No. of Recommendations: 12
It's possible I would have done better buying the S&P500 at the right times and holding on. Too much work to try to figure that out, and pointless.
I'm happy with my result.
You made me go back and calculate my worst CAGR, which was my purchase around the end of 1998 after the big runup that year. This was my first substantial Berkshire purchase, and I obviously didn't know how to value the stock. I just had some cash and bought it. 🤷♂️ I get a CAGR of around 8.8% for that time period, which also handily beat the SP500 index. Very interesting.
I'm the poster boy for not knowing much but just hanging on forever, and as you have shown even when you don't get a great buy in price one can do quite well over the very long haul. My best CAGR has been my purchase in 8/2000 at 10.42%.
I am not sure I would have held on as diligently if I was just buying the index. The "cult" aspect of Berkshire made me hang on, and by going to the annual meetings at times and reading the reports, I sort of knew the business was still doing well even if the stock price was not at times, so it helped me hang on.
