wescobrk

Anyone see this guy on cnbc this morning? At first I thought he was joking but he is still arguing we have been in a recession for the past two years.

I borrow the maximum amount under mine. I'm captive to fidelity funds which I'm not happy about, thus the loan.

I know the board doesn't typically discuss real estate but I would love to get some insight since there are so many bright people on this board. I've never bought real estate before but there is a property that I know very well going for auction on tues in texas. Lets assume I'm aware of all liens and encumbrances and ready to buy. In texas I've been told I have to pay in full with a cashiers check. I'm sure this is a dumb question but ill ask anyway. Since no one knows what the winning bid will be for that morning what happens if the cashiers check is higher than the winning bid? I would love to buy it at a 50 percent discount. Is that uncommon? Meaning from other houses on the same block. I'm assuming it will go for pretty cheap because the house can't be viewed prior to purchase (except from the outside). Thanks for any help! I bet Jeff would know how to handle this. I sold a lot of my bac options today to free up some cash (thank you citi for the large pop!) If I don't get it then ill rebuy bac on tues probably.

Congrats Jeff!

92 percent in Roth 158 percent in taxable

In 2000 it was 200 percent to GDP. We aren't in a bubble but it definitely isn't cheap.

One more poll!

Awesome! Great read. Thanks for posting. Lots of great stuff. "Managing 1 million should outperform S&P by 10 points without leverage or extra risk."

"Buffett originally started out as a chart guy" Haha, I think Buffett said that lasted till he was about 13 from what I recall from biographies. This guy is 17. He sounds ambitious. Will probably do well in life.

He says in the interview he is a chart guy so not sure why he and Bloomberg compare himself to Buffett. http://www.bloomberg.com/video/a-sneak-peek-at-this-year-s-hot-holiday-movies-wkUy_wOHQNmXIrwssNPJJA.html

The study can still be read. What's the big deal about making the comment?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-06/warren-buffett-market-beating-skills-revealed-cutting-research.html Kinda funny they did a study. I guess next they will do a study to see if Michael Jordan was better than average basketball player.

I don't think that applies to the massive market cap today. They have been saying that since the 90's. I think it was accurate when it was below 100 billion. Obviously it helped for them to get where they are but growth now is difficult because its mostly operating companies and not stocks. Web wants that trend to continue per his shareholder letters. Washington post and geico I think were his two most additive to Berkshire security investments. Geico and wash post were greater than 50 baggers for him and the company was still pretty small in the mid 70s

"this one's easy. because like buffett, he's a great compounder of money. so the more money he has to compound the better off society, which will continue to have massive issues to deal with, is going to be when he's done compounding. To illustrate, what if Buffett had given away half his capital at age 45? Would society be better off? Or is it better off that he waited till he was 75? I think the answer is quite obvious." True, but Buffett announced at age 76 he started to give a material amount away each year. If you want to compare to Buffett, at age 98 to have 99 percent and distributed less than 1, even compared to Buffett, that is extreme.

It appears at age 98 he hoarded the capital and distributed a minute percentage each year of his net worth. He was a great man but that looks odd to me.

After looking at the article again it looks l like he gave a very small percentage of net worth while alive (536k) and 187 million after he passed. He gave away less than 1 percent while alive? Ill play devil's advocate and ask the board if that was a wise thing to do? Why not give at least half in your old age to see the benefits?

Sounds like a great man. It would have been nice to know how much he inherited originally but a great story to read. Nazism taleb would probably criticize this man (he criticized Buffett for living frugally and amassing great wealth), sounds like a great man to me though.

Sounds good. I'm still greater than 100 per cent notional in taxable account but only about 10 percent in Roth. The stock could continue to climb but I'm hoping the market starts to discount in the taper in jan or feb. We saw 6 percent pull back in general market starting in late may of this year on news of a taper. I think we will see at least 6 percent this time. The 100k question is if they will actually taper in march. We'll see.

Bought some BAC commons, yesterday... Feat warriors, thanks for sharing. Just curious, what do you see today that you didn't see a month ago regarding bac or did you just have some new cash come in and not able to buy 2 weeks ago?

What do you plan to use the computer for? That's pretty critical. Do you care about OS / applications (is MAC OS ok, iOS, Windows... ) Ben Some light spreadsheet and some writing but mostly reading with some occasional printing and scanning. I'd like to have Microsoft excel but other than that not partial to any OS. Thanks for all the responses!

I received it for free at a century management conference. It's mainly about 1-2 page on each investor. Just a quick read. Nothing substantive. More of a book distributed to freshmen in college. I'm not complaining as it was free.:)

I wish the iPod with audible.com would let me speed it up faster than 2x to go through it even quicker. LOL!! I have never even tried to listen at 2x speed… That’s why it takes me so long to finish an audiobook!! ;D ;D ;D Gio I discovered it by accident s few months ago. It's a lifesaver. Especially for the books that are longer than 20 hours or I probably would never finish.:)

Thanks for telling us about the audiobook! I believe I have gio to thank. I've been listening to it the past two weeks in the car. Almost finished. I wish the iPod with audible.com would let me speed it up faster than 2x to go through it even quicker. I intend to start on the frackers next.

I mean combination of personal and business. I was thinking of apple but wondering if it would be a pain to use windows and Microsoft excel. I'm not that technical. I don't want to partition for two operating systems. I guess I can just install excel and use apple os.

I need to buy a desktop, laptop and maybe a tablet. Just curious if you guys wouldn't mind telling me what you like and dislike for the above? I will use all three for a combustion of personal and business. Thanks!