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The week's question
In March 2025, in the thread "Re: OT, out", Umm asked the members: "Do you think it is because America is made up of magical soil that makes businesses based in America magically profitable?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
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Author: mungofitch ✹✺🐝 SILVER
SHREWD
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Number: of 22351 
Subject: Re: De-risk a bit?
Date: 06/14/26 11:58 AM
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No. of Recommendations: 14
Just let it ride and do nothing, and hope for the best. Selling off small chunks as we need the cash...

This still sounds pretty good.

Other random thoughts:

There are only two reasons I can think of that you might want to do a bit extra - you are concerned about the one stock risk, which is not without merit, and the unmentioned issue of longevity risk. You don't know how long you'll live, so (like anyone else retired and living from their portfolio) you have no idea how much to spend. Looked at another way, you can't predict what fraction of your money you get to enjoy versus your heirs. No matter what your goal is on that front, you might want to narrow that down to a tighter target range? You might live to 110, or you might croak tomorrow.

So you might want to think about selling a bit *more* than what you need, and buying a small annuity. This would raise the floor of your no-work periodic income for life. If not now, then at some point. You could even do this every few years, collect a few annuities from a few firms. Just a thought. Annuities are a horrible deal in terms of IRR, but (a) they solve a problem that isn't easily solved any other way, and (b) they make a whole lot more sense the older you get, when long term rate of internal return is not very important.

Personally I think that your current cash pile (10-11 years of living expenses) is probably considerably more than what's needed, so in your shoes I'd use a lot of that for something. (if you're youngish, just stop selling shares for a few years, and if you're oldish, use a lot of that cash to fund a chunk of annuity).

Don't buy one or more deferred annuities. Let the money stay invested till the last minute, whether stock or TIPS, and then buy an immediate annuity. Besides giving a much better internal rate of return, if you die before that target date the money is in the hands of your estate, not the insurance company.

Without a doubt your large cash pile insulates you well from a lot of "tail risk" outcomes. If that is a large part of its purpose, you can mitigate one more risk by putting some of it into WIP, an ETF containing nothing but a broad basket of ex-US inflation protected government bonds. The risk this protects you against is a big fall in the US dollar. I have no idea of that is a material risk, but if it's a risk that can be so easily mitigated it's worth considering. This doesn't give great returns, but it's modestly positive in real terms and more to the point should protect long term purchasing power better than any other "one click" security I know of. I own some, even though it is heavily tax disadvantaged for me being outside the US.

Jim
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This community has written 21,861 posts about Berkshire Hathaway. The article-length ones it recommended most:
BRK: Why Not XOM? · 62 recs · 2024
Second quarter comments · 60 recs · 2023
Berkshire's Profit Contributors · 58 recs · 2023
Summary of 2Q 2026 · 55 recs · 2026
3Q Summary · 53 recs · 2024
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