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Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

latimes.com

281–290 of 612 posts

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#281
post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poor people should properly budget and cook at home to avoid staying poor If you can afford to eat McDonald's nobody cares (well it's not healthy either but that's a different matter that doesn't really have to do with being poor or not)

> Poor people should properly budget and cook at home to avoid staying poor You can't budget your way out of being poor. Most actually poor people (as opposed to people who have a substance abuse problem) I know have a very good grasp of their budget as they are constantly shifting money around figuring out which bills they have to pay and which bills they can put off. You get out of being poor by getting more money.…

How much money you have depends on how much you make and how much you spend

While you can't budget your way out of being poor if you have a very low income you absolutely can keep yourself poor by not budgeting no matter how much you make

I don't know why you seem to take offense with a simple suggestion that will help reduce how much you spend

There are people who make six figures who are in debt because they overspend and food is often one of the biggest factors in that

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's insanely humble by billionaire standards. Any FAANG SWE over 30 or so in the United States can get that. Contrast with multiple compounds, entire islands, etc.

Buffet surely made lots of upgrades and has added plenty of material comforts.

But it is quite possible to be a kind of lazy where even 10-20x current wealth, people would live where they currently live. American neighborhoods are reasonable that way. It is just primary home and they would holiday/vacation wherever.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#283
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which “opulent mansions”?

The 6000 sq ft home in Omaha. The $10m+ home in Laguna Beach. Plus purchasing the home next door as overflow

That actually sounds pretty meager considering his wealth.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#284

Driving 7 minutes to work and stopping at a drive-thru to pick up McDonalds breakfast every day. The man is a true American hero.

also incredible that america is safe enough for a billionaire to do this alone without security

He spends big money on security.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, however I don’t think the last two of your bullets are necessarily something to learn from on the surface.

Disagree. The last one is important. You can buy a bigger and bigger house car tv stereo whatever, but it will not make you happy.

>You can buy a bigger and bigger house car tv stereo whatever, but it will not make you happy.

Well that seems like an assumption! Plenty of people are happier with nicer things. I don't think we need to tell people what should make them happy.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#286
post #205

We 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 investi…

>>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.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#287
post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Poor people should properly budget and cook at home to avoid staying poor You can't budget your way out of being poor. Most actually poor people (as opposed to people who have a substance abuse problem) I know have a very good grasp of their budget as they are constantly shifting money around figuring out which bills they have to pay and which bills they can put off. You get out of being poor by getting more money.…

How much money you have depends on how much you make and how much you spend While you can't budget your way out of being poor if you have a very low income you absolutely can keep yourself poor by not budgeting no matter how much you make I don't know why you seem to take offense with a simple suggestion that will help reduce how much you spend There are people who make six figures who are in debt because they oversp…

> There are people who make six figures who are in debt because they overspend and food is often one of the biggest factors in that

Those people aren't "poor". They aren't worried about eating or staying warm.

"Poor" is when you are deciding between fixing the car you need for work and whether or not you will have electricity the last 4 days of the month. You don't fix that with "clever budgeting".

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#288
post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much money you have depends on how much you make and how much you spend While you can't budget your way out of being poor if you have a very low income you absolutely can keep yourself poor by not budgeting no matter how much you make I don't know why you seem to take offense with a simple suggestion that will help reduce how much you spend There are people who make six figures who are in debt because they oversp…

> There are people who make six figures who are in debt because they overspend and food is often one of the biggest factors in that Those people aren't "poor". They aren't worried about eating or staying warm. "Poor" is when you are deciding between fixing the car you need for work and whether or not you will have electricity the last 4 days of the month. You don't fix that with "clever budgeting".

If you have a negative net worth then I consider you poor no matter how much money you make

But yes obviously there are levels to it however regardless if you are buying overpriced fast food when you could be cooking at home for much cheaper that's not good for anybody especially if you don't make a lot of money... So what's your point other than trying to argue over the definition of poor?

If you don't have an emergency fund and your car breaks down and then you have to get into debt to fix it and then you have to spend more paying interest on that debt and you get stuck in a cycle... Compare that to reducing your expenses by not buying fast food and building up an emergency fund and not getting stuck in that situation to begin with

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#289
post #196

I don't think he's a hero, particularly, but he also does not strike me as a villain like some of the modern day billionaires either. I read a biography of him and he seems like an interesting guy. I don't think the 'humble lifestyle' thing was a schtick, like some suggest. I mean he mostly lived in Nebraska... give me a tiny fraction of his wealth and I would have taken right off out of Nebraska as the first thing I…

> he also does not strike me as a villain like some of the modern day billionaires either

With Musk, doge, and the handling of important programs like USAID, that bar has been set remarkably low.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. The last one is important. You can buy a bigger and bigger house car tv stereo whatever, but it will not make you happy.

>You can buy a bigger and bigger house car tv stereo whatever, but it will not make you happy. Well that seems like an assumption! Plenty of people are happier with nicer things. I don't think we need to tell people what should make them happy.

Sure, but wisdom can be shared about what is less likely to make you happy.
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