The Practical Way

How We Can Restore Confidence

Thursday, 25th February 2010 | Articles

The Washington Post
By Charles T. Munger
February 11, 2009

Our situation is dire. Moderate booms and busts are inevitable in free-market capitalism. But a boom-bust cycle as gross as the one that caused our present misery is dangerous, and recurrences should be prevented. The country is understandably depressed — mired in issues involving fiscal stimulus, which is needed, and improvements in bank strength. A key question: Should we opt for even more pain now to gain a better future? For instance, should we create new controls to stamp out much sin and folly and thus dampen future booms? The answer is yes.[...]

Basically, It’s Over

Thursday, 25th February 2010 | Articles

Slate
By Charles Munger
Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010

In the early 1700s, Europeans discovered in the Pacific Ocean a large, unpopulated island with a temperate climate, rich in all nature’s bounty except coal, oil, and natural gas. Reflecting its lack of civilization, they named this island “Basicland.”

The Europeans rapidly repopulated Basicland, creating a new nation. They installed a system of government like that of the early United States. There was much encouragement of trade, and no internal tariff or other impediment to such trade. Property rights were greatly respected and strongly enforced. The banking system was simple. It adapted to a national ethos that sought to provide a sound currency, efficient trade, and ample loans for credit-worthy businesses while strongly discouraging loans to the incompetent or for ordinary daily purchases.[...]

Mr. Buffett on the Stock Market

Thursday, 25th February 2010 | Articles

Fortune
By Warren Buffett
November 22, 1999

The most celebrated of investors says stocks can’t possibly meet the public’s expectations. As for the Internet? He notes how few people got rich from two other transforming industries, auto and aviation.

Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, almost never talks publicly about the general level of stock prices–neither in his famed annual report nor at Berkshire’s thronged annual meetings nor in the rare speeches he gives. But in the past few months, on four occasions, Buffett did step up to that subject, laying out his opinions, in ways both analytical and creative, about the long-term future for stocks. FORTUNE’s Carol Loomis heard the last of those talks, given in September to a group of Buffett’s friends (of whom she is one), and also watched a videotape of the first speech, given in July at Allen & Co.’s Sun Valley, Idaho, bash for business leaders. From those extemporaneous talks (the first made with the Dow Jones industrial average at 11,194), Loomis distilled the following account of what Buffett said. Buffett reviewed it and weighed in with some clarifications.[...]

Who Really Cooks the Books?

Thursday, 25th February 2010 | Articles

The New York Times
By Warren E. Buffett
Published: July 24, 2002

OMAHA— There is a crisis of confidence today about corporate earnings reports and the credibility of chief executives. And it’s justified.

For many years, I’ve had little confidence in the earnings numbers reported by most corporations. I’m not talking about Enron and WorldCom — examples of outright crookedness. Rather, I am referring to the legal, but improper, accounting methods used by chief executives to inflate reported earnings.

The most flagrant deceptions have occurred in stock-option accounting and in assumptions about pension-fund returns. The aggregate misrepresentation in these two areas dwarfs the lies of Enron and WorldCom.[...]

Fuzzy Math And Stock Options

Thursday, 25th February 2010 | Articles

The Washington Post
By Warren Buffett
Tuesday, July 6, 2004

Until now the record for mathematical lunacy by a legislative body has been held by the Indiana House of Representatives, which in 1897 decreed by a vote of 67 to 0 that pi — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — would no longer be 3.14159 but instead be 3.2. Indiana schoolchildren momentarily rejoiced over this simplification of their lives. But the Indiana Senate, composed of cooler heads, referred the bill to the Committee for Temperance, and it eventually died.

What brings this episode to mind is that the U.S. House of Representatives is about to consider a bill that, if passed, could cause the mathematical lunacy record to move east from Indiana. First, the bill decrees that a coveted form of corporate pay — stock options — be counted as an expense when these go to the chief executive and the other four highest-paid officers in a company, but be disregarded as an expense when they are issued to other employees in the company. Second, the bill says that when a company is calculating the expense of the options issued to the mighty five, it shall assume that stock prices never fluctuate.[...]

Buy American. I Am.

Thursday, 25th February 2010 | Articles

New York Times
By WARREN E. BUFFETT
Published: October 16, 2008

The financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary.

So … I’ve been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I’m talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.[...]

The Greenback Effect

Wednesday, 24th February 2010 | Articles

New York Times
By WARREN E. BUFFETT
Published: August 18, 2009

In nature, every action has consequences, a phenomenon called the butterfly effect. These consequences, moreover, are not necessarily proportional. For example, doubling the carbon dioxide we belch into the atmosphere may far more than double the subsequent problems for society. Realizing this, the world properly worries about greenhouse emissions.

The butterfly effect reaches into the financial world as well. Here, the United States is spewing a potentially damaging substance into our economy — greenback emissions.[...]

How to measure investment performance

Wednesday, 13th January 2010 | Personal Finance, Stocks, Wealth Building

As investors, it is very important to keep track of our yearly returns. Returns should be compared with a benchmark and our job is to beat the benchmark. If you can not beat the benchmark then it is better to buy it. This will save us money and time in the long run. There are certain things to consider when you measure performance:

1) Define your investment fund

First of all we must know what we measure. For example, assume we have a trading account of £10,000 and we decide to buy 1000 shares of Company X for £5.00 per share. Once we buy the shares, we will have in our account £5,000 in cash and 1000 shares of company X worth 5,000. Now assume that by the end of the year the shares increased in value and they are worth £6.00 per share. We can calculate our return in 2 ways:[...]

Warren Buffett Investment Lessons, part 6

Tuesday, 8th December 2009 | Stocks, Wealth Building

Debt and Leverage

Warren Buffett prefers to get finance (debt) in anticipation of need rather than in reaction to it. Warren Buffet has an aversion to debt, particularly the short-term kind. He is willing to incur modest amounts of debt when it is both properly structured and of significant benefit to shareholders.

Warren Buffett does not like leverage. Even if the odds of disaster are 99:1, he does not like them. A small chance of distress or disgrace cannot, in our view, be offset by a large chance of extra returns. If your actions are sensible, you are certain to get good results.[...]

Warren Buffett Investment Lessons, part 5

Tuesday, 8th December 2009 | Stocks, Wealth Building

Economic franchises

An economic franchise is a product or service that:

• Is needed or desired
• Is thought by its customers to have no close substitute
• Is not subject to price regulation

The company can regularly price its product or service aggressively and earn high rates of return on capital. Franchises can tolerate mis-management, because the managers might diminish the franchise’s profitability but they cannot inflict mortal damage.

Three suggestions of investors

Tuesday, 8th December 2009 | Stocks, Wealth Building

After many years of investing, Warren Buffett has some suggestions for investors.

First, beware of companies displaying weak accounting. If a company still does not expense options, or if its pension assumptions are fanciful, watch out. When managements take the low road in aspects that are visible, it is likely they are following a similar path behind the scenes. There is seldom just one cockroach in the kitchen.[...]

The formula for valuing assets

Tuesday, 8th December 2009 | Personal Finance, Property, Stocks, Wealth Building

In one of his letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett told them what is the formula to value any assett.

The formula for valuing all assets that are purchased for financial gain has been unchanged since it was first laid out by a very smart man in about 600 B.C. (though he wasn’t smart enough to know it was 600 B.C.).

The oracle was Aesop and his enduring, though somewhat incomplete, investment insight was “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” To flesh out this principle, you must answer only three questions. How certain are you that there are indeed birds in the bush? When will they emerge and how many will there be? What is the risk-free interest rate (which we consider to be the yield on long-term U.S. bonds)? If you can answer these three questions, you will know the maximum value of the bush ¾ and the maximum number of the birds you now possess that should be offered for it. And, of course, don’t literally think birds. Think dollars.[...]

Warren Buffett Investment Lessons, part 4

Tuesday, 8th December 2009 | Stocks, Wealth Building

Management

Making the most of an existing strong business franchise is what usually produces exceptional economics. Managers need to protect their franchise, control costs, search for new products and markets that build on their existing strengths and do not get diverted. They need to work exceptionally hard at the details of the business. He advocates leaving management alone to do their job.

When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.

Only do business with people that you like, trust and admire.[...]

Warren Buffett Investment Lessons, part 3

Tuesday, 8th December 2009 | Stocks, Wealth Building

Be a successful investor

You do not have to make it back the way that you lost it.

I would rather be certain of a good result than hopeful of a great one.

To be successful, concentrate on identifying one foot hurdles that you could step over rather than acquire any ability to clear seven footers. An investor needs to do very few things right as long as he/she avoids big mistakes.

In each case you want to acquire, at a sensible price, a business with excellent economics and able and honest management. Thereafter, you need only to monitor whether these qualities are being preserved.

When carried out capably, an investment strategy of that type will often result in its practitioner owning a few securities that will come to represent a very large portion of his portfolio. This investor would get a similar result if he followed a policy of purchasing an interest in, say, 20% of the future earnings of a number of outstanding college basketball stars. A handful of these would go on to achieve NBA stardom, and the investor’s take from them would soon dominate his royalty stream. To suggest that this investor should sell off portions of his most successful investments simply because they have come to dominate his portfolio is akin to suggesting that the Bulls trade Michael Jordan because he has become so important to the team.[...]

Warren Buffett Investment Lessons, part 2

Tuesday, 8th December 2009 | Stocks, Wealth Building

Buying a business

Here are the thought of Warren Buffett on what to look for when you are considering buying a business. It must have a good management team, good future economics for the business and the price you pay must be right. The business itself should have the ability to increase prices easily (even when product demand is flat and capacity is not fully utilized) without fear of significant loss of either market share or unit volume. You should be able to accommodate large dollar volume increases in business with only minor addition of investment of capital. The best business to own is one that over an extended period can employee large amounts of incremental capital at very high rates of return.

The following are dismal economic characteristics that make for a poor long-term outlook for a business:[...]

How to Minimize Investment Returns

Thursday, 3rd December 2009 | Stocks, Wealth Building

In his Berkshire Hathaway annual report of 2006, Warren Buffet wrote an article that explained how investors were achieving lower returns by employing professional help. Below if the full test.

Over the century American businesses did extraordinarily well and investors rode the wave of their prosperity. Businesses continue to do well. But now shareholders, through a series of self-inflicted wounds, are in a major way cutting the returns they will realize from their investments.

The explanation of how this is happening begins with a fundamental truth: With unimportant exceptions, such as bankruptcies in which some of a company’s losses are borne by creditors, the most that owners in aggregate can earn between now and Judgment Day is what their businesses in aggregate earn. True, by buying and selling that is clever or lucky, investor A may take more than his share of the pie at the expense of investor B. And, yes, all investors feel richer when stocks soar. But an owner can exit only by having someone take his place. If one investor sells high, another must buy high. For owners as a whole, there is simply no magic – no shower of money from outer space – that will enable them to extract wealth from their companies beyond that created by the companies themselves.[...]

Warren Buffett Investment Lessons, part 1

Tuesday, 27th October 2009 | Stocks, Wealth Building

This is an edited version of a letter Warren Buffett sent some years ago to a man who had indicated that he might want to sell his family business.

Some Thoughts on Selling Your Business

In contrast, owner-managers sell their business only once — frequently in an emotionally-charged atmosphere with a multitude of pressures coming from different directions. Often, much of the pressure comes from brokers whose compensation is contingent upon consummation of a sale, regardless of its consequences for both buyer and seller. The fact that the decision is so important, both financially and personally, to the owner can make the process more, rather than less, prone to error. And, mistakes made in the once-in-a-lifetime sale of a business are not reversible.[...]

“The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life” by Alice Schroeder

Wednesday, 22nd July 2009 | Book Reviews, Stocks, Wealth Building

This is a great book for anyone who is interested to invest in the stock market and run a business. The book describes the life of Warren Buffett from the day he was born up to 2008. The lessons are drawn from both his personal and his professional life.

Warren got involved in a very young age in the process of making money and managing other people’s money. When he was a kid he took his sister’s money to invest in a stock. This stock went down and everyday his sister would ask him why the stock is down. Warren did not like that experience at all and from that day on he did not want to manage other’s people money unless he knew he could do a great job. This gave birth to his first rule of investment “Never lose the money.”

You can find a lot of details on his management style in the book and how he pushes his people to get the best out of them.[...]

“One Up On Wall Street” by Peter Lynch

Monday, 22nd June 2009 | Book Reviews, Stocks, Wealth Building

This book is one of the classics on stock investments. Peter Lynch was the head of the Magellan Fund in Fidelity Investments from 1977 to 1990 and the fund average was 29.2% return during that period. This is a very impressive return when you consider that the market average is about 11% and that 80% of the fund managers fails to beat the average.

In this book, Peter Lynch shares some of his secrets on how he managed to get this returns and explains how ordinary investors can do the same and achieve higher returns that the professionals. He introduces ideas like the “ten bagger” that refer to an investment which is worth ten times its original purchase price.[...]

Never sell a stock

Wednesday, 3rd June 2009 | Personal Finance, Stocks, Wealth Building

One of the biggest challenges that people face when they buy stocks is to decide when to sell them. This decision is as important as deciding which stock to buy. Even Warren Buffet, the legendary buy and hold investor, is selling stocks if he believes that he can find a better place for his capital.

First of all, you should never sell simply because a stock—and the market in general – goes down several percentage points. Selling on this basis alone is an overreaction that usually costs you money in the long run. Don’t waste your time on trying to time the market. Instead, you want to know your stocks well enough to be able to recognize which events spell danger and which scream opportunity.

Here, then, are some pointers to help you decide whether to stay the course or sell—for the right reasons:[...]

How to evaluate the management of a company

Thursday, 30th April 2009 | Stocks, Wealth Building

One of the most important things to look at before you invest in a company is the quality of the management team. After all, you are buying a part of a company and you want the people who are running it to be of the best quality. Consider four major areas when seeking out top-quality [...]

Invest like Warren Buffett

Tuesday, 24th February 2009 | Personal Finance, Stocks, Wealth Building

Warren Buffet has been characterised as the greatest investor of all times. He buys great companies in fair values and holds them forever. He is very successful and he has managed to become the wealthiest person on Earth.

There are many people who are wondering how he does this. They are trying to do the same thing as Warren and achieve similar results. One way that this can be done is by buying the same companies he buys at similar prices or better. This is not always easily done, because a lot of times he reveals his positions months after he has done the purchases.[...]

“Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason

Tuesday, 16th September 2008 | Book Reviews, Personal Finance, Wealth Building

This is a great book that talks about personal finances. It has many practical steps on how to control your financial situation as well as ideas on how to build wealth. The book is a collection of stories that take place in ancient Babylon. In these stories rich people of that age share their secrets of how they have created their wealth with other citizens of the city. Through these stories you can understand the principles and the actions that these people took and apply them in this modern age. The advice of these people is timeless and is not specific to that time or location. Of course if you try to find a camel trader these days to do business…… good luck with it. [...]