Normally when we think of beaches and Buffett our imaginations turn to Jimmy Buffett and Wasting Away Again in Margaritaville and searching for that lost shaker of salt. Today our (not frozen) concoction includes Warren Buffett and beaches, Trump books, the markets (stocks, inflation, recession) watch, retirement, dividend counting and more. From beaches to Buffett on the Sunday Reads.
BTW, this is the only image that comes up for Warren Buffet and beach. Perhaps the last time he hit the beach. And here’s the link to the life in pictures for the greatest investor in history. That is a very interesting pictorial journey.
More on Mr. Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B/NYSE) later in this post. But first – what the heck is up with the markets?
Making Sense of the Markets
I was back at MoneySense again this week where I tried to twist myself in analogical (is that a word?) knots comparing the central bankers’ task of taming inflation with the physics of putting enough pressure on a falling ball attached to an elastic in the sky, making it stop just short of the ground. Read the post, it makes sense, honest.
And yes the task is impossible. In the post I also look at the recent earnings that “don’t matter at all”. It’s all about the balls and physics, I mean inflation.
The stock and bonds markets are guessing wildly. Here’s more on that.
In a Reuters post …
“We’re at the point where consumer price data has reached a Super Bowl level of importance,” said Michael Antonelli, managing director and market strategist at Baird. “It gives us some indication of what we and the Fed are facing.”
“The market seems to be engaging in some wishful thinking,” he said. Investors “are ignoring the age-old adage, ‘don’t fight the Fed.’” offeredTom Siomades, chief investment officer of AE Wealth Management.
Scott Barlow of the Globe & Mail framed it well
Equity markets are currently balanced between hopes that the peak in inflation pressure is behind us with consumer prices set to drop significantly, and fears that the tightening monetary policy that central banks used to tame inflation will cause a recession.
And now off to the Buffett
Earnings at Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B/NYSE) have increased nicely. Q2 operating earnings rose 32% from the previous quarter and 39% from a year ago, on strength from all its major operating divisions. All that while Mr. Buffett and friends sits on a still sizable cash pile. The Omaha-based company that Warren Buffett built held $105.4B of cash and short-term securities as of June 30, 2021, down only slightly from $106.3B at March 31.
About 73% of aggregate fair value was concentrated in four companies — American Express (AXP) at $24.8B, Apple (AAPL) at $161.2B, Bank of America (BAC) at $46.0B, and Coca-Cola (KO) at $23.7B. Chevron (CVX) dropped out of one of its four top equity investments since Q1. Berkshire has been adding aggressivley to Occidental Petroleum.
Mr. B still has recession shopping-around money, should the stock markets truly go on sale. Here’s the Berkshire recession performance table.
The company is at an attractive valuation level. We are happy to hold. It is the largest position in my wife’s RRSP spousal account.
More Sunday Reads
In the Weekend Reads on My Own Advisor, there is a historic housing correction coming.
On the Findependence Hub, Jon Chevreau is devouring the endless books on Donald Trump, and now President Biden.
On Dividend Hawk, we’ll see the Hawk’s recent moves and dividends received. And as per usual, Hawk gives us the roundup on a still-busy earnings season and the reads of the week. Thanks for including my post – building the retirement stock portfolio.
Fritz at The Retirement Manifesto is back with a new post – How COVID attacked our 2022 RV Adventure.
Biker on Wheels has been quiet as of late, but now we can go on a hike and talk about how to start investing in 10 steps.
On Banker on FIRE, why money is hard. The average person really does not want to talk about money, or think about money. It’s surprising that we spend so much energy trying to make money, but so little effort goes into trying to grow that money, or even keep that money.
These are the goods on the Irrelevant Investor – a good list of reads and podcasts, as always.
Counting the dividends
Dividend Daddy has offered his July portfolio report.
The batman-like beach signal
I had the pleasure of meeting up with Rob from Passive Canadian Income, after this “where’s Dale?” Tweet.
We had a nice chat in the beach gravity chairs, we then enjoyed a walk back to Beach 3. We talked, life, investing, politics, blogging and kids. Rob was as nice and kind and genuine as I had expected. I’m sure Rob will be along with his July update post, any day now.
You can also check out the dividend report on Labour to Leisure. It’s nice to see that Brian has his eye on growth stocks and portfolio growth, in addition to dividend counting.
The most advantageous retirement funding model includes income and growth. More money buys or creates more income, to state the obvious. And of course, it’s important to be well diversified by sector and currency when we enter the retirement stage. Check out – the retirement stock portfolio on Cut The Crap Investing.
And speaking of diversification, Million Dollar Journey offers an updated VBAL review. That’s Vanguard’s balanced all-in-one ETF. Also known as investment game changers for Canadians.
If you want a managed portfolio and advice or planning check out the Canadian Robo Advisors.
Thanks for reading, we’ll see you in the comment section. You can follow this blog by entering your email address in the Subscribe area. It’s free.
You should also follow me on Twitter.
Be sure to check out my posts on Seeking Alpha
Cut The Crap Investments. Cut your fees.
You will earn a break on fees by way of many of these partnership links.
CANADA’S TOP-RANKED DISCOUNT BROKERAGE
Cut the Crap Investing readers can earn a break on fees at Questrade by way of that partnership link. At Questrade, you can buy ETFs for free.
I have partnerships with several of the leading Canadian Robo Advisors such as Justwealth, BMO Smartfolio ,Wealthsimple, Nest Wealth and Questwealth from Questrade.
Here’s Canada’s top-performing Robo Advisor.
Consider Justwealth for RESP accounts. That is THE option in Canada with target date funds that adjust the risk level as the student approaches the College or University start date.
RETIREMENT FUNDING PLANNING
The self-directed investor might consider the service provided by Mark Seed from My Own Advisor. He runs Cashflows & Portfolios where they will provide options for that optimal retirement funding strategy. That service is provided for a very reasonable fee.
If you do head to Cashflow & Portfolios, be sure to tell them Cut The Crap Investing sent ya 🙂
OUR SAVINGS ACCOUNTS
Make your cash work a lot harder at EQ Bank. RRSP and TFSA account savings rates are at 1.65%. You’ll find some higher rates on GICs, recently updated and increased t0 3-4%. They also offer U.S. dollar accounts. We use EQ Bank, they have been awesome.
OUR CASHBACK CREDIT CARD
We make between $60 to $70 every month! And that’s on everyday spending. There are no fees with …
The Tangerine Cash Back Credit Card
Last month we received $75 in cashback cash. We are spending too much, ha.
While I do not accept monies for feature blog posts please click here on the mission and ‘how I might get paid’ disclosures. Affiliate partnerships help me pay the bills for this site. That will allow me to keep this site free of ads and easy to read.
Kindly use the buttons below to share this post.
Leave a Reply