Locator: 49783MARKET.
Weather: wow, wow, wow, what an incredible day -- it's already 61°F, absolutely cloudless, and no wind, not even a breeze. The high will only get to 71° but that's fine. No complaints.
Market: I haven't followed the market for about two weeks -- with some very minimal exceptions, mostly related to recording EOY statements.
I won't be following the market today either. In fact, my life has been much calmer and I've gotten a lot more reading done. I don't make New Year's resolutions but I have to admit, I may limit my screen time with CNBC to less than one hour per week. No typo. Ten minutes with sound on mute every day, 0800 to 0810, central standard / daylight time -- just to see the "implied opens."
Buffett: Speaking of which, I was completely unaware of Warren Buffett's marital arrangement(s). Absolutely fascinating. I was also unaware that one of his closest friends over the year was Ms Christie Hefner, yes, that Hefner. All this from the 2008 biography of Warren Buffet, and, no, the author was not Becky Quick.
Much could be said.
RMDs: With regard to investing, my wife can't take her RMDs fast enough each year. Me? I try to wait as long as possible but because I'm giving all my RMDs away (most ly to Uncle Sam, then to the grandchildren) I take my RMDs earlier than I used to.
With regard to the grandchildren, I will fully fund their Roth IRAs through age 29 (their age, 29, not mine, LOL). My wife and I will also ensure our grandchildren emerge from college debt-free.
On another somewhat sad note, I'm starting to see a whole lot more typographical errors on the blog. I correct them as I find them and I appreciate readers not e-mailing me regarding those errors. Significant "content" errors, however, I do want to know about.
College football yesterday: incredible games, surprising outcomes -- quarterfinals in the books, as they say, and teams that made the semifinals are known (in bold below):
- Miami over Ohio State, absolutely shocking; much could be said about Ohio's seasonal schedule; a decisive 24-14 win for Miami;
- Oregon over Tech Tech, 23 - 0; Texas Tech, known for their explosive offense ... imploded; Oregon has a history of doing this;
- Indiana over Alabama, 38-3; a blow-out; wow, this is going to be a incredible finish for the college championship; First Take is have a great time with this game;
- Ole Miss squeezed by Georgia, 39 - 34. This was probably the best game with regard to "pins and needles." It was Georgia's game to lose early on; then Ole Miss came back and dominated for 30 minutes or so, but then Ole Miss closed the deal, though, perhaps with some controversy.
What's next? The two semifinals games:
- #1 Indiana plays #5 Oregon; and,
- #6 Ole Miss plays #10 Miami.
I would assume Indiana will be playing Miami in the Championship Game. Whoo-hoo!
I have no dog in that fight: my allegiances to either team will flip-flop throughout the game. My preference is a first-three-quarter-hard-fought game with no clear winner and then the ultimate winner blows it away in the fourth quarter. I like to see the champion make a statement. And if not that, a tie in regulation time, and then two overtime periods.
Oh, back to investing. Since it's such a big day (Warren Buffett is no longer CEO of BRK), let's check on BRK-B at the open: down almost a percent; down almost $5.00; trading under $500, at $497.89. My hunch, the chairman of the board for BRK is talking to Greg Abel this morning. BRK will likely take one of two paths: remain a "mutual fund," making gobs of money for the company's directors and senior leaders but rank-and-file shareholders won't do particularly well compared to the rest of the market; or, Greg Abel ... nope, there are no two paths.
For the record, I believe the S&P 500 was up 16% for calendar year 2025; BRK was up 11%, and it was a fairly easy year to do very, very well in the market .... early on it was clear that if one likes shooting fish in a barrel, one would have done well shooting at the Magnificent 7 and tech infrastructure.
