Liberty

That I would like to know. I've had mistakes in my RSP and TFSA in the past, and it sucks. The only thing that gives me comfort is that I've learned a lot since and now own much higher-quality businesses, so the chances of permanent losses over the long-term should be reduced. But it's still a trade-off; do you put things that are super safe and boring, but might not result in huge gains, to avoid losses. Or do you put potential big winners to have more gains to shield from taxes, but they might be more uncertain and could result in losses..?

I agree. "Politicking" or not I'll take it. They hike it knowing few can or will take advantage of it. I will! ;D Most people would rather have houses they can't afford and financed SUVs to commute in the city in or whatever. Life's about choices.

Rejoice!

Great one, thanks for posting!

http://www.valuewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Qlet2015-01.unlocked-1.pdf

http://5by5.tv/criticalpath/146 I enjoyed this podcast episode and think that many here might like it too. The format is that Horace (who you might know from his work at Asymco.com) is being interviewed about a car purchase that he made (Porsche Cayman). The interview technique is very effective at figuring out exactly why he made the purchase, and not the usual bullshit. I find this technique very valuable to think about things like why are people buying things that aren't just the cheapest one that does what they need. Or to flip it, it says a lot about how certain companies can be differentiated. Anyway, I hope you like it.

I'm sure it was great and I'm sad to have missed it. I'll try to make it next year :)

Indeed. My son's middle name is "Feynman" 8)

Some good ones have been mentioned. Here's a few I'll add: American Ceasar: Douglas MacArthur, by William Manchester With the Old Breed, by E.G. Sledge American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, by Le Ly Hayslip The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris It's not a book, but I recommend the HBO miniseries John Adams (the book on which it's based is probably good too, but I haven't read it yet). The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, by Graham Farmelo

Unless I'm missing something, this is a market commentary, not a shareholder letter, so of course they're going to talk about all kinds of stuff that is not always directly related to the performance of their funds, such as market structure and such. I think they talk a lot about ETFs because they are trying to build their own kind of ETFs with owner managers and other unusual selection criteria.

Isn't that basically the same thing that a number of people have been saying forever, including Buffett?

Thanks.

Al & al, My plan right now is kind of to have a few years worth of expenses in cash, to live off that, and to replenish that buffer periodically when something is at a level that I can sell. If there's a big drop, historically things tend to fall fast but usually within two years things have had time to recover, at least to a level that isn't terrible if I have to sell some. Have you looked at that kind of "cash buffer" approach and if so, why did you reject it in favor of finding dividend payers? Is it because it's less predictable, so it doesn't feel good? That's a worry that I have, that I would be constantly thinking about that buffer, and if I can avoid the extra stress, that would be nice.

Have fun everyone! Maybe I'll make it next year.

meiroy, you misunderstood me. Read what I wrote earlier in the thread; what benefits kids most is to be with their parents, and to have happy and stress free parents. Buying a BMW or a granite countertop doesn't help your kids, yet most people spend most of their money on crap, and they work all the time to afford all that crap, rarely seeing their kids who end up being raised by strangers. That's when money problems and stress don't strain the relationship of parents. Education isn't just in school. I intend to teach my son all kinds of stuff that I never learned in school, and to build a strong relationship with him, and I wish my father had done the same with me, but he was always working. And I wasn't talking about sending them to a crappy school or whatever to save a few bucks. The whole idea is to figure out what really matters and what doesn't, and most people fail miserably at that. The example of my grandmother was just to show that she didn't have any margin of safety. She had the bare essentials (though a medieval peasant might have found her life luxurious, it's all relative). But today, we do have a surplus, except we just spend it all on unnecessary crap rather than buying our freedom and independence, things that I find a lot more valuable than what most people around me spend their money on. I don't know if you deleted your post because you changed your mind or not, but that's my reply.

Video of the 40 minute interview with Druckenmiller: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-04-15/stan-druckenmiller-zero-interest-rates-unnecessary-now

We don't have a budget, but we track expenses, and looking at the graph of the past few years, I don't see a noticeable jump since my son was born. The "kids are super expensive" is one of those things like "life's so expensive these days, who can put money aside?" that just isn't true for most but the very poorest, but is quite convenient for people who want to sell you things or convince you that you need a gold-plated everything to be happy. My grandmother had 12 kids. She raised them by herself since my grandfather was out doing mineral exploration up north most of the year. They lived on a farm without electricity for a while when my mother was young. We're so fricking rich these days, we don't even realize, or truly enjoy it, because people make the unconscious choice of massive lifestyle inflation rather than keeping a solid margin of safety and letting that compound over time.

We have a 1-year-old son. Over the past year, and the years before as we observed the many people around us who had kids, it became quite clear that kids can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want. And a lot of what people spend on kids isn't actually things that make them happier and better people. In fact, the best thing for most kids would be to spend more time with their parents, and to see those parents be stress-free and happy. Most people spend all their time away from their kids to earn enough to buy a bunch of crap that the kids don't even notice and that they would gladly trade for more time with their parents (do they care if you drive a BMW instead of a Honda or that you have granite countertops instead of wood?).

I think you'll find the writings of MMM thought-provoking, if nothing else. He addresses all the usual fears about high-cost-of-living cities and college tuition for kids, etc.

Hi Jay, My personal details are not very useful to anyone but myself, but Dshachory is right. Go read the MMM blog starting with the #1 post chronologically and make your way to the present. After that, either you'll get it (it's like Buffett's value investing) or you won't. But chances are, you don't need as much as you think, and you're probably spending a lot more than you need to be happy. I'm 32 years old. You probably make more money than I do. You should be able to retire before you're 60. Here you go: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/04/06/meet-mr-money-mustache/ There's a button at the bottom to go to the next post. It takes some posts for him to hit his stride, so make sure you don't give up before you've read 10-15. For older school materials on the same topics, check out: http://www.amazon.ca/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-Relationship/dp/0143115766 This is a book that I read in my early 20s and that helped set me on the right path. https://www.createspace.com/3457832 There's also this book, which is a bit more philosophical and abstract. I suggest you start out with the MMM blog.

Uccmal, this is nice, and congratulations also. Is the dividend yield on your portfolio comparable to what you could get with a passive approach, say with like VIG, VYM, VTV from Vanguard; or with a near-passive approach like a Dogs of the Dow strategy? Could you see yourself going this passive route? I've toyed with this idea myself (but decided not to until I get too bored or demented to pick stocks actively, like maybe when I'm over 90?) Way better - 5.0 - 6.0% on cost . I am already going the passive route in some sense. I have set up enough dividend payers to cover living expenses. Any dividend growth or good deals I get from here are gravy. I have to get my Wife retired now (if thats possible - she loves her job - it's a sickness....) I'm thinking of retiring in the relatively near future too, so I've been thinking more about getting cash out of my investments. Still not sure if looking for dividend payers is the way that I'll decide to go, but I'm looking at all options including that one. Right now I'm more thinking about keeping a few years of expenses in cash, and periodically replenishing that pile when something is fairly valued or more. If there's a big downturn, I can simply live through it on the cash pile and not have to sell anything at the bottom (and let the businesses that I invest in deploy capital on my behalf). That's a fine theory, but I'll admit that it would probably feel better to have the certainty of a bunch of dividend cheques coming in every 3 months. One the other hand, most of the businesses that I feel most comfortable with don't pay dividends, mostly because they have a good capital allocator at the helm that tends to get good returns on incremental capital invested. Maybe I can take care of this at the portfolio level, and still invest that way with part of the money and put another piece of it in some dividend ETF or whatever (btw uccmal, what do you think of those? any obvious flaw or downside that I should be aware of). Thanks.

That's a good trick. Another one is to hit preview as you write. Each time you hit the server resets your timer, so if you hit preview in between each paragraph or whatever you should be ok.

I think we need to rename this forum to the 'Corner of Berkshire and INTJ'.

Did the Keirsey test a few years ago, got INTJ.

Nothing wrong here.. http://m.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/mortgages/good-things-come-in-small-packages-for-millennial-buyers/article23671953?service=mobile