Snowball is a book published by CITIC Publishing House on June 5438+ 10, 2009. The writer is Alice Schroeder. It reveals Buffett's real life and tells us how Buffett, who suffered setbacks and failures like ordinary people, achieved great success and wealth in investment and business.
This book is divided into two volumes. It took me nearly 1 month to read the first volume, with a total of 536 pages. This book is not difficult to understand in content, but it involves foreign names, company names, place names and so on. I'm not familiar with it, and it's hard to sort out the relationship.
Especially the companies invested by Buffett and Munger, just like dolls, often only look at a small part, so we need to go back and contact what we saw before to understand their relationship.
Before reading this book, I only knew the title of Warren Buffett, and nothing else was clear. After reading this book, I have a general understanding of himself, his life and his investment philosophy.
0 1
Buffett is a very simple ordinary person, so simple that there is only one thing in his life: "investment"; Just like his signature tennis shoes, shirts he has worn for many years and sweaters he has been wearing; As simple as that, his diet only likes hamburgers and ice cream.
He is a person who is crazy about investing. Other than that, he is not interested in other things. Therefore, his wife Susan takes care of his diet and daily life, as well as the big and small affairs at home. Susan is also responsible for taking care of the elderly, children, siblings and other relatives.
She is very capable and these relatives are willing to ask her for help no matter what happens. Later, she volunteered to help some blacks and the poor. She became friends with most people in Omaha where they lived.
Buffett put all his energy into investment. He not only invested himself, but also helped his relatives and friends to invest, and later developed to help other partners invest. He is very willing to manage money for everyone, and he is also very happy to see the money he manages snowballing.
Of course, it is precisely because he focused on investment that he neglected his wife's company. Although he always gives her money to spend, she will feel empty when the child grows up and no longer needs her to take care of it. She sometimes gets up early, drives to the seaside to stay alone for a long time, and then comes back.
At that time, Buffett was deeply infatuated with katharine graham, and he always appeared with her in many public occasions such as her banquets, or traveled together for holidays. Although Susan acquiesced in this matter, it may be one of the reasons why she felt lonely, because she was used to relying on Buffett, and in this case, she seemed to be no longer needed.
Later, Susan bravely took a step to live a good life. She began to develop her favorite singing career. She gives concerts and enjoys her time. Later, she moved to San Francisco alone.
Buffett doesn't have Susan in Omaha, which makes him very uncomfortable. He made a mess of his life and called Susan to come back, but Susan refused. At this time, he realized that he had neglected Susan's feelings before. He is very regretful and helpless.
Susan asked astrid Menkes, who had helped her, to do something for Buffett and take care of him. But what Susan didn't expect was that Buffett and astrid came together. After consultation, they maintained this triangular relationship. So far, Buffett and astrid live in Omaha, and Susan lives alone in San Francisco, but she is still Buffett's wife.
02
Buffett studied under Benjamin Graham at Columbia University. He is the best of Graham's students. But Buffett wanted to enter Graham Newman's company when he graduated, but he refused. A few years later, he plans to enter this company and learn investment knowledge with Graham.
Buffett's investment philosophy is value investment. He is always looking for valuable companies, banks, etc. A company on the verge of bankruptcy. When he finds them, he will try his best to buy shares in these companies. After occupying a certain proportion, he will have a controlling stake or the opportunity to enter the board of directors, so that these companies can develop in a good direction and he can also make money. He called these companies "cigarette butts", which is also the investment concept he learned from Graham.
According to this investment philosophy, he owns a considerable proportion of shares in many companies, the most famous of which are Berkshire Hathaway, Diversified Retail Company and Washington Post.
He has a partner, Charles Munger, who has worked together on many projects. He often jokes that he and Charles Munger are conjoined twins. They have many similarities, they are keen on investment and seldom pay attention to things other than investment. Life is monotonous. Some people call Buffett a "habitual animal", but Buffett says Munger is a "habitual animal".
Buffett has the idea of making money since he was a child. When he was very young, he began to accumulate his first bucket of gold by delivering newspapers and picking up bottle caps. Then use the money to invest in stocks and let the money snowball.
He also earns a certain fee by helping his partners manage their finances. He has more and more money by buying shares in valuable companies. He has topped the rich list for many times and won the title of stock god.
03
As the saying goes, "the richer people are, the more frugal they are." This sentence is more appropriate for Buffett. Although he has hundreds of billions of assets, he is stingy with his money.
His wife Susan and he have different ideas. Whenever Susan wants to improve her family conditions or spend money on something, Buffett doesn't agree, and she will have a big fight with Susan. The book describes, "It seems that when we quarrel, we don't get along."
Buffett loves Susan very much, so after frequent quarrels, in order to avoid Susan getting angry, Buffett will give her money to do what she wants. Susan can get money from Buffett, but she is not so happy every time she asks for money, because Buffett often values the future value of the money.
Buffett himself doesn't pay attention to food and clothes, so he spends little on himself. His meanness is also manifested in his children. He didn't give them money, but only bought them shares in Baker Hill Hathaway.
Howie, the eldest son, and Susie, the daughter, sold these shares when they had no money to satisfy their wishes. No matter what kind of life they lead, Buffett will never give them money again, but Susan will give them money occasionally.
04
After reading this book, I feel very contradictory.
On the one hand, I admire Buffett's investment philosophy and his insistence on focusing on one thing, and of course I admire his success in investment. He helped many people through his own charitable foundation. It can be said that he is a successful man, and he is a good friend and partner of others.
On the other hand, returning to the family, although he can't be said to be a failure, I don't think he is a good husband or a good father. When he tried to save Susan and let her come back to him, he also realized that he cared too little about his children. There is no deep affection between the child and him, and it is too late for him to improve the affection between father and son.
Perhaps, no one is perfect, and if you get it, you are doomed to lose some. We can't expect too much of a person to be perfect. However, seeing other people's life experiences can often give us some enlightenment. We ask ourselves, what do we really want?
In addition, we can learn from his investment philosophy, find something valuable and worth investing in and hold it for a long time. Ensure cash flow and buy in large quantities when the stock market is depressed and others panic. When the stock market is high and others are excited to buy, sell stocks.