Poor Charlie's Almanack

Being only 250 pages into the book, it would be premature to call Poor Charlie's Almanack the best book I have ever read. But it is definitely up there. There will be many points to discuss but the one that is stuck with me right now is Warren's idea of "20 investments for a lifetime"

If you are only given the opportunity to invest 20 times over your whole life, you will make those investments very very wisely. This is generally counter to the way money is managed in the rest of the world. I would say the average person goes through 20 investments a year. Over a 30 year period thats 600 investments. How important then is each investment?

Charlie continually stresses how vital Berkshire's top ten investments were to the overall success of the business. For example, they bought a significant stake in the Washington Post in 1973. Their investment has returned 50 fold since. When you see a great opportunity, you need to have the liquidity and chutzpah to make it happen.

Another of Charlie's (and also Warren's tenants from past readings) tenants is a lazy approach to investing. Lazy is not the proper term. Patient is a more proper term. The most prevalent example of this is Charlie and Warren's rule to go home at 5pm while all other manager's work through the night. What could they (I) possibly be doing? Charlie and Warren are so comfortable in being patient waiting for one or two investments a year that they don't have to worry about a new investment every day. There is no rush to act. Which is also why Charlie and Warren are not in new york. They don't give a shit about what's happening on wall street. They don't want Goldman to call them to talk volume. They want to be renaissance men who can apply their omniscient knowledge to investments.