Jaygo

Came in around 61% the big wins were Terravest, Aritzia, Velan, Aecon, Par tech, Dynacore, Omai Gold Mines, Vitalhub and Fairfax. The kennel portfolio (citi, HD, MMM, AAP, CVX) did ok. Had some BRK trade arounds that would be around 35% on the year. Had a whole bunch of losers too. Most real estate was flat to down, lost on Wajax, Richelieu, a couple energy names and almost anything to do with housing. Sometimes I feel like a really good speculator but then I look into my portfolio and its a real manic mess. I have everything from microcaps to mega caps, value to expected takeout's to outright gambling. Many ideas I just pawn off here and twitter, some are my own from sauntering through life and work.

Congrats. Take the 15. What a benefit and depending on how the birth and early days go you can change your mind and shorten it if you really want. The first couple months are crazy, no sleep and just being worried about keeping something so tiny alive. My advice is to look into what to expect: I hope you dig deeper on the below but a couple surprises and thoughts I had. 1. I was much more involved in the birth than I ever expected, I was shocked to see my wife that way. 2. The baby comes out looking really weird. That's normal. I thought she was deformed and I just about fainted. 3. The whole birth is kind of messy, just be ready. 4. Everyone talks about sleep deprivation, it is so much more, its tiredness mixed with anxiety, just be ready. 5. They are very tiny, and the skull is still soft. (be careful and make sure to rotate them in the crib so they dont get misshapen heads. 6. They grow up so fast its painful. Enjoy every second of it and DO NOT take any of it for granted. 7 .Get your house in order now. Get the room ready long before because you dont want to paint, new carpet and furniture, new mattresses and other toxic shit around a newborn.

We wont have too much homework since travel can be so educational as is. History, architecture, cultures, food and languages all rolled into one. Not to mention the logistical stuff that I always include them in they will be ready for the world!

Every human should be subject to the same rights. What you say is otherwise. If i can be robbed for my wealth, should I be allowed to rob a poor peasant without retribution? Nobody is equal, some are brilliant, some are fast, some are beautiful, some are tall, some are dumb. The only thing that matters is equality of rights and freedoms. Fix that and even the short, fat, ugly poor people will end up living better quality of lives over time.

Thank you for saying this. Wealth and inheritance taxes are theft. I simply cannot understand how anyone can think it is not. It is not effect economically and more importantly it is morally corrupt.

Buying some BRK. Not much but just recouping what was sold a bit higher. If Warren knew that Berky was my trading sardine i'd be real embarrassed but its literally perfect for trading. Great company that i'm happy to own if I'm down, no dividends to think about, and it fluctuates by 20% a year almost like a clock. Sold 97 at 466.10 and just bought 102 at 442.8

In two weeks the family will be embarking on a grand European adventure. Over 5 weeks we will be visiting Paris, Zurich, Salzburg, Munich, The dolomites, Venice, Florence and then flying into Barcelona and finally down to Andalucía to sit in the Sun and rest after a hectic schedule. I cant wait to visit the beer halls of Munich, its always been on my to do list. We are also taking a glass roofed train through Switzerland and I cant wait. I'm taking my daughter to a champions league game in Salzburg vs Athletic Madrid as well. Lots of bucket list stuff this time around and I'm really happy to drag my kids along for the ride. We will be doing some basic history lessons the whole time and of course leaning a few phrases in French, German, Italian and Spanish.

I have been in the winter and it is great. In the summer it is way to hot for me personally. As far as an adult destination I would say no, with the caveat that its not Orlando by any means. Malaga is a working city and yes there are many tourists but it is not really a destination for kids specifically.

That was me!! And I was explaining what my mindset was at the time. I was scared, I was really upset about loosing all my money plus a bit of borrowed money too. I was 23 and I was back to Zero. In 2012 the time was perfect to invest but all my "research" pointed to more trouble. My way of telling Blake how hard it is to combine macro with market performance.

Lol yes I was sorry to see that my rare coins were not really at all. The EBay scammers sure did get me excited though!

The chart you posted is very flawed, homes have increased in size, complexity, regulation and quality ( insulated windows, metal fasteners etc) The average salary thing is skewed as well since the era that the chart begins with was very different. Many people were big company salary men, now we live in the gig economy and the ones on salary are now at a disadvantage.

Somewhat, Id say more in building services now. Started as a shitty architect and worked for a custom home builder who realized I had a real talent for woodworking, I went out on my own as trim carpenter doing crown moulding, custom bookshelves, coffered ceilings etc and did very well. Started to resent my customers so moved into landscape and apartment building maintenance, that morphed into doing power washing and painting. That's basically where I am now but commercial only. I am on my 4th micro company and this is where I plan to stay for good.

Yes I realized quite quickly not to clean in any way, also and unfortunately the crackpots on Ebay are not the way to value them. The rare coins I though we had turned out to be fairly common. I'm keeping them anyway since anything that reminds me of my dad is a must keep for me. The old coins he had, an 1825 4 maravedi, a few Pesetas from 1883 and 1901 are also really neat. There are a few coins that may have some collector value but i'm not totally sure. This may end up becoming a rabbit hole for me as it has all the components of something that interests me. Money, history and research.

I must disagree here. What a lot of people see and sadly compare themselves to is extraordinary wealth or extraordinary amounts of debt consumption. By seeing this they feel poor or disenfranchised. Take a step back and really think how much money you actually want. I personally want to spend around 200,000 CAD per year (2025 money) I can go a a few amazing trips, keep my kids in hockey, not think about money at all, pay by bills, pay my mortgage and save 40k per year for investments. As a small business owner at favorable tax rate I need about 300K in profit to do that. Its honestly fairly easy if your willing to work hard and find a niche. Once I decide to take it a bit easier I will have built up a large enough portfolio to get about half my yearly spend from the investments and that will happen around the same time as I pay off my mortgage. Voila at 50 or in 10 years I should be free of absolutely necessary work. That sounds pretty rich to me however I doubt anyone will be drooling over my life on instagram. If I was 22 today I would set myself on this path asap, dont worry about the market, the national debt or the current administration. Just worry about how to build a successful business in a needed industry and for the love of all things marry the right girl!!!!!

Thanks for that. Blake you may be too smart for your own good. I fell in love with the stock market long before I had any money, I won a stock picking challenge in high school and after that it was on full blast. I graduated in 2005 and worked construction finally making money. In 2007 I found a gloriously rich client who advised the markets would keep going for a long time. He helped me turn my 50k I had saved into an investment loan of 100K it went up and up for a few months, I thought I was brilliant, all that studying the markets paid off, then it started to fall. My 100k was down to 40 after 12 months and I was devastated. I sold half for a loss and worked to pay off the debt. Now my 50k was basically -5k. I just knew the market would keep going down right through 2009 and 2010 and 2011 and 2012 and on and on. I studied harder, I read and read but the market didn't do what it was supposed to do. Europe in 2012 was burning, Greece was toast and the great depression was coming. The market just "climbed a wall of worry" that was the tag line then and "Green Shoots" Well by 2014 I gave up and bought some BRK, it slowly went and up and for the first time in my life I saw what owning a real company could do. I focused on work and not the markets. I stopped predicting the end of the world and started understanding what all the numbers really mean. Hint! They dont mean shit, the numbers are fake, the money is fake, the real thing is production and trade. Blake I hope you can focus on the productive parts of the global economy and not just on the numbers getting bigger. That's what counts. You are on the right track by recognising the world is messed up, but you kind of have to figure out how to play within the chaos rather than avoid it all together. Caution is always a good thing but please understand that the numbers will go up forever, by the time you are old the numbers will be far bigger. I would suggest reading about the purchasing power of gold, oil and other timeless items and then get a baseline for the money from there. Check out the gold to suit ratio. It remains unchanged since the days of Shakespeare. I guess my point is that big numbers should not be the determining factor and they do not necessarily lead to a collapse. I'm running long here but one example is Canadian housing. Many say we are in bubble that should burst any day but according to the gold housing ratio we basically right around the mark. Gold 1950 34$ USD per oz Toronto House price average 1950 $ 19,000.00 CAD really hard to find but this is close Gold 2025 $2675 USD per oz or 79 times the 1950 average price Toronto house price average 2024 $ 1,282,000.00 or 68 times the 1950 price

Blake how old are you, where do you live, your situation. I am curious if you dont mind my being nosey. The question is based on my own experience in the gfc fresh from school. I had a huge blow up on leverage and frankly was a very bleak individual for a few years. I just want to see if our paths are similar

That's great advice. Thanks

Thanks, I dont want to sell them but would like to know what it may be worth to ensure it doesn't get tossed or lost. The really old ones are very interesting. I just spotted a 1825 Spanish paseta. It looks copper and is now almost black Should I clean them? many are perfect but some are grimy. I was planning on buying a booklet to store them in at least that way they are organised when I take them to get evaluated.

I'm just putting some feelers out for this subject if anyone has interest or knowledge. I spent the day cleaning out my dads office yesterday and noticed he had a few bags of coins, mostly Euros that he picked up on a trip to France he took myself and my sister on in 2000 Well 99 was the inauguration of the Euro and many countries were using both currencies at the time. Long story short i'm going to Europe in a couple weeks so I grabbed them but at a closer look these are very clean and all 1999 Euros so i did a quick search and it looks like several are now very rare. links below, There are many more, along with some French coins from 1927 with holes in them. https://www.ebay.com/itm/196918757131?_skw=rare+1999+euro+coins&itmmeta=01JH394JQEW7P8Z5EE30T3N1P7&hash=item2dd945c70b:g:wqwAAOSwtYNncdW9&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKlgetGEWfZs8zbTffXQ1IR5OYy8s%2BzBQ3bIFSiQSa4OBmnN%2BUeXQfeCDI7tAeO5PHAWnhBEIu5h8LVbYWrbUFzkAFori4wOU0jgg2wAs83sw8PbKXHLTfBXFNasEWEvHdVU4pSErS%2Fo6GQZS1A5pKEeN0nMvd9kNFIYSXqKWElGCI3A9g0n8iype6t4Z48Iv0TNwTqxGGmkugT9JsbA3JICVhGKUofNI7x5lQlas74MBTewnemXkSQVj4VMoFZ3%2Fz3JVsP7rQRlZB3GRCkorr95BmMU0FtIEIemU4%2BWpUcqBA%3D%3D|tkp%3ABFBM6KuS6Yhl He has 16 of these He has 1 of these https://www.ebay.com/itm/356415871704?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20231107084023%26meid%3D40a7c272e38c444ab37b1149fceca723%26pid%3D101875%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D176699907997%26itm%3D356415871704%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2332490%26algv%3DSimVIDwebV3WithCPCExpansionEmbeddingSearchQueryRecallAuctionPushout&_trksid=p2332490.c101875.m1851&itmprp=cksum%3A35641587170440a7c272e38c444ab37b1149fceca723|enc%3AAQAJAAABQM%2BSIK5LCqs2uiCwInhHqGVzIMLIMo0iPltG%2Fc%2FV8dzqXG8bAAbTVw985HbdYTuG2wPTDx%2F8lbe8GSu4NUrsEPcDBvCLFhf2QkBmtTX5yUHKZQJQxAHrOK1ydFs7AOIrec55cFlUbxmoVk%2FracYKzYEwHP7FM8juYs9Adf6LsDZ9RIABAyZesjAg4FOeNIjW%2BqMXlRkLj4%2FjDcsWBTK%2FXo0Cw79v0VSxVKqqShKGv9x%2FM8OygkXm2vIJCuQUJovibS69fcghaYjFCy1J4%2BoM2gqleaK1aMxGHnBuaKv%2BR3ulQ%2BLx1EYV%2BUS6stysT78Sw0lcxtyLAiy2taDYSoeUKERR8w4xR2X%2BADJYB9rxcH3J192yGM5t8IVwi9zKm8Ky0aObPq%2BTnajVg0Ht6DYbK%2F6%2BaL5fdCCGnPD2jgVDP9%2FM|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A2332490&itmmeta=01JH39B76WK5CC7S3NXAH9T2D6

Is that inflation adjusted? I thought brk was quite large by 1984 having well over a billion in common stocks at that point plus the operating companies. A like for like comparison would be really interesting.

This guy makes my skin crawl. I dread the idea of modern politicians listening to his ideas and thinking its time they "saved" the world. I dont know him personally so its not a affront to his character but economists like him are dangerous imo. When I think of great regions and eras it is always laissez faire at the heart of it.

I dont have any specific speculation but with the large amount of USD in treasuries and the performance of the CAD I sure hope he is looking North for the next one. At this point he could basically take 10% of the entire Canadian stock universe and still have reserves left. Hey Greg and Warren, my bags are ready to be picked up!!

I guess you can say I have a hybrid approach. A core long term holding and when an opportunity with a good chance comes up I scale up or down the holding. The risk was there but pretty low id say, we are in a bull market so a slow grind up with a catalyst is a decently sure bet. In fact the reason I sold the position is not because I dont like Fairfax, its because I am trying to manage risk, the extra shares were never intended to be a long term holding, ( I already have that ) it was just a bet on a run up into the index inclusion.

@Parsad @73 Reds Just food for thought, I think you are both likely correct but you may not be looking at it from other peoples perspective. You both are older and very likely far richer than myself so do not fully understand my motivation. I trade trade around positions I like in an attempt to boost performance and allow for higher risk securities as well. Admittedly it doesn't always work but usually it does. I have a core holding in Fairfax that I hold similar to your beliefs, long term without much handwringing. It is also the around the maximum percentage I am willing to hold in any one security. But I also took on some debt and bought a good bit more expecting the index inclusion as outlined by @SafetyinNumbers. His reasoning was very sound and I like the company. I sold yesterday as the index inclusion did not happen, and paid off the portion of margin. I made $ 14,000 USD on the trade. It could have been better but at my stage in life 14k is important, I'm not retired, I work and have a family of 4 to support so this was a great result all based off what I felt was a very very good probability of index inclusion and the run up into it. I would imagine some on the forum say 14k, lol this guys doing all that for 14k. Just buy and hold you fool! Well yes I am because in my life 14k is about a month of hard work. If i'm still doing this in my 50's and 60's I may have screwed up but for now this is how I "beat the market" Everyone is at a different stage in life. I'm in the maximization stage and even a few % per year make a huge difference.

Warren Buffett is one classy guy. That letter does have a feel of goodbye in it which is sort of tough to take. A public praising of his children is a nice touch that is somewhat rare in that generation. Bravo WB His advice of discussing the will of a parent is very good advice, one I wish I had done with my dad as it may have made things easier to digest at a time of immense loss. Losing a friend and parent is not the best time to get bombarded with new information and a mountain of paperwork. If WB does step down I selfishly hopes he writes a long letter to all of us. I could really do with one more dose of his wisdom.