Hmm. I posted what I could find in Google. I specifically googled for Mint and Mint.com but none of the titles suggested this infographic. I can see now that the "What's inside the house of WB" link was what I was looking for. It assumed it was literally what's in his house. What can I say, it was late night.
Thanks for the original(?) link. Perhaps next time you can be nice about it. (That's not my site btw, which you could easily have determined by making the 10 second effort to read my comment history.)
Sorry about the snark. It just seemed strange you posted a "non-blogspam" link to a blogspam site. Especially since the article you posted linked to mint.com as the original source.
Warren Buffett definitely is one of the greatest investors of all time, but it's a myth that he was a aw-shucks buy-and-hold-forever investor. Just like how complex Berkeshire Hathaway is, the actual From an article:
"Buffett likes for you to think that he just picks up an SEC filing, makes a phone call and seals the deal before he purchases a stock (and Wall Street wants you to think this as well), but Buffett is far more savvy than he leads on. This is exemplified by the complexity of Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire Hathaway isn’t just your average insurance company. The brilliance behind Buffett’s investment in Berkshire is astounding. He effectively used (and uses) Berkshire as the world’s largest option writing house. The premiums and cash flow from his insurance business created dividends that he could invest in other businesses. But Buffett wasn’t just buying Coca-Cola and Geico as many have been led to believe. Buffett was placing some (short-term AND long-term) complex bets in derivatives markets, options markets, and bond markets. The myth that Buffett is a pure value investor is just that. And it has been fed to the public hook line and sinker by people who entirely fail to understand Buffett’s genius, but benefit from an investing public that continues to pour money into the “hold and hope” myth."
Also, he's really good at coming in as a vulture and putting the screws into companies. The deals he did with Goldman Sachs and Bank of America were of great value, but if you followed him blindly, you wouldn't have gotten nearly as good a deal as he did.
I agree with most of your points, but I would argue that Buffett does buy and hold for much longer than most other investors. Looking at a number of the companies in his portfolio (See's Candies comes to mind), he has owned them for a long time without any changes in ownership. I think the key is that he finds great businesses that either produce cash, giving him more to invest year after year, or he strategically uses cash flow to generate incremental profits (ie his insurance businesses).
