Warren Buffett reveals what's holding him back from putting Berkshire's $90 billion in cash to work

Warren Buffet told CNBC that Berkshire Hathaway has $90 billion in cash, and he's looking to "buy a big business."

The billionaire investor has been talking for a while now about wanting to make a large-scale acquisition but said he does not have anything on his radar now.

"I hate cash," Buffett said in an interview that aired Friday on "Squawk Box," one day before Berkshire's annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.

"I mean we are investing," he said. "But [cash] is a holding position until you find something else. But the very fact that interest rates are that low makes it hard for us to buy other things because other people buy things with borrowed money, and borrowed money is so cheap."

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/05/warren-buff...sh-to-work.html

But if it fails to find a business it likes well, Buffett may have to settle for buying his own business (repurchasing shares) or paying a dividend, a tacit admission that Berkshire Hathaway may have simply grown too large to make above-average investment decisions in a big way.
http://www.newsweek.com/warren-buffett-ber...-economy-595960


This post has been edited by MUM: Aug 7 2017, 01:20 PM

It is not whether it will happen , it is WHEN it will happen.

so...how are you preparing for this upcoming crash? what % is in war chest waiting for crash? how long are you willing to wait?
what's your war-chest instrument? fd?
when the crash do happen, how do you determine when to start deploying your cash?
and how: through what investment vehicle?

while waiting for value added info.....
i googled and found this..hope it can provide you with some ideas.......

how to prepare investment for financial crisis
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1AOHY_e...iw=1164&bih=826

Yes I saw!
Tq sir!

me too......i found this while googling....
hope it can provide him with some ideas while he waits for more value added responses......

how to prepare investment for financial market crash
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1AOHY_e...1k1.AtUdWpTz51w

here's my tip for all of you that are worried.

1 . continue investing a sum of money into your port
2. leave 200 myr or whatever per month to top up your CMF
3. when shit hits the fan, don't panic sell. do a shopping spree with whatever you have saved
4. uninstall fsm app from your phone and don't look at your port.
5. focus on surviving and using whatever you can to sustain your life. you being jobless and losing your property would be a worst thing to worry rather than your portfolio
6. economy recovers your port goes green and life goes on.

Remember. you and I. we are average Joes. economic crisis don't affect us much but what we can do is take advantage of the downturn that's why save and invest! don't time it

This post has been edited by Avangelice: Aug 7 2017, 01:59 PM

LOL!!! Ha ha ha ha



Xuzen

1. How are you preparing? Keep emergency cash. Why? During market crash, how sure are you won't be retrench? People said 6 months cukup. How sure are you you can get a job within 6 months? If you have enough cash to survive the cold harsh winter, you have nothing to worry (words by a blogger name createwealth8888).
2. Percentage to keep? I know of some people here keeping close to 100% cash For me, I am perfectly fine to wait. So what if my cash holdings are getting bigger? I am not a fund manager which needs to answer why I am holding cash. I won't liquidate as my stocks are generating me SGDs. If really crash, I just average down. Simple
3. How long are you willing to wait? If there's no discount, why should I deploy my cash? I learnt my mistake already. Opportunity present itself and I ran out of cash.
4. War chest instrument. Who uses FD when there's amanah saham and EPF? Let them do the hard lifting. Govt give you instrument, use it la.
5. How to determine? For me, I determine by how much dividend I want my stocks to generate. Min 6% for bluechips. >10% for reits (possible, yes extremely possible for reits). Keep in mind this are all in terms of SGD. Will deploy my money into SG UT too.

Item 1 already furfilled long long time ago. (save like a squirrel when I am in uni. Count every sen. Even now still counting every sen.)
Now doing item 2,3, 4.

We shall see...


This post has been edited by Ramjade: Aug 7 2017, 02:51 PM

Good that you are putting a lot of effort into your passive income but are you putting the same effort in your active income? being the best in your industry and making sure you aren't obsolete in the coming years?

Bro just graduate la. Need to take things slow. What I learnt, cannot depend on job. So need to make sure I have cash coming in (dividend investing). So if in the future if say retrench, at least my dividends are coming in. Got some level of support.

A quick pullback is more likely than a crash.

How quick can it be? Sharp drop and a quick rebound, maybe over one or two days... if able to catch it, then it's a leg up. How great is the leg up or booster shot, well how much you can or dare to top-up?

(In the first place, do you have the money to top-up?)

(As often quoted here: "It is not about timing the market, but time spend in the market." Meaning that the returns are proportionate to the length of time in holding the investments/funds; and implying that it is easier to get these higher returns by holding them than timing and trading them in and out.)

Crash - not yet. If there is no bubble, what is there to burst? And if there is a perceived bubble (in your eyes), how will it burst when it is not over-inflated?

Signs of over-hype, over-inflated bubble developing: All and sundry is in the stock market, including those who normally don't. You will read it in the Sunday papers on normal folks who is now spending time trading stocks instead of working OT or double shifts or doing 2nd jobs or part-time jobs - easy money to be made.

You will read replies in forums telling the jobless to 'earn' some money at the stock exchange instead of the usual advices of doing uber.

Some bubble will be about to burst when you hear folks saying they can get easy money sitting at home in front of a terminal rather than spending time on the road doing uber or manning a burger stand.

And how would a market crash affect normal folks like you or me? Nothing much unless your company is affected and you are retrenced. If you still have a job, life goes on... and your regular savings into UT funds continue on...

And if you not in the accumulating and beginning stage, and had already build up a tidy sum of money and nest egg, I think you would already structured your portfolio of funds and its equity/income ratio such that it is ready at all times to handle any eventualities.

Just my 2 cents....

Future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.

This post has been edited by j.passing.by: Aug 7 2017, 03:44 PM

Meaning u r jobless now? If u were graduated, go to find a decent job first lah.

Even u r great, taking 20% pa from ur investment with a capital of SGD 10K, Ur yearly passive income is SGD 2K only.
While, u can get active income SGD3K/ month or SGD36K per year easily.

Be realistic la. Don't confuse on ur priority now.

Job's coming. Plus emergency cash for few years + dividends, at least that's something. Better than nothing coming in. I know my priority. Be an exteme frugal person and invest when opportunity present itself.

I am realistic person. Already counted and plan everything. I already know what I need to do. For me, my only problem is RM is so (make my target harder)

Ini sudah OT.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Aug 7 2017, 03:50 PM

I rest my case.

This post has been edited by xuzen: Aug 7 2017, 04:25 PM

well said. many old timers here have weathered multiple economy crisis and look where are they now. not in bankruptcy nor have they suffered a traumatic disaster.

my point is stop timing the markets. just follow the ratio of financing yourself

50% of pay goes to permanent monthly expenses like mortgage, car loan, taxes, bills,
30% goes to savings and investments. 10% of it is in EPF so break down 15% into your UT Port and 5% into CMF/emergency funds.
20% for entertainment purposes like date nights, renovations and travels.

also focus on cementing your job and never let your passive income disturb your work like taking day off just to go to bank or Singapore.

have a side income. have hobbies work for you like bonsai, drawing, painting, scale modeling while it keeps your sanity and creativity. I love my work so I work on weekends and public holidays so that generates an additional 2.5k per week.

and I have funds to open up another clinic if I wanted. that's how you become secure. not just chase numbers or worrying about the currency exchange because that's out of your control

Miss this eh?

Never underestimate the power of savings + compounding interest. Someone bought a blink blink you know...

You can rest your case. I rest mine.

Sorry no offence. Time is very important. Had you bought at the peak before GFC, would you have break even today? Compare that with someone who bought at the depths of GFC. So timing not important?

Actually both timing and time in the market are important. Why do you think Warren buffet is sitting on cash now? Because he waiting for things to be cheap. And waiting is timing.

That's why I set everything up before I started work. Do you think I have time to make a trip? Of course not. Now with fintech licensed by bnm, I can still do my transfers without paying banks ridiculous charges and still be in malaysia. No need for anymore SG trips.

Sorry. No offence. Something doesn't sound right. Previously you mentioned you have to save money for wedding and now you mentioned you can open another clinic if you wanted. Now, if you have enough money to open a clinic, you wouldn't need to save for wedding would you?

Yes. Most likely a quick pullback. But must pounce when there are opportunities. That's why must have ready cash.

Can a crash happen? Of course. You just need either china or US to be in trouble. People seems to forget that unit trust is still a basket of stocks.

A pullback is nothing. A crash ia what one needs to be worried whether the company will retrench or not



This post has been edited by Ramjade: Aug 7 2017, 04:44 PM

my wedding already settled. saved 20k for it. I already work my ass off for it since this year on wards. now my girlfriend asks for a smaller wedding. so I guess thats already settled.

my clinic savings already hit 100k for it. was aiming to hit the 100k mark next year at age 30. but I hit it at 29 so I'm satisfied. now I can work harder and more to hit my 200k mark by 35. all that sum in fsm and stocks. since you posted your fsm accounts and tried to cover the amount (I could still see the content lol)

thanks for asking and trying to blind side me by asking a personal question when you didn't have to actually.

When DJI was at 20k all time high, people were cautious, hording cash preparing for a crash. Then DJI hits 22k. "Expert" say it's gonna crash again. Who knows it will climb to another record high at 24k?

You can't time the market. Just continue pumping in but just more cautious. Else you'll lose out.