Jaygo

I think this goes for lot in our economy. Just look at heavy duty trucks. That’s not a $95,000.00 super duty. It’s only $1,200.00 a month. without borrowing our current economy would stop dead in a week.

Yes there is good value but to be fair. The equities have tax considerations and much of that cash is now generating a portion of the stated earnings.

Some people have 0 respect or empathy. I would love a picture with Munger but I would not do it unless asked by him. Let the old fucker chill out.

I have a few of his records from my Dads collection. I was just playing his greatest hits record on Sunday for the kids while we played a board game. This news is sad and also a little creepy for me. I love his music, every song is good in its own way with powerful stories for lyrics. He blended genres better than anyone of the era imo. RIP

Graco with nice earnings today. Revenue up 7 % year over year. Earnings up 22% year over year. Gave cautious guidance due to uncertainty in macro. Also bought in about 3 million shares in the full year. Surprised by the process sales being so robust. Maybe a hangover from new factory completions slowed down due to covid. Process segment sells fluid applicators like glue pumps for apparel, flow metering equipment, and sprayers for non-nutritive cereal varnishes and such.

In WB's talk in Japan he mentioned how some business units were surprised by the slowing down of things. He mentioned the rail as well as some smaller units. I'm sure PC and the industrial guys are still humming but I could see others start to feel a bit of a slowdown. Id say we are at the point in the economy where we will be seeing drib and drabs of bad data start to come in. Pepsi volumes were down 2% with a 16% increase in prices. That tells me everything I need to know, the consumer is fed up. Lower prices and pinch margins or drop volumes and hope for the best. Not where you want to be at 27PE imo. I have had a few items in my daily business life pop up cheaper than the last couple years and almost back to 2019 prices. Also where last summer I would get laughed at about machine order I now hear "oh yeah we've got lots available" I am personally taking the lead with my customers and offering very competitive prices and even a couple incentives to take share. I want to head into a recession with shit loads of money this fall! If the recession doesn't show up that that's fine, Than I ( Chicken Little ) took some market share and made a lower margin. If it does show up I will have more money to invest and withstand a slower season the next year. I would anticipate that what I am doing will also happen across the business landscape soon enough. In a thread I started a couple months ago I mentioned a possible mild deflation this fall. My mind is still chewing on that possibility.

That’s a great unit and a great story. For the first couple years in our first home (total gut job ) all gifts were home related. It was fun and practical. I put Home Depot gift cards in a watch box for her Christmas our first winter. We died laughing. “babe you shouldn’t have” …..”like really! You shouldn’t have”. long story short graco rocks. I’d say it’s one of the few companies that the engineers are still in control.

GGG. Graco. Not cheap and possibly overearning. Hands down the best of the fluid pumping tech businesses. You buy graco when you demand the best and most reliable. In the contractor segment there is literally no close competitor in quality. Rookies and weekend warriors buy Titan and Wagner but it’s junk once you own a graco unit. Price paid is too high but I need to anchor and I haven’t bought it since the 30s about six years ago. If it takes a beating I will certainly average down. had some funds come in and wanted to place it somewhere.

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can you elaborate please. Does this playing out negatively affect some reits?

I dont see the issue with this. People will still pay the mortgage so doesn't this just boost the banks earnings at the expense of the rest of the economy. I owe close to 500k on mine. So in 2025 we renegotiate ours. Lets say it goes from the current 2.5 to 6% it will be painful but Im still going to have to pay up. I think it works out to be an extra 1000 a month. If its at 8% it will be double what I pay now. Maybe I take on a bit of extra work or cut back on travel ect. but im not giving the keys back that's for sure.

Yes one of the great drives in the world. I did LA to Wakonda beach when I was 21. Hwy 1 is pretty epic. I'd throw in the icefields parkway and the cabot trail too for awesome drives.

My psychedelics days are on hold until my kids grow up. Then you can sign me up for sure. I love cool weather hiking and a good trip. we spent all of March in Spain. Went everywhere. Imo one of the best all around countries in the world. beaches, weather , affordability, safety, mountains, infrastructure, architecture, friendliness to tourists, historic preservations and food and culture are all among the best. Maybe not the top in any but highest average ranking of anywhere I’ve been.

I was surprised by the bit about Immelt getting on his hands and knees fixing compressors on broken GE refrigerators, it seems like a long way to having two private jets flying around in case one malfunctions. I guess power and money really do corrupt. My main takeaway is a large conglomerate can really fudge the numbers and hide a ton of bad operations. The book is making me consider what is going on in some of the mini conglomerates ive been checking out. Is it really possible to keep a good operation going that is so decentralized? I'm sure BRK has an enormous amount of issues too. Ill never forget being in a Sees candy in Arizona and the shopkeeper gives us about a pound of samples, when i finally said "ok, ok were good" she simply said. "you know who owns this store? well he's richest man in the world!" I felt like saying " I do b-t-h " with my 120 shares at the time lol Does Omaha even care about some of the tini businesses anymore?

I’m half way through the book “lights out the ge story” I think there is lots to worry about with giant conglomerates but the numbers don’t tend to lie with brk. Just keep an eye out and it should be fine.

In order of size roughly. The last 12 or so are very small trackers to keep me interested BRK XEI Canadian dividend etf Aritzia GFL Smart Centres REIT BTI Whitecap Alimentation CT QSR TMX Group Equitable Bank National Bank CP Rail HDV US dividend etf VOO Graco Simpson / HD Constellation software BAM/BN/DRM Amazon TJX Telus Suncor ZQQ Nasdaq etf in Canadian dollars CNQ CJ Surge Energy MSGE FFH FND ST. JOE PARA FN WJX Federal Signal PAR tech CGI Exchange Income Corp A bunch of GIC's paying 4.95% that I get back in November 1200 shares of VCE Canadian etf in my smith maneuver account ( so far this has been a rocky road to travel ) I kind of also want to just give up and index but something always drags me back in. I'm looking at this dogs breakfast of a portfolio and kind of shaking my head.

It’s like this in Canada too. I would say most Chinese, Russian and Iranian people drive higher end cars than their neighboring native and European Canadians. it may be affluence or it could be a status thing I’m not sure. I’ve got a bit of money but couldn’t care less about my vehicle. I drive older pickups with dents and dings so when the next dent happens from my sons baseball i just say shit happens. My neighbor from tehran drives a Lamborghini suv. I don’t think he feels the same about his dents.

I have worked directly for Pilot. They are an excellent business to work for and communicate with. No big company BS even though they have 800 travel centres and as far as I know a big energy trading unit. To the guys who are asking more of the letter. Come off it. Please read all of the past letters to date and Mr B has covered every type of cycle, business environment and political situation. What we have today in the world is nothing new and I would imagine Buffett is in the same opinion. He didn't mention the Vietnam war in his early letters and I dont expect him to mention the ones ongoing now. If you want more information on the business its there in detail in 144 pages of pretty damn interesting reading. I had no idea Clayton was such a BSD 70,000 home sites on the books? Ben Moore making paint for Ace, miniscule but nice to see them alive and well. Still the best house paint around IMO Geico is obviously having some pains The energy unit is doing 15% growth y/y Every business unit had a mention of environmental governance to it. That tells me pressure is on them. Berkshire is basically an Russel 3000 etf at this point with all the business units and holdings. As my largest holding I am so for it.

Yeah hunter was likable and cut fat. I can just imagine how many government hogs were at that trough, you see it at conferences all the time where the guys who can’t get fired are staying at the best hotels, the real businessmen are at the embassy suites. On the other hand lobbying to reduce regulation and running your employees so hard you can’t safely maintain the network is another thing entirely and should not go unpunished.

The end result is unknown. That’s is the issue. It took 30 years for the asbestos lawsuits to bring down Johns manville. They finally entered a protected state so the liabilities would not go unpaid. BRK paid a great price considering the assets with the understanding that the liability would be capped. mmm lawsuits will go on for another decade before a number can be placed on the liability.

This is the result of financialization of the world. When you have money mind screwballs running major industrial companies this is what you get. Its sad, and should probably have some serious legal / jailtime consequences to the top brass if its ever going to change. When you allow a consultant to operate with more authority than an engineer the results are financially amazing while the company gets hollowed out, then all you have is a bunch of defunct rusty scrap. I did this with my own company a decade ago, I see it with lots of trucking companies around here, see the same with Sherwin Williams who have lost a lot of customer goodwill.

I am still in the camp that the inflation is caused by government ineptitude and a one time expansion of the money supply. if they cut taxes and government spending, then lower rates goods inflation will drop. Goods inflation leads to services inflation. free enterprise is and has always been the best solution to inflation. what I saw last night on the sotu tells me this admin is a circus and entirely willing to run a socialist command economy. Not good imo.

I think i need to cancel my self directed accounts. Maybe a phone call to a broker would be a pain in the ass enough to stop trading in and out. Kind of like a alcoholic pouring all the booze down the drain. I want to use my investing prowess (if it exists) but remove the emotion. The worst is Apple. I held 200 shares at the time of Job's death, I was in the pyrenes hiking when i saw the headline on EL Pais, immediately went to a internet café and sold. I am my own worst enemy, I will never do the calculation on the missed money since i know it would be too much to have any self respect left investing wise. The same thing that brought me to apple and all the other stuff is peter lynch style owning what you know. Perhaps this combined with some rules for self control would be a wonderful combination for the small guy like myself.

These three paragraphs need to be printed out and recited over and over as gospel. I suffer from the need to do something and I understand that I am suffering for it financially. Aside from some huge percentage gainers on very small stakes (Thank you shopify, cell therapeutics and spartan energy) my best investment was the original 120 shares of brk.b somewhere around 105. Its the only thing ive never traded out of so the only investment on my statement that shows any real success. "the more direct your connection is to a successful business the more money you will have over time" Dealraker This is so simple that most people will overthink it and not benefit from the wisdom. thanks Dealraker

Stevie find something that you are good at, enjoy somewhat and the market readily pays for. I see too many bright people go into mostly intellectual and useless things. Go learn something we all need and there is a shortage of and read some books if your into philosophy or history. I do ok in my business and there are tax benefits but when I see the tik toks of silicon valley gigs and they make the same money i do or more it makes me feel like a fool for going down the road I did. I generally bust my ass, have a relatively dangerous job and work a lot of nights plus a couple hundred k in capital expended. If i knew how to code i could do as well or better plus get a massage after work, id take the switch but I dont code however i'm good with my hands and ok with my mind so i went the route of small business and have built a bit of a nest egg. Without knowing you I dont think spouting advice is appropriate or fair to you other than the top sentence.