ericd1

I think there's a huge difference in what it would take to retire at 30 vs 60 years. At 30 there's a huge unknown ahead. The same unknown exists for the 60 year old, but he has a much shorter timeframe to fund expenses. Therefore I would say the younger you are the more you would need for "a margin of safety". One key element of the equation that hasn't been mentioned is that I would expect most of us would become more conservative in our investing as our net worth grows. Obviously if the nest egg is large enough, like Buffett or Gates, living off the dividends or tax-free interest is easily accomplished and there's little need for superior investment performance. But my guess is most here aren't quite in that net worth category (...yet!) but may well have Buffett's investment ability (?). With that thought in mind perhaps in addition to "how much is needed to retire" one should consider "How will I invest my money" when I retire. I'm semi-retired (could be retired) at 63, with a 60/40 equity/fixed income mix and sleeping very well!

Attached is a spreadsheet comparing FBK and MERC 2010 results. MERC has more energy sales, but even removing the energy sales and leaving the costs their EBITDA is 10% better than FBK. FBK's operations do not seem seem to be very efficient or MERC's sales mix is much more profitable (?). If I were running the operation I would focus on improving existing operations before heading in a different direction. Am I missing something?

Pasard, Congratulations on nine years! It's a terrific milestone for you. Not only are you a lucky man, so are the men and women that have had the opportunity to share, learn and benefit from your personal efforts. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of the group.

Closed out EGPT this week...I'm leaving some money on the table, but 10.5% in a couple of weeks isn't all bad.

He has the utility and the railroad. Add in the mine and he's completly vertically integrated and profits from each step

Interesting article on hedge funds adding munis to their holdings... http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Hedge-Funds-Are-Buying-More-cnbc-3794930567.html?x=0

Yes, the Pimco Funds are leveraged and yes there's more upside potential. I'm looking at fair value as the price six months ago with everything else equal. The leveraged funds were down 15%-20% mid-Jan, now they are down 10%-15%. I did not buy insured bond funds. The ones I looked at didn't fall quite as much as the uninsured. Some of the Pimoc funds also carry a healthy premium, If the premium declines the upside is reduced. Other "investment grade" CEFs are trading much closer to NAV, if not a discount. The situation is turning quickly. The 20% decline in mid January equates to a 25% gain upon return to previous prices. Today's 12.5% decline is a 13%+ gain, plus the current 7-8% yield (Tax Eq 10%+) Thank you Meredith!

A place to start is the CEF Screener at CEF Connect...Try "Tax-Free Income" & "National" - From there you can drill down into the various funds. As one article suggested be careful of Illinois bonds. http://www.cefconnect.com/Screener/FundScreener.aspx I'm holding a basket

Other interesting 13F websites http://www.gurufocus.com/ http://fundville.com/ http://hedgefund.taa4themasses.com/ http://alphaclone.com/ ($)

I have been replacing the taxable and lower yielding bank preferreds in my basket with munis yielding ~10%-12% tax equivalent. Besides the high yield I believe there's 20%-30% upside in many well managed muni funds.

I don't think he was arrogant...He was honest and spoke factually about how the crisis was perceived by some investors...I don't think he was supportive of letting them big businesses fail. "You will always have institutions that are too big to fail, and sometimes they will fail,'' (meaning government will have to support them when they fail) -- Buffett. Like it or not (actually I support the idea) the government, or central bank is the the creditor of last resort. Only my opinion, but I thought the Federal Reserve and government acted responsively during the crisis. Sure there are elements that perhaps should have been handled differently, but I'm not going to "Monday morning quarterback" the decisions that were made.

Wow - 'market rates' - What a novel concept. I agree Congress would find it difficult, if not impossible to pay any legislation to clean up the mess and Geithner’s ‘market rate’ plan is a viable solution. Presuming the GSE’s become financially stable, the PFDs would increase in value. It might take ten years or longer, but even with that a return to par over ten years it would be huge return…There could be some bumps along the way, perhaps a change in direction if the plan doesn’t work, etc. Yet the market seems to be reacting unfavorably to the news…

No fee at fidelity, schwab, or tdameritrade. It's traded on otc (pk) not a foreign exchange.

I've been there too and I sure don't know what's there. However, I make no claim to be a visionary.

The QUIBS were a better buy (although not without significant risk) between $5.00-$10.00 in 2009! I think they'll be around a little longer, so I'm still holding.

Gentlemen, you make a good point, but I always admired a guy named John Templeton. He did rather well investing globally and sifting through opportunities that many wouldn't consider. Regime transitions are uncertain affairs, but recent history has favored democratic governments. Of course 'this time it could be different'.

The market didn't like the news...The pfds started dropping at 2 PM...Down $0.43 for the day

If BRK were to drop by 20% I'd be a buyer, not a seller!

On your way to a ten-bagger - Congratulations!

Great article DC, thanks. Sure isn't rocket science, but it requires an high level perspective to find the problems and initiate solutions!

Don't you think the long-term BRK investor wants Buffet to keep the cash and reinvest anyway he wants...I do!

I added a small position in the Egyptian ETF (EGPT)...will add more if it declines further...Buy when there's "blood in the streets".

Ok I'll bite - are their any public vultures?

Yep!

Rabbit, You are correct...but I doubt if many will be re-financed...