bookie71

For me it was the "straw that broke the camel's back". Others are giving him time, and I hope they do well, but I will invest elsewhere.

Check the "archive" section. Chuck

Most of her talks are about abstinence, which comes under the category of, "Do what I say, not what I do". Her ex boyfriend has appeared in Playgirl. I feel sorry for their kid.

Sounds like "value investing" to me.

Sorry, I thought we were talking about Begari.

Oh, I'm sure he'll get a lot of investors, it just won't be me.

I say ditto to all the above

No kidding. I have two pages of a log book dedicated to passwords alone. And I thought it was fun as a kid to have a secret password...... Well its not fun when your over 40. :-). . . Just wait until you are just south of 70, it doesn't get easier.

Years ago, in another life, I did a lot of farming and cattle clients. the rule of thumb was tey would farm until the money ran out. By then the city (Phoenix and Tucson) had gotten close enough that they could borrow enough to farm for a few more years. That aside the only ones who consistently made money were the citrus growers and one rose farmer. I'm not sure how it is now but that was back in the early 60's.

Their volumes are dropping hard though. It's true that they are walking away from business, yet they're just not getting meaningfully below 100%. Could it be that they are weighted towards lines of business that are easier to enter and so capital flows in freely (aka: fiercely competitive). I don't know... you have to wonder that this might be the case. Otherwise, why do they keep giving up business and tend to write aggregate CRs much higher than WR Berkeley and Markel? It has to be that however they're set up, they're fishing in the wrong pond. Some ponds have trout and some have carp. . . I believe it is called disipline. Let the others write the unprofitable business.

and CET has discounted Plymoth Rock in it's valuation, so a double discount

Dumb question: Is an impairment charge deductible for taxes or is it a reserve similar to allowance for uncollectibles that isn't deductible.

The problem with vigilanties is that the solution soon becomes the problem.

locutusoftexas, I agree, I also am an old fa--, and have been trying to make my potfolio such that it needs less management and have been moving part opf it into mutual funds as my kids and spouse have no interest in the market.

Just try to keep a couple of years RMD in cash, it usually doesn't take longer to recover or top out.

The biggest problem for me is the tax portion you have to pay on the conversion. If you can multiply your after tax "Roth" 15 times (apx 20% for 15+ years) then the offsetting tax that was paid would also multiply by the same amount. You can withdraw before 59 1/2 without a penalty if you do equal payments for a period of time. Also you have trust congress to not tax the Roth. The pot (all the Roths) gets bigger each year and as the deficit grows so will the temptation to get into it. They are already talking about a VAT and in the past they had for awhile, several years ago, they had a penalty tax if you had too much in your profit sharing or pension plan. Our government says our debt is about 13 trillion when it is actually about 60-70 trillion which is about 194,000 for every citizen. http://truthin2008.org/content/?articlesource=439 check the above site for "truth in accounting" for the government. It also has some interesting figures for many of the states. I used to trust Congress to some extent, until in the 1980's they retroactively changed the real estate rules for deductions and basically put the real estate market into a recession.

And if things slow down and they can't find deals, they will pay a large return of capital dividend. A few years ago they returned 12.50 (I think)per share

bookie, do you mean this software? http://www.timevalue.com/tvalue.aspx yes, except I think I only paid 49 for it years ago, but maybe that was only for an upgrade from DOS.

Don't forget he has been giving his BRK away to the Gates Foundation and others.

Actually with a program called T Value it is easy to compute with ithe in's and out's. See if your accountant or tax preparer has it and will show you how to calculate it. It is very easy to use and reasonably priced.

P.S. Remember the funds are on a "cash" basis and only recognize the gain or loss when it is actually "realized". When you invest you are buying the "recognized" gain or loss.

Actually the tendency seems to be to sell the big gainers. After a big downturn in the market, as a tax preparer, I spend a lot of time trying to explain to folks why they have a big capital gain when the value of their portfolio dropped by XX%

that's why you never buy a mutual fund in December, they are about to distribute LTCG, STCG and dividends.

But our Rotary club doesn't meet at Applebees. ;D I, personally prefer several local family owned restaurants for the atmosphere and food quality - the chain outfits are too plastic for me.

Our Rotary club meets at Dennys and the food is good but not great. They just put out a new menu, but it didn't really change much. I'm not sure that the owners understand today's market. They talk health, but are still way too heavy on the grease.