Tidbits | wealthymatters

Poor Charlie’s Almanack

February 12, 2011 7 Comments

‘Poor Charlie’s Almanack – The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger’ is a compilation of essays, memoirs, interviews, and speeches regarding Warren Buffett’s closest friend and business partner, Charles T. (Charlie) Munger , edited by Peter D.Kaufman.

Charlie Munger is an admirer of Benjamin Franklin,and the book’s title is a tribute to Franklin’s ‘Poor Richard’s Almanack.’

This is a big’ heavy coffee-table book with well over 500 pages.It’s pretty heavy reading and best left in the library.Reading the book cover to cover is only for serious Munger fans.

Thumbing through the book I figured that the only solid take-aways I could get without knocking myself out by tackling this formidable book were (1)Mungerisms,(2)The concepts to be mastered to apply the Multiple Mental Models to think better and (3)A checklist of investing principles. Read more of this post

Filed under Tidbits Tagged with Best Financial Books, Big Ideas from Big Disciplines, book review, Investment Book, Lollapalooza Effect, Multiple Mental Models for Decision Making, Peter D. Kaufman, Poor Charlie's Almanack-The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, Stock Pari-Mutuel System

Charlie Munger

February 12, 2011 2 Comments

For all those who are like who the heck is this Charlie?And there are many who would ask the question where I come from. Charles Thomas (Charlie) Munger is an investment manager. He is Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation and Warren Buffett’s long term associate. Munger is also the chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation, based in Pasadena, California. Wesco Financial is an 80.1%-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. It began as a savings and loan association, but now controls Precision Steel Corp., CORT Furniture Leasing, Kansas Bankers Surety Company, and other ventures. Wesco Financial has an equity portfolio of over $1.5 billion dollars that is concentrated in Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, US Bancorp, and Goldman Sachs.

Buffett has often publicly stated that he regards Charlie Munger as his partner. In fact Charlie Munger owns enough Berkshire Hathaway stock to be a bona fide billionaire in his own right. There are many similarities between these two long time friends.However the lesser known Charlie Munger is not a carbon copy of Warren Buffett.There are distinct differences in the way in which the two long -time friends think .Ofcourse what is so fascinationg is how both these people’s thoughts mesh to create a better whole.Also Warren Buffett is known to devote his time almost exclusively to his business, while Charlie Munger, who does not involve himself in the day-to-day operations of Berkshire, is a generalist for whom investment is only one of a broad range of interests.

Charlie Munger is a great admirer of Benjamin Franklin.His thoughts are compiled in a 500 odd pages tomb called “Poor Charlie’s Almanack”.

Charlie Munger believes in thinking about things by inverting. So to understand how to be happy in life, Charlie will study how to make life miserable; to examine how businesses become big and strong, Charlie first studies how businesses decline and die; most people care more about how to succeed in the stock market, Charlie is most concerned about why most have failed in the stock market. Read more of this post

Filed under Tidbits Tagged with Benjamin Franklin, Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, billionaire, Charles Munger, Charlie Munger, Elementary Worldly Wisdom, Lollapalooza Effect, Multiple Mental Models, Mungerisms, Open Outcry Auctions, Poor Charlie's Almanack, Tupperware Parties, Warren Buffett, Wesco Financial Corporation

Chinese Wealth Symbols

February 10, 2011 17 Comments

Chinese business people surround themselves with objects that are symbols of wealth. They hope these auspicious objects will “help” their businesses run smoothly and make good profits.Whether you believe in them or not , they are really pretty and are nice things to keep around you and to give as gifts and souvenirs.They do indeed make people feel good!Here is a list of Chinese Wealth Symbols I could find.Tell me if you know of more.

The Chinese wealth symbol cai ,on the left ,means get rich and accumulate material things.The Chinese view cai as necessary for happiness.Cai comes from a thriving business, trade or good harvest.

To The Chinese ‘jing yu” gold fish is the ultimate symbol of wealth and abundance, as jing literally means “gold” and yu sounds like abundance.As such, business people love to place a bowl of gold fish or art works of the fish in their offices or homes as a wealth symbol.

This is a picture , on the left,of a child holding an oversized gold fish and a lotus leaf. It’s a common Chinese New Year motif that means successive years of abundance This is because the word for lotus ‘lian’ is pronounced the same as the word for continuous.

Since ancient times the expression ‘zhao cai jing bao’ – bring wealth and treasures -is displayed as panels and motifs on walls to attract good business. Bao refers to yuan bao, the shoe shaped ingot made of gold or silver,on the right, that was used as money in old China.

This picture on the left is call ‘da fu da li’ which means big fortune and big profits.The oversized boy in the picture is the famous mud boy from Hui Shan, Wu Xi, called Da (Big) Ah Fu (Good Fortune). In Chinese folk legends this cheeky and smiling boy wearing a belly band brings peace and luck.Notice the gold ingots in his lap radiating with golden light. An auspicious sign indeed! Read more of this post

Filed under Tidbits Tagged with Cai Shen, Chinese, Chinese Wealth Symbols, Feng Shui, Liu Hai, Red Packet, Taoist God, Yuan Bao Gold Silver Ingots

The Chinese God of Wealth

February 9, 2011 13 Comments

I’ve started using Bing today and the image search feature threw up these pretty pictures.They were the beginning of a very interesting find:The Chinese God of Wealth-Cai Shen/Zhao Gongming.Till today I didn’t know that the Chinese even had a special God of Wealth.The fifth day of the Spring Festival is observed as his birthday.The pictures are from a folk perfomance where the actor plays the God of Wealth.

Numerology of Wealth

February 9, 2011 24 Comments

This is a post I came across while tag-surfing.It is from http://abbottk.wordpress.com .My friends and I tried it out and the descriptions fit OK.

For example for me the ‘Day Number’ is 7 and the ‘Destiny Number’ is 7+9+1+9+7+8=41 ,4+1=5 .And the descriptions fit to a T.

Why not calculate your ‘Money Numbers’ and see if these descriptions fit you too?

How Your Date of Birth Can Influence Your Finances

Each number has it’s own general representations, qualities and vibrations. Numbers have rich symbolic meanings and relate to all areas of life and even influence your finances and ability to earn money, keep money and give away money. Each number has a corresponding energy that can indicate how a person will deal with wealth and financial issues throughout their lives. Learning the energy of each number and how it influences and interacts with prosperity can give you some clues as to your own money-making potential.

To analyse and interpret your ‘Money Number’ simply use the formula of reducing your ‘Day Number’ or ‘Destiny Number’ to a single digit.

For example, the ‘Destiny Number’ for a person with the date of birth of the 26^th of September 1967 (26/09/1967) is 4. This is worked out thus:

2 + 6 + 9 + 1 + 9 + 6 + 7 = 40 , 4 + 0 = 4

A ‘Day Number’ for a person with the birth date of the 26^th of September 1967 is the number 8. This is worked out thus:

2 + 6 = 8

Either your ‘Destiny Number’ or your ‘Day Number’ can be used to interpret your ‘Money Number’.

1 MONEY NUMBER

If you have the number 1 as your ‘Day’ or ‘Destiny’ number, you will most likely have a monetary advantage throughout your lifetime. However, the number 1 is the energy of ‘new beginnings’, so you may find yourself repeatedly starting new things.

A person with the 1 ‘Money Number’ is not one who accrues debt as money made and earned tends to stay with the person who made it in the first place.

The number 1 personality is generally an excellent leader and is quite adept at building wealth. Often though, the prosperity attracted by this person is enjoyed by the people that he/she leads or employs more so than the actual person themselves. Read more of this post