Warren Buffett's answer: "I bet we all in this room live about the same. We eat about the same and sleep about the same. We pretty much drive a car for 10 years. All this stuff doesn't make it any different. I will watch the Super Bowl on a big screen television just like you. We are living the same life. I have two luxuries: I get to do what I want to do every day and I get to travel a lot faster than you." http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid=22736469 Smart guy. Martin
A few years back late one night a buddy of mine thought it was funny to call up 411 and get famous peoples phone numbers. We called Ted Turner in Atlanta and some redneck threatened to shoot us if people didn't stop bothering him. Next we called Warren Buffet in Omaha. The phone rang five times and then the machine answered "Hello, you have reached the offices of Berkshire Hathaway, nobody is in to take you call" which was likely true because it was four in the morning. So basically the second richest man in the world has a listed phone number.
Let the flames begin!(remember, it's only money, right?) So what if he is a better investor than you, me, or anyone here... Mr. Buffet is not sitting there every morning reading the Journal, with CNBC/Bloomberg on in the background, wondering what is next for him. Like Edison, his minions do all of the work, and he gets (and takes) all of the credit. He is too stingy too even give props. By the way, most Guru investment records have been ruined since the dot-bomb and Sarbanes-Oxley, both of which THEIR OWN GREED & CORRUPTION helped create and simultaneously tear down. Even Cramer's record (love him or hate him, the man had a hefty average return) is shot since 2000. So, Buffet's insider trading days are not only numbered, they are all but over. "But Buffett has such a great record". SO WHAT! What do you think his quality of life is? Better than yours? I bet the man buys and sells pharma stocks based on whatever current physical ailment he is suffering from. It is the investor class of myopic individuals that follow him like lemmings into a stock, and out of it. This support keeps an equity afloat. You need sellers to go down, right? For those of you that follow his trading strategy, don't act like you are whipping the markets on a daily . . . based on someone else's decisions. Grew, by your logic, Ron Jeremy is more of a success than most people, and not based on his choice in clothing. However, this is based purely in the subjective plane. I do not respect Ron Jeremy that much. So he is not a success in my opinion. Warren Buffett is a miser, plain and simple. Buffetology 101: "Pocket the profit"! Where's the dividend, you cheap-ass! We all know some old-timer who never bought his family a better house; never bought his family a new refrigerator; only took his family out to Red Lobster(or whatever) once a month, even though he could probably buy the restaurant. Sure it is a nice move to leave your family with something after you are gone, but what good is it to have all that money, and just sit there and act like like you do not? The depression is over Warren. I am not saying that the guy needs to buy three Bentleys, but c'mon. Do something for someone else. Insurance profits . . . thanks a bundle there Warren. Your profits in that business make us all feel better about paying that ever-rising monthly premium. Glad i could be of help to your bottom line. Additionally, once Buffett dies, his fortune will likely be squandered through inheritance. Look at what has happened to the fortunes of Malcolm Forbes - his kids just wrecked all that wealth. Vanderbilt - same thing, the list goes on, and on, and on. Buffett, I am calling you out. While you are the world's richest man by bank account size, you are the cheapest man on the planet. Something don't add up there, and something's gotta give- YOU!
Buffet is worse for our economy than terrorists flying planes into the world trade center 5 times over. With all that cash horde, he could be helping our economy out but he would rather bet billions agaisnt the dollar by buying euros and weakening our dollar...all for a bit of money he will never spend. Cant wait for him to die and maybe berkshire will finally do a 2000 for 1 stock split and those billions of dollars of cash might get invested in something and help out the market a bit. I hope his kids blow through that money like crazy. But even if each kid blows through a million dollars a day on hookers and coke it will still take 41 years for them to go through all that money.
Bank, maybe we should set up shop in Omaha in the near future, huh? Hmm? Hmm? Maybe in the back of a See's candy store. . . no wait, in the warehouse of Geico, during the off-hours - yeah!
Wait, I got my TI-82 scientific calculator from college out: $1M/day, *365(days), *41(years) = 1.46*10 - DOH! Stupid calculator. Oh, I understand the Ukraine hookers, but what is the dept of Justice doing with that Charlie Sheen pile o' blow .jpeg?
I heard the vast majority of his fortune is going to charity upon his demise. His wife and children will only recieve a small sum.