Biggest regrets of the older posters here?

[Masterofnone]

No big regrets here, but I'd be financially better off if I knew about the power of compounding when younger. My wife and I knew about frugality and saving but nothing about investing. (The result was being debt free for all except the first six years of home ownership with the result that we had tremendous freedom as far as work/life balance.) Still. I could have started investing in my mid-thirties kind of missed about 12-15 years of potential compounding. It's a good thing to teach your kids.

[james22]

4 hours ago, frommi said:

Knowing about net net stocks in 2000-2007 would have been a life changing time. Probably would sit on a yacht writing this now.

 

Might have missed out on the tech bull market that followed 2009 though?

 

Even though my professional career was all about tech innovation, I was pretty burned by 2000 and so was too smitten with the Fama-French argument to take real advantage of that long run.

[nsx5200]

On 5/29/2024 at 7:40 AM, Charlie said:

can you recommend a good book or video about meditation. How did you learn it?

 

@Charlie, this is what started it all for me: 

If you like what he says, you can go find his book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12921211-search-inside-yourself

I like that he explains the science and reasoning on meditation from an rational point of view and not just some feel good reason.

 

@frommi, the lessons you described is captured in https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49814228-the-biggest-bluff.  In a mostly chance game, it's easy to take away the wrong lessons just because you happen to be lucky (at least for a short while).  There are a lot of interesting psychology nuggets in there as well, which I think is applicable to investing as well.

 

 

[boilermaker75]

4 hours ago, nsx5200 said:

@Charlie, this is what started it all for me: 

If you like what he says, you can go find his book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12921211-search-inside-yourself

I like that he explains the science and reasoning on meditation from an rational point of view and not just some feel good reason.

 

@frommi, the lessons you described is captured in https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49814228-the-biggest-bluff.  In a mostly chance game, it's easy to take away the wrong lessons just because you happen to be lucky (at least for a short while).  There are a lot of interesting psychology nuggets in there as well, which I think is applicable to investing as well.

 

 

 

Meditation causes physical changes in the brain that can be observed with MRIs.

 

 

Britta K. Hölzel, James Carmody, Mark Vangel, Christina Congleton, Sita M. Yerramsetti,  Tim Gard, and Sara W. Lazar, “Mindfulness Practice Leads to Increases in Regional Brain Gray Matter Density,” Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 191, no. 1 (2011): 36–43

 

Eileen Luders, Arthur W. Toga, Natasha Lepore, and Christian Gaser, “The Underlying  Anatomical Correlates of Long-Term Meditation: Larger Hippocampal and Frontal Volumes of Gray Matter,” NeuroImage 45, no. 3 (2009): 672–78.

 

And changes in blood flow in the brain,

 

B. Newberg, N. Wintering, M. R. Waldman, D. Amen, D. S. Khalsa, and A. Alavi, “Cerebral Blood Flow Differences Between Long-Term Meditators and Non-Meditators,” Conscious and Cognition 19, no. 4 (2010): 899–905.

[Charlie]

nsx5200, thank you.

 

It looks like a great book. I bought it. 

[frommi]

8 hours ago, james22 said:

 

Might have missed out on the tech bull market that followed 2009 though?

 

Even though my professional career was all about tech innovation, I was pretty burned by 2000 and so was too smitten with the Fama-French argument to take real advantage of that long run.

I missed it either way, but i dont regret missing that, because it was not really knowable beforehand.

But the fact that netnets work very well was knowable since a long long time. You just had to read the right books and listen to the greatest investing mentor on earth. It just doesn't work with really large sums of money (>5 million probably).

And netnet's didnt stop working in 2007, in fact since i invest in netnet's that systematic approach has always beaten the market over a 3-5 year timeframe. And by a large margin (for example 2020->2024 that system has a cagr of 50% with real money on the line even though 2023 it was flat). 

[SharperDingaan]

Holding back too much.

 

Back in the day when Russia was breaking up, some friends and I got access to a military warehouse. Whatever we wanted, including transportation to the border, as long as we paid in untraceable USD, and weren't buying weapons. We did very well (after a lot of work!), but barely scratched the surface of what was available to us. An additional 3-5 truckloads would have set us up for life very early on, at almost zero incremental risk.

 

When you have the brass ring, keep pulling on that sucker for everything you're worth!

 

SD

 

 

Edited May 31 by SharperDingaan

[gfp]

6 minutes ago, SharperDingaan said:

Holding back too much.

 

Back in the day when Russia was breaking up, some friends and I got access to a military warehouse. Whatever we wanted, including transportation to the border, as long as we paid in untraceable USD, and weren't buying weapons. We did very well (after a lot of work!), but barely scratched the surface of what was available to us. An additional 3-5 truckloads would have set us up for life very early on, at almost zero incremental risk.

 

When you have the brass ring, keep pulling on that sucker for everything you're worth!

 

SD

 

 

 

Sounds like Munger's advice - you aren't going to get too many trips to the pie counter so you ought to serve yourself an indecent helping when you find yourself there.

[LC]

Here's one the much older folks have probably experienced:

 

When you're "young" (50s, 60s) start looking at single-story living (no stairs) with restrooms within walking distance. 

 

There's an age when you hate being seated close to the restrooms, there's another age when you greatly appreciate it

[boilermaker75]

2 hours ago, LC said:

Here's one the much older folks have probably experienced:

 

When you're "young" (50s, 60s) start looking at single-story living (no stairs) with restrooms within walking distance. 

 

There's an age when you hate being seated close to the restrooms, there's another age when you greatly appreciate it

 

You should never stop using stairs. Something we all need to do every single day of our lives. (Plus weight-lifting like cubsfan.)  I am 71 and my office is on the third floor. I love when I am with a 20 year old student walking up to my office and when we get there they need a moment to catch their breath and I don't.

 

 

[Pauly]

48 minutes ago, boilermaker75 said:

 

You should never stop using stairs. Something we all need to do every single day of our lives. (Plus weight-lifting like cubsfan.)  I am 71 and my office is on the third floor. I love when I am with a 20 year old student walking up to my office and when we get there they need a moment to catch their breath and I don't.

 

 

I love this one. I'm always amazed the percentage of people who will wait 5 minutes for an elevator rather than spending a couple minutes going up the stairs. It's one of the simple lessons I tell my kids that makes me feel wise: take the stairs and you're already ahead of 90% of the population.

 

Also applies to parking lots. Why drive around for 10 minutes waiting for a close spot when you can park farther away and get some walking in. Plus you're less likely to get your paint scratched.

[rohitc99]

3 hours ago, boilermaker75 said:

 

You should never stop using stairs. Something we all need to do every single day of our lives. (Plus weight-lifting like cubsfan.)  I am 71 and my office is on the third floor. I love when I am with a 20 year old student walking up to my office and when we get there they need a moment to catch their breath and I don't.

 

 

+1 You are setting good example for us. I am sure i will thank and remember you and cubsfan for your advise as i get to that age

[boilermaker75]

3 hours ago, Pauly said:

I love this one. I'm always amazed the percentage of people who will wait 5 minutes for an elevator rather than spending a couple minutes going up the stairs. It's one of the simple lessons I tell my kids that makes me feel wise: take the stairs and you're already ahead of 90% of the population.

 

Also applies to parking lots. Why drive around for 10 minutes waiting for a close spot when you can park farther away and get some walking in. Plus you're less likely to get your paint scratched.

 

You also don't get your door dented and it is much easier to pull in and out with no cars around.

 

Just a few simple things like taking stairs instead of elevators can make a huge difference.

 

Also minimizing sugar and vegetable oil consumption, sticking with grass-fed beef and butter, wild-caught fish, and pasture-raised chickens and eggs.

[vinod1]

5 hours ago, boilermaker75 said:

 

You also don't get your door dented and it is much easier to pull in and out with no cars around.

 

Just a few simple things like taking stairs instead of elevators can make a huge difference.

 

Also minimizing sugar and vegetable oil consumption, sticking with grass-fed beef and butter, wild-caught fish, and pasture-raised chickens and eggs.

 

Hi boilermaker75,

 

I am aware of the warnings about the other things, but am surprised at limiting vegetable oil consumption. Could you please explain why? 

 

Thanks

Vinod

[boilermaker75]

1 hour ago, vinod1 said:

 

Hi boilermaker75,

 

I am aware of the warnings about the other things, but am surprised at limiting vegetable oil consumption. Could you please explain why? 

 

Thanks

Vinod

 

Vinod,

 

Vegetable oils contain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which are not bad for you. But they become bad when you extract them because they are very delicate. There is a significant (I believe >5%) of the vegetable oil becomes trans fats, which are essentially toxins. Also, many of the PUFAs get oxidized and become free radicals. It gets even worse if you heat these oils, such as in cooking or frying, because they are delicate and you end up with more trans fats and free radicals.

 

Surprisingly monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), such as olive oil, are much more stable than PUFAs. Going from a MUFA with one double carbon bond to a PUFA with just two double bonds results in six orders of magnitude more reactivity, which I don't actually understand.

 

Boiler

 

Edit: A fatty acid has an alpha and an omega end. An omega-3 PUFA has the first double carbon bond after the third carbon atom from the omega end. An omega-6 PUFA has the first double carbon bond after the 6 carbon atom from the omega end. You want to consume as close as possible the same number of omega-3 and omega-6 PUFAs. They play complementary regulatory roles. In the Standard American Diet (SAD) the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 PUFAs is about 25 to 1! So when I say PUFAs are not bad for you that is if you are consuming equal numbers of omega-6 to omega-3 PUFAs. Hence my mention of wild-caught fish, grass-fed beef and butter, and pasture raised chickens and eggs.

Edited June 1 by boilermaker75

[Gamecock-YT]

12 hours ago, boilermaker75 said:

 

You should never stop using stairs. Something we all need to do every single day of our lives. (Plus weight-lifting like cubsfan.)  I am 71 and my office is on the third floor. I love when I am with a 20 year old student walking up to my office and when we get there they need a moment to catch their breath and I don't.

 

 

 

When my grandmother got into her upper 80s she fell down stairs in her home. Very fortunate to only have broken her shoulder. My grandfather also had a similar type experience walking up some outside stairs after a rain storm. Usually any type of fall at that age usually leads to very negative consequences as I'm sure you are aware. Kind of like Munger's theory of avoiding things with negative consequences, a thing to start thinking seriously about as you age. 

[vinod1]

10 hours ago, boilermaker75 said:

 

Vinod,

 

Vegetable oils contain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which are not bad for you. But they become bad when you extract them because they are very delicate. There is a significant (I believe >5%) of the vegetable oil becomes trans fats, which are essentially toxins. Also, many of the PUFAs get oxidized and become free radicals. It gets even worse if you heat these oils, such as in cooking or frying, because they are delicate and you end up with more trans fats and free radicals.

 

Surprisingly monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), such as olive oil, are much more stable than PUFAs. Going from a MUFA with one double carbon bond to a PUFA with just two double bonds results in six orders of magnitude more reactivity, which I don't actually understand.

 

Boiler

 

Edit: A fatty acid has an alpha and an omega end. An omega-3 PUFA has the first double carbon bond after the third carbon atom from the omega end. An omega-6 PUFA has the first double carbon bond after the 6 carbon atom from the omega end. You want to consume as close as possible the same number of omega-3 and omega-6 PUFAs. They play complementary regulatory roles. In the Standard American Diet (SAD) the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 PUFAs is about 25 to 1! So when I say PUFAs are not bad for you that is if you are consuming equal numbers of omega-6 to omega-3 PUFAs. Hence my mention of wild-caught fish, grass-fed beef and butter, and pasture raised chickens and eggs.

 

Thank you! We use canola oil for cooking, would that be just as bad as vegetable oil? Do you recommend olive oil for cooking or something else?

 

I kind of understood what you are saying at a broad level but do not really understand it well enough.

 

Vinod

[boilermaker75]

8 hours ago, Gamecock-YT said:

 

When my grandmother got into her upper 80s she fell down stairs in her home. Very fortunate to only have broken her shoulder. My grandfather also had a similar type experience walking up some outside stairs after a rain storm. Usually any type of fall at that age usually leads to very negative consequences as I'm sure you are aware. Kind of like Munger's theory of avoiding things with negative consequences, a thing to start thinking seriously about as you age. 

 

I am sorry about your grandparent.

 

Sometime after we turn 30, we start to lose muscle mass. An inactive person will lose between 3% and 5% of their muscle mass each decade. It is considered a disease and called sarcopenia. It is highly preventable with physical activity, especially strength training. Our skeletal muscles are the prime reserve of amino acids. This makes the skeletal muscles critical when it comes to fighting infections, healing injuries, and preventing chronic diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s. The reason a hip fracture is so serious for an elderly person is the lack of skeletal muscle to provide repair materials. Fortunately, by adopting a lifelong exercise routine, you can maintain your skeletal muscles, your health, and your brain function throughout your life.

 

Climbing steps all your life helps, but you need to also do some serious work like cubsfan.

 

Here are thigh MRI scans of a 40- and 70-year old triathletes along with a sedentary 70-year old.

 

Edited June 1 by boilermaker75

[boilermaker75]

15 minutes ago, vinod1 said:

 

Thank you! We use canola oil for cooking, would that be just as bad as vegetable oil? Do you recommend olive oil for cooking or something else?

 

I kind of understood what you are saying at a broad level but do not really understand it well enough.

 

Vinod

 

Canola oil is fragile and heating will generate trans fats and free radicals.

 

Olive, avocado, and sesame oils are better for cooking. Here is an article,

 

https://www.health.com/best-and-worst-cooking-oils-8405160#:~:text=Although your overall diet is,%2C corn%2C and canola oil.

 

As I was researching for my book on learning, I started to discover the importance of exercise, nutrition, and meditation for the functioning of our brains. Our brain is 2% of our body mass but utilizes more than 20% of the oxygen we breathe and the glucose we burn! So it makes sense exercise and nutrition are as important, or more so, to the functioning of our brains as to the functioning of our bodies.

Edited June 1 by boilermaker75

[backtothebeach]

It appears cooking at high temperature is best done with Avocado oil.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Smoke_point_of_cooking_oils

 

Fat	Quality	Smoke point[caution 1]
Avocado oil	Refined	271 °C	520 °F[2][3]
Safflower oil	Refined	266 °C	510 °F[3]
Sunflower oil	Neutralized, dewaxed, bleached & deodorized	252–254 °C[21]	486–489 °F
Avocado oil	Unrefined	250 °C	482 °F[4]
Butter	Clarified	250 °C	482 °F[6]
Beef tallow		250 °C	480 °F
Mustard oil		250 °C	480 °F[11]
Pecan oil		243 °C[16]	470 °F
Palm oil	Fractionated	235 °C[14]	455 °F
Soybean oil		234 °C[20]	453 °F
Peanut oil	Refined	232 °C[3]	450 °F
Rice bran oil	Refined	232 °C[19]	450 °F
Sesame oil	Semirefined	232 °C	450 °F[3]
Sunflower oil	Semirefined	232 °C[3]	450 °F
Sunflower oil, high oleic	Refined	232 °C	450 °F[3]
Corn oil		230–238 °C[9]	446–460 °F
Peanut oil		227–229 °C[3][15]	441–445 °F
Sunflower oil		227 °C[3]	441 °F
Almond oil		221 °C	430 °F[1]
Cottonseed oil	Refined, bleached, deodorized	220–230 °C[10]	428–446 °F
Rapeseed oil (Canola)		220–230 °C[17]	428–446 °F
Vegetable oil blend	Refined	220 °C[13]	428 °F
Grape seed oil		216 °C	421 °F
Olive oil	Virgin	210 °C	410 °F
Olive oil	Extra virgin, low acidity, high quality	207 °C	405 °F[3][13]
Coconut oil	Refined, dry	204 °C	400 °F[8]
Rapeseed oil (Canola)	Refined	204 °C	400 °F
Castor oil	Refined	200 °C[7]	392 °F
Olive oil	Refined	199–243 °C	390–470 °F[12]
Rapeseed oil (Canola)	Expeller press	190–232 °C	375–450 °F[18]
Lard		190 °C	374 °F[5]
Olive oil	Extra virgin	190 °C	374 °F[13]
Corn oil	Unrefined	178 °C[7]	352 °F
Coconut oil	Unrefined, dry expeller pressed, virgin	177 °C	350 °F[8]
Sesame oil	Unrefined	177 °C	350 °F[3]
Peanut oil	Unrefined	160 °C[3]	320 °F
Safflower oil	Semirefined	160 °C	320 °F[3]
Sunflower oil, high oleic	Unrefined	160 °C	320 °F[3]
Butter		150 °C	302 °F[5]
Flaxseed oil	Unrefined	107 °C	225 °F[3]
Rapeseed oil (Canola)	Unrefined	107 °C	225 °F
Safflower oil	Unrefined	107 °C	225 °F[3]
Sunflower oil	Unrefined, first cold-pressed, raw	107 °C[22]	225 °F

[Paarslaars]

Of butter and beef tallow it seems. For me it depends, I use olive oil for most things except with chicken I like to add butter and with steak some Wagyu beef tallow.

[LearningMachine]

 

Becoming heart attack proof

Dr. Esselstyn dedicated his life to preventing heart disease and later became Clinton's doctor after Clinton's heart attack.  According to his experiments and longevity results on patients, if you don't want to injure your endothelial cells, you shouldn't use even a drop of oil or eat any animal protein, including dairy and eggs.  According to his diet, only things you should eat are vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and fruits. 

 

If you follow his diet strictly, he effectively guarantees that you won't die of heart disease.  He is himself 90 years old and in fit condition.  See

• https://www.amazon.com/dp/1583333002?ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_0841MHKKQS656B88FKYG&ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_0841MHKKQS656B88FKYG&social_share=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_0841MHKKQS656B88FKYG&skipTwisterOG=1
• https://youtu.be/_AoWIfPixYo?feature=shared
• https://youtu.be/Or5uiAMznxo?feature=shared

 

Reversing age

Because almost all diseases are correlated with age, another thing to work on is reversing your biological age.  Dr. David Sinclair at Harvard Medical School has dedicated his life to it. He is himself 54 years old and has reversed his biological age to be in 30s.  See:

• https://a.co/d/4eEGFuk
• https://www.youtube.com/@DavidSinclairPodcast

Edited June 1 by LearningMachine

[Paarslaars]

Yeah but who wants to get old if it means not eating meat. 

[boilermaker75]

2 hours ago, backtothebeach said:

It appears cooking at high temperature is best done with Avocado oil.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Smoke_point_of_cooking_oils

 

Fat	Quality	Smoke point[caution 1]
Avocado oil	Refined	271 °C	520 °F[2][3]
Safflower oil	Refined	266 °C	510 °F[3]
Sunflower oil	Neutralized, dewaxed, bleached & deodorized	252–254 °C[21]	486–489 °F
Avocado oil	Unrefined	250 °C	482 °F[4]
Butter	Clarified	250 °C	482 °F[6]
Beef tallow		250 °C	480 °F
Mustard oil		250 °C	480 °F[11]
Pecan oil		243 °C[16]	470 °F
Palm oil	Fractionated	235 °C[14]	455 °F
Soybean oil		234 °C[20]	453 °F
Peanut oil	Refined	232 °C[3]	450 °F
Rice bran oil	Refined	232 °C[19]	450 °F
Sesame oil	Semirefined	232 °C	450 °F[3]
Sunflower oil	Semirefined	232 °C[3]	450 °F
Sunflower oil, high oleic	Refined	232 °C	450 °F[3]
Corn oil		230–238 °C[9]	446–460 °F
Peanut oil		227–229 °C[3][15]	441–445 °F
Sunflower oil		227 °C[3]	441 °F
Almond oil		221 °C	430 °F[1]
Cottonseed oil	Refined, bleached, deodorized	220–230 °C[10]	428–446 °F
Rapeseed oil (Canola)		220–230 °C[17]	428–446 °F
Vegetable oil blend	Refined	220 °C[13]	428 °F
Grape seed oil		216 °C	421 °F
Olive oil	Virgin	210 °C	410 °F
Olive oil	Extra virgin, low acidity, high quality	207 °C	405 °F[3][13]
Coconut oil	Refined, dry	204 °C	400 °F[8]
Rapeseed oil (Canola)	Refined	204 °C	400 °F
Castor oil	Refined	200 °C[7]	392 °F
Olive oil	Refined	199–243 °C	390–470 °F[12]
Rapeseed oil (Canola)	Expeller press	190–232 °C	375–450 °F[18]
Lard		190 °C	374 °F[5]
Olive oil	Extra virgin	190 °C	374 °F[13]
Corn oil	Unrefined	178 °C[7]	352 °F
Coconut oil	Unrefined, dry expeller pressed, virgin	177 °C	350 °F[8]
Sesame oil	Unrefined	177 °C	350 °F[3]
Peanut oil	Unrefined	160 °C[3]	320 °F
Safflower oil	Semirefined	160 °C	320 °F[3]
Sunflower oil, high oleic	Unrefined	160 °C	320 °F[3]
Butter		150 °C	302 °F[5]
Flaxseed oil	Unrefined	107 °C	225 °F[3]
Rapeseed oil (Canola)	Unrefined	107 °C	225 °F
Safflower oil	Unrefined	107 °C	225 °F[3]
Sunflower oil	Unrefined, first cold-pressed, raw	107 °C[22]	225 °F

 

I am not sure "smoke point" correlates with which oils are healthier to use. You will have billions of more trans fats and free radicals cooking with safflower oil than with a MUFA such as olive oil. 

 

Nutrition is very complex and difficult to address with these short snippets. You also don't want to cook anything at high heat as you will generate Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs).

[boilermaker75]

2 hours ago, Paarslaars said:

Of butter and beef tallow it seems. For me it depends, I use olive oil for most things except with chicken I like to add butter and with steak some Wagyu beef tallow.

 

Just make sure you are eating grass-fed beef and butter.