 some odd years we have had the stock market. Is this the end all be all in your opinion? This is the perpetual motion machine that will drive humanity forward for the rest of eternity? Further it’s only been 50 years since we haven’t had a currency backed by a hard asset. No disrespect, but even if you have no clue what crypto is; it’s extremely naive to believe that the financial systems will not change again. It’s also extremely naive to ignore the clear problems with current MMT and debt financed banking. This system is doomed to fail at some point. The alternative may or may not be crypto. If crypto is such “idiocy” then why is every central bank in existence exploring options? Lastly crypto (shit coins) =/= Bitcoin. They are two different classes at this point. If you’re going to argue against crypto then at least be more creative than “this is how it is now and how it will always be”. I’m still skeptical myself primarily due to government intervention. But the technology itself IS as solid as can be. I’ve listed a personal anecdotal use case above about a family member. But yeah! F$&& all those people stuck in third world countries living under tyranny day in and day out.….how dare they look for alternatives.

Yeah that makes sense. I’d say the preachers are a two sided coin for adoption. But the more I read the more this whole “thing” feels like the top of the first inning.

This is why I can and can't listen to Saylor. Recently listened to the Lex Fridman podcast with him as a guest. At one point he sounds very reasonable describing the utility of BTC in a global economy, the problems with fiat and trust, etc......then he starts droning on about the weight of energy and how everything is vibrating at some frequency and moving blocks of energy instantly......Somehow this relates to BTC at some deep level....not sure. But he sounds like a cult leader at times when he starts going down that road. Maybe my semi smooth chestnut sized brain simply can't comprehend it. To me BTC is interesting because it's digital gold, incorruptible, anonymous, scarce, easily transportable, borderless etc. These past few weeks it definitely seems like the powers at be are discussing it more and more. You had Kevin McCarthy bring it up yesterday. You've got the UK looking into CBDC. Sounded pretty Orwellian if you read through the docs. I also think a lot of people who don't like BTC (including myself to a degree) get hung up because their view is primarily US based. My brother in law who has a company is Laos uses BTC pretty frequently because the govt over there could at any point in time take his business. So it's a means of protecting some assets.

GOOGL In case non of you are aware. Alphabet is going out of business, everyone will download Edge as their mobile browser and Bing with ChatGPT integration will be the new king and everyone will forego the rest of the Chrome suite.

Risk assets ran on the news that the Fed could or was considering cutting. The same thing occurs almost every time. So the question isn't why it's down, but why it was up?

I wonder what older generations said when they saw their children and younger generations telling them to invest in the stock market? They too probably thought it was foolish and better to save your money in your mattress. "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” This applies to more than just science