Saturday, May 17, 2008

THE ZEN INVESTING OF WARREN BUFFETT

Warren Buffett is unquestionable the greatest investor of our time.  Shares of his holding company sell for approximately $150000/share and are by far the highest priced shares (ie., most valuable) shares on the stock exchange.  Dude is an interestng mix of conserative investing philosophy and extreme intelligence.  Usually smart guys get cocky and tend to bet the farm.  But not good old Warren.  Anyway, he recently gave a talk to a bunch of MBA's and here are the highlights:

  • The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they're too heavy to be broken.
  • You [ordinary people] do the same things as I do, but I travel a little differently.
  • Do what you love NOW... otherwise it's like saving sex for old age.
  • Take a job as if you're independently wealthy.
  • The best company to invest in = a pretty castle with a wide moat  and honest, able kings (i.e, a sound company with substantial advantage over competitors and honest CEO's)
  • When looking at a company to ivest in, find simple products that you know, and how they will be 10 years from now.  For example, chewing gun companies will be doing the same thing in the same way 10, 20, 100 years from now.
  • Value "share of mind" - a product brand name that illicits an emotional trigger/response.  Example, guys will buy Hershey's chocolate on Valentines Day instead of the generic, cheaper brand because the mark-up in price is not a barrier to purcharse.

This stuff is a little hard to follow if you've already got a 6 pack of brewskis on board.  It's probably better for all if I just studied these nifty little ideas when I'm a little more sober.  I'll finish up the summaries tomorrow.  Dang this crapola is complicated.
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Peace and chicken grease until tomorrow .



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