Investing Mastermind Podcast

We discuss the potential impact of the debt ceiling issue that will not only affect the US economy, but also worldwide economies and financial markets. At the time we were recording, the debt ceiling had not yet been raised.

Part 3 of our 2023 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting Experiences where we discuss more of our takeaways from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, including the power of consumer behavior in consideration of potential investments. One sad day when Buffett and Munger are no longer on this earth, we discuss why Berkshire (BRK-B) will still be a good stock, and it might even go on sale during an uncertain CEO transition period. We reflected on Berkshire Hathaway's affinity toward bank stocks and concerns with the banking system.

Our 2023 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting Experiences Part 2 where we discuss more of our takeaways from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. There was some awesome advice for beginner investors including avoid toxic people, defer gratification, and work on estate planning/wills earlier than later. We discussed Buffett's take on the US reserve currency status and the important implications of cultural power and influence.

Michelle and Signe get together for an in-person talk about their experiences at The 2023 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting for Shareholders in Omaha, Nebraska and we answer some of the questions about the meeting from our audience. It was epic seeing Warren Buffett (92 going on 93 on August 30) and Charlie Munger (99 going on 100 on January 1, 2024) for the second time for both of us!

This weekend is the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Festival, so Signe and Michelle are off to Omaha, Nebraska during the week of May 6, 2023! Say hi if you see us there!

Signe and Michelle recount their experiences of attending their first Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting in 2022. Seeing Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger live was one of the best experiences and it was on both of our bucket lists! We are so grateful to have met so many amazing, like-minded investors. We share several examples and tips of what people can do when they might be visiting Omaha, Nebraska.

Today we discuss the mindset of the value investor in the context of what is going on currently in the markets and economy in Spring 2023. It seems that many of our favorite investors are waiting in cash for an eventual opportunity to buy wonderful companies at wonderful or fair prices. We explain that now is the perfect time to study companies and to get educated. If you're interested in learning how to invest, check out Signe's workshop: https://www.aahus.com/p/workshop.html

We're excited to feature a special guest, Adam Mead, who is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Mead Capital Management, LLC, a value-focused New Hampshire-based Registered Investment Advisor he founded in 2014. He’s also the founder of WatchlistInvesting.com, a monthly value investing newsletter featuring deep dives on quality companies. Adam spent over a decade in banking in commercial credit and has been investing in the public securities markets since 2004. He owned two non-financial small businesses during college and grew up in a family of small business owners. Adam has been covered by Business Insider and the Wall Street Journal. Reach him on Twitter: @brk_student, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-j-mead, or Website: watchlistinvesting.com

Today Signe and I discuss investing-related news with two separate topics of Credit Suisse and an AI Tool named after Warren Buffett, legendary investor. We discuss the implications of the deal between UBS and Credit Suisse and how UBS shareholders may not have been given the opportunity to voice their thoughts on the government-brokered deal between these major Swiss banks. We also discuss the technological advancements and limitations of an AI Tool that endeavors to retrieve information that suits Warren Buffett-style investing.

In today's episode Signe and Michelle discuss our selling strategies for investments. If you follow the Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger style of investing, ideally as a long term investor you never would have to sell your investments. However, sometimes the story changes with a company, or an industry, or other changes occur that may change our original investment case. We share our experiences of when we sold stocks and how we think about our equity exit strategies, if need be.

Signe and Michelle analyzed the remainder of Warren Buffett's 2022 Letter that came out with Berkshire Hathaway's 2022 Annual Report at the end of February 2023. We resumed the discussion on share repurchases AKA share buybacks, which can be both good and bad capital allocation strategies. We explained why Buffett emphasizes operational earnings over GAAP earnings. Buffett seems to be really proud of how much Berkshire contributes in taxes to the US government. Finally, Buffett dedicated a tribute to his best friend and partner, Charlie Munger, by including some of Charlie's best quotes of wisdom. There is so much to learn from Buffett, who has successfully run Berkshire for 58 years and counting. We hope you enjoy the second part of our discussion on this subject. If you'd like to read Berkshire's annual report and Buffett's letter, visit: https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/reports.html.

Signe and Michelle analyzed Warren Buffett's 2022 Letter that came out with Berkshire Hathaway's 2022 Annual Report at the end of February 2023. We especially found noteworthy how Buffett referred to Berkshire shareholders as individuals with their savings in the form of Berkshire shares. Buffett must have had death on his mind in mentioning it across many business and personal scenarios. Buffett paid tribute to his best friend and business partner, Charlie Munger, who is still going strong at 99 years young. In running Berkshire for 58 years, Buffett has reached a milestone unmatched by most CEOs. He seemed to reiterate the moral duties and company culture that he expects Berkshire's future CEOs to uphold, especially in continuing to be the Chief Risk Officer and capital allocator as Buffett has been faithfully. When Signe quoted Buffett, "Nothing Beats Having a Great Partner," we shared our mutual gratitude to be business partners in this podcast adventure of trying to follow Buffett and Munger in their footsteps. There is much wisdom to be gained from Buffett in this year's letter, and we hope you enjoy the first part of our discussion on this subject.  If you'd like to read Berkshire's annual report and Buffett's letter, visit: https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/reports.html.

We are so excited to share an interview we did with The Investor's Podcast Network's Millennial Investing Podcast hosted by Rebecca Hotsko. We shared our journey of how we are trying to invest like the best investors, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. We broke down Buffett and Munger's investing strategy and how everyday people can apply these investing principles to their own portfolios. We dove into the key steps of how to value businesses like Buffett does, and what is a sufficient "margin of safety" for an investment. We are so grateful to Rebecca and TIP for including us in their investing community and for sharing our investing experiences and lessons we have learned. Check out the Millennial Investing Podcast and their episode of our interview #MI258 by visiting: https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/millennial-investing

Today Michelle and Signe from Investing Mastermind Podcast have invited a special guest onto the show. Wesley Chambers is an investor from London, England, and he's also an amazing content creator who inspires us so we wanted to learn more about him and his investing style.  Wes shares signature content on Instagram and his blog on company valuations. From time to time, he also shares background information about the Warren Buffett style investing methodology.  We are so grateful to have spoken with Wes and we hope you enjoy his investing insights!  If you want to know more about Wes and follow his content you can find him here:   Blog and Newsletter: https://substack.com/profile/74821602-wesley   Instragram: https://instagram.com/investingwithwes  Twitter: https://twitter.com/investwithwes1

Part five of an ongoing series on Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger's 4 principles of investing. We walk through these investing principles in the form of a checklist that you can download here: https://www.aahus.com/2021/05/one-of-most-important-artifacts-or.html   We go through these steps in a company before we invest in its stock. The 4 investing principles/steps we discuss in this series are: 1) Understanding the business (circle of competence), 2) Management (honest & competent), 3) Moat (favorable long term prospects), and 4) Margin of Safety (available at an attractive price). A bonus, or 5) Inversion to make sure you fully understand the potential drawbacks of an investment idea.   Charlie Munger is famous for saying "invert, always invert" to destroy your best loved investment idea and understand all of the reasons why one should not invest in a particular asset. We discuss a few examples among Costco, Peloton, and more.

Part four of an ongoing series on Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger's 4 principles of investing. We walk through these investing principles in the form of a checklist that you can download here: https://www.aahus.com/2021/05/one-of-most-important-artifacts-or.html We go through these 4 steps in a company before we invest in its stock. The 4 investing principles/steps we discuss in this series are: 1) Understanding the business (circle of competence), 2) Management (honest & competent), 3) Moat (favorable long term prospects), and 4) Margin of Safety (available at an attractive price). Today's topic is especially exciting on the subject of Margin of Safety, or buying something of high quality at a discount to its value. In the context of investing, you want to figure out the "intrinsic value" of a company during your research or homework phase of studying businesses. It's important to note that the stock market's price on a company is not always equal to the company's value. Once we figure out the company's intrinsic value per share, we then would want to buy its stock at a discount (margin of safety) by calculating a final stock buy price using various valuation methods that we discussed in this episode. Learn more about Signe's investing workshop at: https://www.aahus.com/p/workshop.html 

Part three of an ongoing series on Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger's 4 principles of investing. We walk through these investing principles in the form of a checklist that you can download here: https://www.aahus.com/2021/05/one-of-most-important-artifacts-or.html We go through these 4 steps in a company before we invest in its stock. There are 2 rules of investing according to Warren Buffett: Rule #1: don't lose money, and Rule #2: never forget Rule #1. We don't want to lose our hard-earned money so that's why it's important to do this "homework" before we buy any stocks. The 4 investing principles/steps we discuss in this series are: 1) Understanding the business (circle of competence), 2) Management (honest & competent), 3) Moat (favorable long term prospects), and 4) Margin of Safety (available at an attractive price). When we invest in a wonderful company, it's because it has a durable, competitive advantage that is known as its moat. Many companies might not have a moat at all, so it's key to identify the business's strengths and weaknesses. Much like the medieval castle moat, a business moat helps prevent its competitors from taking away market share. You want to look for business advantages that sustain the business for a long period of time, such as these moats: brand, switching, network effects, secrets, toll bridge, price/cost. We discussed examples of moats. Note: We apologize for some audio issues we had in this episode, and have made adjustments for improved future episodes. Thank you for understanding.

Part two of an ongoing series on Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger's 4 principles of investing. We walk through these investing principles in the form of a checklist that you can download here: https://www.aahus.com/2021/05/one-of-most-important-artifacts-or.html In this style of investing, we learn a lot about companies before we invest in their stocks. The 4 investing principles/steps we discuss in this series are: 1) Understanding the business (circle of competence), 2) Management (honest & competent), 3) Moat (favorable long term prospects), and 4) Margin of Safety (available at an attractive price). Today we're focusing on the role and expectations of a company's management, especially the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The Board of Directors also makes up management, and their job is to choose and oversee the CEO. We discuss both quantitative and qualitative ways of evaluating the CEO's performance in running a company. Can we trust and believe the CEO? How do we know they have integrity and talent? While the CEO is often known as the company's top salesperson, arguably the CEO's most important role is that of a capital allocator. How they decide to allocate capital in the form of human resources or money is important to analyze as to whether they are making the appropriate decisions to grow the company. The more you study a company's management, the more you can envision whether a company is aligned with your values and expectations as an investor.

This podcast episode is the first in a discussion series about Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger's 4 principles of investing. We walk through these investing principles in the form of a checklist that you can download here: https://www.aahus.com/2021/05/one-of-most-important-artifacts-or.html In this style of investing, we learn a lot about companies before we invest in their stocks. The 4 investing principles/steps we discuss in this series are: 1) Understanding the business (circle of competence), 2) Management (honest & competent), 3) Moat (favorable long term prospects), and 4) Margin of Safety (available at an attractive price). Today's deep dive is focused on the circle of competence or working toward the point where we truly believe we understand the business. We provide new investors with ways they can brainstorm in getting to know a company they might wish to invest in. We also discuss how guru investors (the best investors) can give us ideas about potential investments we may wish to study. One way that we learned how to figure out what businesses could be within our circle of competence is called the "Three Circles Exercise." Learn more about how this exercise works by watching Michelle's video: https://youtu.be/7HP5Ky__zso Before we invest, we want to make sure the business matches our personal values and ethics. We also consider how the company impacts the world. It's also important to define the boundaries of our knowledge so that we don't invest in companies or industries that we don't fully understand.

Today we want to give you glimpse into our lives behind the scenes of this podcast and share more of who we are and why we wanted to share our knowledge and passion about investing with the world. Both Signe and Michelle come from non-financial professional backgrounds and they discuss their investing learning journeys. We had been searching for an investing strategy that made sense to us. When we read and listened to the "Invested" book and podcast by Danielle and Phil Town, we finally found the Warren Buffett investing style that resonated with us. We discussed how many financial advisors are paid fees regardless of how their clients' portfolios perform, but sometimes professional financial help can be really helpful depending on the situation.  We explained our investing practices and how we live and breathe the investing lifestyle. We reminisced about our incredible experiences at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska and seeing Buffett and Munger live at least once. We met amazing investors like Mohnish Pabrai and Guy Spier. It wasn't a "Wolf of Wall Street" kind of party but a "Woodstock for Capitalists," where a community of like-minded investors came together in the spirit of kindness and sharing. Michelle discussed how she uses practice shares (a concept from Danielle Town) to start having "skin in the game" when researching potential stock investments. Signe's 12 month investing practice resource: https://www.aahus.com/2021/09/investing-practice.html Signe's investing checklist: https://www.aahus.com/2021/05/one-of-most-important-artifacts-or.html