gfp

Am I wrong that most people are making at least $15 per hour these days? I know that is still near impossible to live on, but it seems like through the pandemic even restaurant dishwashers were making at least $15 / hour. California's $20 minimum wage for fast food workers is going into effect in a month.

Cheers - I will post them but they are not out yet. The Annual filings take a bit longer to be published. I've seen quarterly filings actually come out before a company's 10Q before (which must be a no-no) - but never for a BRK sub. edit: if you are hoping to learn the "secret" financial security you will probably be out of luck (same as Q3) because it is hidden inside the Harney Investment Trust, Warren's go-to disclosure obscurer (is that a word?)

@Cigarbutt In the middle charts, "money growth and inflation," what are they plotting as "money growth?" It looks like the red line is "inflation." How are they defining "money growth?"

Are we gonna be OK? Should I be panicking because super-core ticked higher? Is capitalism working?

Greg Abel is leaving the Kraft Heinz board. I doubt there is much to read into this, probably just time management. Greg had a large increase in workload. Two Berkshire designees will remain on the KHC board. https://www.sec.gov/ixviewer/ix.html?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1637459/000163745924000029/khc-20240222.htm

Thanks - that's a great charting tool - bookmarked!

Yes, to the original point of the topic - the best way to avoid losing your position in a wonderful long-term compounder is to know the company better than almost anybody. That is how you gain the confidence that you actually do know the company and its prospects better than Mr. Market. To stop taking any cues whatsoever from the market price. That is what allows you to recognize a dip on a short seller's report as an opportunity to add and not the beginnings of doubt creeping in. It is what allows you to disregard the recent performance of the shares in deciding if it is a good investment today. And if you are not wired naturally for the long hold - a growing deferred tax liability helps. My average cost basis on FFH in CAD is $686 and for FRFHF is $569 - which isn't particularly low - because I never stopped adding shares. It is a better outcome than if I had just admired my pristine low cost basis and never made the position larger.

I do think you are conflating a post by someone else that mentioned 2013 with my post which preceded it and covered the period from September 2001 to the present, which is my holding period.

Well I didn't read the article but there are plenty of good reasons to sell Berkshire at a $930 Billion market cap this week. The best reason is always to put the capital into better investments.

I think you have me confused with somebody else. (and, no, I cannot invest anything in a tax deferred account and have never had one)

Ah yes, I see, the Morningstar chart was not properly accounting for the reinvestment of all dividends (or deducting any tax on those dividends). Ignoring the tax that would have been owed, the S&P 500 with all dividends reinvested at the time they were paid did 600% over my holding period of Berkshire. (9/2001 - present). Berkshire did 777.5% so only 177% better than the index. You'd be surprised how well 10% tax-deferred over a long period of time can do for ya.

Are you trading bitcoin at all hours or just intensely interested in the price moves? Are you buying or selling it?

Mr. Thebeau only makes killings. He doesn't get out of bed for 10%. Get it straight

I don't know when you were in pre-school but the Berkshire shares I manage have almost exactly doubled the total return of the S&P500 with dividends included since 2001 which is when I bought them (I was not a big trader in pre-school so this was after my schooling was complete). And over that entire period, unlike the index, the shares were rarely over-valued or worrying.

Uncle Warren will give it to you straight. You can buy plenty of t-bills if you find yourself a dealer. We've got a government to finance after all!

in other "cannibal" news, eBay just reported a decent quarter and another $250m repurchase - https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ebay-inc-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2023-results-302073214.html

Is this a cry for help? Do you need a Charlie to lift the scales from your eyes?

what is "max allocation"? Is that a treasury direct thing or what?

Lex is on a role recently - Tucker Carlson today https://www.youtube.com/@lexfridman

Yes SMAs but no website, not a registered investment advisor and only have 10 clients and that's all I will ever have (edit: could definitely have fewer!)

The only accounts I manage that still have Berkshire in them are fully taxable accounts with very large positions in Berkshire shares at very low cost basis. The type of position those account owners intend to transfer to their heirs and chosen causes on death. I can't do much with it without causing them a bunch of problems but it counts towards my investment performance so I do what I can around the edges and borrow against it in reasonable amounts.

I believe this was his last update. Hopefully he ended up with enough to pay the tax bill

Thanks for posting @netcash1 - sounds like this deal would be more relevant to Fairfax Financial than to Fairfax India but an interesting data point nonetheless. Seems like Fairfax should be allowed to take majority ownership of Digit. I wonder what is holding it up behind the scenes.

I sold just about 10% of the total shares for accounts that still own Berkshire. Even after selecting the highest basis shares possible (~$71.85 / b-share in these accounts) there is still a significant tax consequence to selling shares. But 10% is a lot of money and still a lot of tax will be owed. I don't personally own a lot of Berkshire anymore.

I don't think anybody had to pay back in 2009. It was free to join this forum for many years. But how do you remember a username and password from 2009....