Hi, Shrewd!        Login  
Shrewd'm.com 
A merry & shrewd investing community
Best Of BRK.ABest OfAll BoardsThe Shrewd’m WeeklyLearn to InvestHow to Become Shrewd
Search
Shrewd'm.com Merry shrewd investors
Search
Best Of BRK.ABest OfAll BoardsThe Shrewd’m WeeklyLearn to InvestHow to Become Shrewd


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.
Answer this questionContinue to Shrewd'mThis note won't appear again
Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (19) |
Author: mungofitch ✹✺ SILVER
SHREWD
  😊 😞

Number: of 22353 
Subject: Re: Hoping for the longest possible answer from Jim
Date: 07/23/23 6:28 PM
Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
No. of Recommendations: 26
OK, a slightly more serious answer---

Various ways we arrived at it

* We're Canadian. Winter is brutal.

* We rented a vacation place nearby in France in 1998 and loved it, allegedly the best microclimate in Europe.
We searched for a place to rent near that for a longer stretch winter 1999/2000, largely for a vacation and a millennium party, and loved it even more.
So when it was time to go back to Canada in April 2000 we toyed with the notion of moving there...but the tax situation in France is pretty brutal.
Monaco was only a few km away, how much worse could the weather be?
By June 1 we had made up our minds, looked at a place, made an offer, and closed the purchase.

* Around the same era we had looked at various tax free places, or nearly tax free, just toying with the idea.
One was the British Virgin Islands. There was a very attractive property for sale on Tortola, I remember.
But...what do you do after the first few weeks on a sunny boring island?
And no great "world city" is exactly close, either.

* Monaco is nice.
No tax, no snow, no crime. What's not to like?
If you get bored, you can be in London or Paris or Rome or Amsterdam by mid morning.

We have friends who moved to Grand Cayman fairly recently. No tax, weirdly good food, very nice people, and Seven Mile Beach (sadly lined with big hotels).
But other than the beach, MAN that is an ugly piece of geography and townscape.
And not exactly a hotbed of deep culture, either. Not for me. And most of stuff there is at least as expensive as Monaco, from taxis on up.

Jim
Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
Print the post
Members reply directly to mungofitch here — and replies get answered. Reading is free; so is joining the conversation. Join Shrewd'm »
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
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (19) |


Announcements
Berkshire Hathaway FAQ
Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.

Best Of BRK.A | Best Of | Favourites & Replies | All Boards | Followed Shrewds | Open Questions | Moving a community