alt Hacker NewsWe should never idolize a person (in my opinion). Here are some things Buffet has done that I admire (notice that phrasing):
- He consistently communicated with shareholders of Berkshire in a straight-forward and transparent way in his letters and annual reports. If you read these documents, I believe that you will have a solid understanding of how he built Berkshire.
- He maintained a disciplined approach to investing and managing risk over 60+ years.
- He still lives in the same home he bought when he was 28 years old.
That said, it makes me a little sad that we've read the last of his annual letters.
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Right. This is why I believe we should not build statues of people, only of ideas.
Sure -- but as far as idols go, you could do a lot worse than Mr. Buffett
I agree, however I don’t think the last two of your bullets are necessarily something to learn from on the surface.
The house he bought at 28 is 3500 square feet in a very very nice neighborhood and was worth $1.2 million a few years ago. It's humble by billionaire standards, not by average person standards. He never needed to size-up because of children, or size-down because of a bad economy, he was already set for both space and finances. Let's not create a moralistic myth out of his lack of need.
I appreciate this viewpoint. Thanks for sharing.
He said he would keep writing at least once a year.
> Our society has become moralistic
Which is extremely important. It's important to call out highly immoral behavior and lifestyles. Being a billionaire by itself is highly immoral. These people sleep like babies while people starve to death.
> He consistently communicated with shareholders of Berkshire in a straight-forward and transparent way in his letters and annual reports.
We praising for the bare minimum now?
> - He still lives in the same home he bought when he was 28 years old.
Really makes me wonder what drives him. For many people it's the money, but with him it doesn't seem that way. But I haven't read too much about him, so if anyone has insight I'd love to hear about it.
>>Here are some things Buffet has done that I admire (notice that phrasing):
Perhaps the best thing Buffet has managed to do is to live long. Most of compounding magic begins at ages 60-65, a time where most investors start to die out.
Second best thing he did was to start/acquire a insurance firm. The 'float' helps them to run a kind of in house index fund on other peoples money, without having to pay TERs/Fees. Thats basically no effort bogle style compounding. Even if you end with a situation where you have to return ALL the premiums collected, you still get to keep the returns.
Other wise everything else is just fairly normal, if you are sitting in front of charts for long, its impossible to miss something that's going up on a weekly timeframe for long periods of time. You just pyramid upwards and wait, patiently.
The real issue is waiting doesn't work too well for most people as you start to die out after 60.
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"He still lives in the same home he bought when he was 28 years old."
Good for him. Big savings right there. Buying/selling/moving house can cost a fortune.
I think moralism is an side effect of the demise of spiritualism in the west. We somehow have to shape moral values, the lack of a framework for it makes it feel blunt and chaotic.
That being said, I find it odd to moralize on moralism. We have way too many people in power that are awful humans and do a bad job and never get punished.
Meanwhile, stealing a car because you are hungry can be the begin of a ruined life.
There is no balance.
(This isn't about buffet, idc, just about your interwoven opinion.)