CONeal

As much as they have screwed with how inflation is caculated how can one really be sure that 3 million is enough. With medical cost constantly going up and inflation numbers not counting things like gas, food, etc (these are still real cost) the govt should not dictate how much I need for retirement. A 1% change in inflation causes a huge swing in wheither or not a person will have enough for retirement. If you out live the 3 million will the gov't continue to give you 205k a year since that's what they deemed as reasonable? Without pensions these days and a reasonable expectation that social security might not be around when I'm 65 the younger generation is going to get bent over.

So now we are being told how much we can make in retirement? What a dick move!!

Looking back over her career what is the most important article (in her mind) she has ever written? What is her biggest pet peeve about her job?

Less then a week and this is up to $140 from $88.

Elon Musk is offering a personal guarantee backed by his personal wealth for the buyback value at the end of 3 years. Same deprecation as a Mercedes S class. At least he's so confident in the car that he's willing to put his money where his mouth is.

Mark, Since you seem to be comfortable with the currency I have a couple of questions more for curosity sake. Are you worried about being able to move bitcoins to hard cash? Was looking at cash payment conversions and it seems like its difficult to actually get $1 bills in your pocket. paypal will give you a hassle by freezing your account from my understanding and also there is a problem with chargebacks. What are your thoughts if I said it looks like a Ponzi scheme? Looking at comments in articles I seems like its real easy to get the bitcoins but once someone starts asking how to cash out people get real defensive. I think there are 13 million bitcoins outstanding right now. What is keeping whoever is responsible, from issuing more bitcoins to himself cashing out and crashing the market? At the end of the day people are assigning value to a packet of data. I am having a hard time seeing how this is a viable alternative. Wasn't there somekind of e-currency during the internet bubble day that crashed and burned?

When they first came out a couple of years ago they were valued at .05 each. Now they are valued over $88 each.

When I saw an article about the returns on these things the other day was surprised people were doing this. Sounds like a present day tulip mania to me.

Depending on the data in stock screens is not 100% accurate. In the article is mentions that he gets most of his reading from SEC filings. A big advantage for the 400% guy is actually reading the fillings since so few people do it. I think his approach is unique is this era and he's wanting to take steps to eliminate alot of the noise. The internet is is kinda like a crack addiction, you never get enough. Sometimes the best approach is to just unplug and think on your own, process the information.

They are losing business anyways (and will eventually go out of business) being the showroom for every online company anyways.

I actually like the idea behind this. Would put a damper of internet companies using Best Buy's retail space in an effort to sell goods at a cheaper price. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/store-charges-customers-5-just-234300072.html

Money buys happiness!! if the move downtown would make you happy and I'm sure your wife would enjoy not having to screw with traffic go for it. If you can make a little money selling your house it's just icing on the cake. Best thing about renting... When the AC goes out they have it fixed wittin 24 hrs and you don't have to foot the bill. Since your not planning on staying in the area get the price you want and then go for it. My strong advice is do not rent your current house. It's alot more work and a great big pain in the ass. Unless you really want to go out there every time the toliet is backed up bc the renter don't know how to plunge the toliet. Seriously you will have to deal with alot of dumb shit.

The question is then, why is Russia protecting it's tax evaders? The answer might be, the tax evaders are powerful. I noticed somewhere that Russia gave Cyprus a loan and that Cyprus is neededing another loan from Russia after the so called deposit clawback.

1. Why can't they just post the damn email word for word of what he said? Kind of takes the context out of it. 2. The last I saw no one would be taxed under 100k. So this interview might be dated.

For now I think the whole tax on bank deposits are a bit overblown. I feel they (Cyprus) brought up the tax on deposits as a game of psychology. Propose something that is so over the top and outlandish that once the goverment does what the really wanted regarding the tax, people would be more inclined to accept it b/c its would seem as the lessor of two evils. This game is played all the time here in the states. I would be more interested in hearing from someone living in or close to the country regarding the situation. Mainstream media has a tendency of overhyping and screwing up the details in most of the stuff the media reports.

While he may have got margined called in the mid 70's his returns were still 20%+ through 1983. Still being on the board of The Daily Journal and from what I can tell, at least one other film company. While he might not be as well known as the other two, I kind of get the feeling he is more into smaller companies. At any rate, I'm sure he could provide alot neat tidbits about the early days along with what he's done since then.

Was rereading Damn Right today and it sure seems like Rick Guerin was one of the main guys in the early part of Berkshire. Would be awesome if there was a biography written on this guy. In the early years it seems like it was always Warren, Charlie, and Rick, were always together in alot if not most of the deals that were done. Seems like he would be a real good story.

Read the book a couple of years ago and retracing it now. Lots of great insight

Thanks for mentioning this, I would have fallen for this trick.

Mine would be With the influence of activist investors (ex Apple) and the market seeming to be more short term oriented, do you think another Berkshire could be built in this type of environment? Please expand on your answer.

This begs the question though, if it's so obvious, why aren't most people here doing something like that? Probably b/c the survivor rate of this type of strategy leaves behind a trail of ruined finances and eating Ramon Noodles for every meal. Not only do you have to be right on the stock, you have to be bullseye accurate with the timing. Ericopoly is a real outlier in his strategy and its a strategy not for the faint of heart.

thanks this helps alot in understanding your run.

That's true. But I think Eric is probably 1 in 100,000,000. The only guys that come close to those returns are startups that take off in a short period of time or daytraders who shot the lights out on a couple of stocks. It's not even likely that Buffett, in his best ten year span in his personal account, was doing what Eric did over the last ten years. And if you ask Eric, I'm sure there were plenty of restless nights when he was thinking, "Have I fu*ked my family over by putting all of our nest egg into one idea?" But he made the bet and his temperament allowed him to get through it. Amazing story, and I'm just proud he did it on my message board. It's a story I'll tell for ages! Alnesh, Andrew and I were talking about it again this morning! Cheers! The thing is, I probably benefit from being on 3rd base myself. My father is not a big gambler like me and I estimate he has a couple of million in liquid assets and a 2.5m house (that he paid 50k for). Well, I don't rely on him to pay my bills or anything, but even if I get completely wiped out I will still likely inherit enough money to purchase at least a condo or something for a comfortable post-65 retirement. Then my wife's mother is in a similar financial condition, is in her 80s, and I figure our share of her money when she passes would cover college for my kids. So maybe that's bratty to talk like this, but it's honest at least. I could afford to take on risks that people without relatively rich parents cannot. Which is why I picked on Prince Alwaleed -- I know the perceived family backing can mean a lot to performance. Thanks for pointing this out. My questions is did this line of thinking ever factor into your investments. Like with FFH or whatever your investment was to get you to the first million or two?

Guess where you end up on the list matters to some people http://finance.yahoo.com/news/forbes-publishes-huge-takedown-prince-140100056.html

In the past I have been making estimated payments each qtr based on the gains in stocks during that qtr. To be on the safe side going forward I plan to use a CPA. With all the new rules and Obamacare tax, its getting to much to keep up with.