Charlie

One of my favourite Buffett qoutes is: “Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well.” MAGA/Trump is making buying stocks cheap difficult. It will be interesting what Buffett will say about the economy and the stock market next weekend.

@Eldad The addiction gets better if you are looking for another hobby, like traveling, reading or sport and only get interested in stocks if they are down 30% or so. Easier said than done. The world is short-term driven. Sometimes reading discussion boards can be counterproductive.

@Hamburg Investor There are approximately three places to hide from taxes if you live in Germany : 1. Freistellungsauftrag 2. Nichtveranlagungsbescheinigung (this is the biggest one if you have no other income (around €14000 free) 3. Kids and wife (where you use 1 and 2). There could also be a fourth and a little bit more imiganative solution to the tax problem: - Open an Interactive Brokers Account in Ireland. -.Sell the equities (you don´t pay any taxes directly at IB) take the money and hide and retire outside Germany at a nice place like Thailand.

@cwericb I think it is outside my circle of competence. You have great value investors, but I don´t like to invest in some countries (Greece, India), you have more leverage, the invesmtent is in deep value stocks and not wonderful companies, the management has a track record of dancing out of their circle of competence. Of course, Fairfax is smaller, but most small companies tend to stay small. If I had to bet I would say they will outperform, but I don´t have to bet and I am half-way rich. I just think Berkshire is more safe.

@GregmalThe Keys would have been my number one spot and affordable. I was there thirty years ago with two friends and we were hunting girls. So I have good memories of the keys. Dolphins were jumping around and we saw crocodiles in Florida. Time of my life sounds good, but $50 a person sounds expensive. My wife likes this one: https://www.airbnb.de/rooms/12182553?adults=2&check_in=2025-07-05&check_out=2025-07-12&children=2&search_mode=regular_search&category_tag=Tag%3A8225&photo_id=1393225505&source_impression_id=p3_1745249054_P3H0dNCDpndzaoMb&previous_page_section_name=1000&federated_search_id=9052a15c-3b79-426f-8e15-8ee850da5b66 Carribeans sound cool. There are a lot of great places, like I see from your answers, but it has to be affordable, especially the flight. Miami seems to be cheapest flights.

@villainx, @Jaygo, Thanks, we will check the recommendations. Bahamas and Hawaii also came to my mind, but it should be a great place and affordable.

@Gamecock-YT Thanks, we tend a little bit to Florida, because our boys are very active and we like to relax and be at the beach and not driving too much. Driving too much can be hell with our boys.

My wife told me today that for our summer holidays the U.S. is much cheaper than South Africa. Since I don´t visit Trump, rather the U.S.A. my question is what area is better for holidays for a family with 2 seven year old kids Florida or California? Trump seems to make U.S travel for europeans great again.

Probably not, but I don´t know.

Some years ago I contacted them. I got an e-mail 5 days ago.

They sent me an e-mail. From the e-mail: "...we are looking to set-up a feeder structure, only available to ‘Qualified Purchasers’, which would allow for minimum investment amounts of less than $1M."

sold: €492 bought: €469

gfp, I bought at €469 and sold them for €492 1-2 weeks ago. I think we both nearly top-ticked selling Berkshire, but I really like to own great productive assets and not to own much cash.

I bought my Berkshire b shares traders back. Reasoning: Bank of Ameria sees no recession coming, reported good results and Apple mainly tariff-exempted and the annual meeting coming in 2 1/2 weeks and Berkshire likely reporting great results. I got an e-mail that Himalaya Investing (Li Lu) is taking new investors and Trump showing some flexibility. I see this as bullish signs for the market.

Interesting article in Barron´s about tariffs: The U.S. Came Close to Financial Disaster This Week—and Could Come Close Again https://www.barrons.com/articles/trump-tariffs-bond-market-30b2ff4b?mod=past_editions Cheers!

When history rhymes there is a possiblity of a big crash (every 25 years) coming: 1974 2000 OK, there was 2008/2009 2025 The reasoning why every 25 years make sense is that there is a new generation of (naive) investors, who have to learn some things the hard way.

+1 I think some American have not realized that Trump tries to fuck the whole world and nobody likes to get fucked or to quote Munger in another context (not related to Trump): "When he is talking, he is lying and when he is quiet he is stealing."

I remember in 2000 John Templeton said of the market: "The stock market is broken". I think this is the case here, too. Nobody trusts the sucker anymore.

This quote sums up the remarkable success of the Trump administration very well: “There is a deep irony in Trump claiming unfair treatment of the American economy at a time when it was growing robustly while every other major economy had stalled or was losing growth momentum,” said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University. “In an even greater irony, the Trump tariffs are likely to end America’s remarkable run of success and crash the economy, job growth and financial markets.’’ Cheers!

Tomorrow there are new announcements of tariffs and then there is the hostility with China. Things can change pretty fast.

One of the simplest rule of life is something like this: Where a lot of great/wonderful things came from, there is a high probability that more great/wonderful things will come from, because the underlying cause is the same (e. g. Berkshire Hathaway). If you invert it: Where a lot of terrible things came from, there is a high probability that more terrible things will come from, because the underlying cause is the same (e. g. Trump administration). or as Buffett or Munger said: "Track record is everything." Cheers!

I have 97% in Berkshire and 3% in cash and sleeping fantastic. (Without this outsized Berkshire position I couldn´t stand some unnamed political person ) If you don´t have to pay a lot of taxes on the sales, it could be good to sell some shares, but if you have to pay a lot of taxes I wouldn´t sell. I just thought 1,78 P/B is too high and the MAGA bubble could burst, so I sold some shares with the lowest taxation. But Berkshire will march on, especially with Berkshire Annual Meeting and great performance coming up in May.

I also sold some Berkshire b shares. The entire market was ignoring the tariffs. The market is not good at anticipating change. Let the MAGA bubble burst!!!

Ironically the "Independence Day" or whatever Trump called it, could be the inflection point for bursting the MAGA bubble. We will see!

There are a lot of news that the EU does not charge 39% to the U.S. The number seems much too high. Anybody know the realistic math behind it?