Product Description

Discover why the model–investment–firm–turned–household–word is the perfect investment––for virtually anyone
Robert Miles is a successful entrepreneur, business owner, and investor who believes that everyone can be a smarter investor regardless of background, education, and income. In fact Miles says that one investment is ideal for virtually everyone to own––Berkshire–Hathaway. Miles has attended the annual shareholders meeting for years, has met Warren Buffett, and is considered a company "insider" and Berkshire–Hathaway expert. In 101 Reasons to Own the World′s Greatest Investment, Miles offers his insights into what makes Berkshire–Hathaway so profitable and why shareholders get such value for owning the stock. Among his explanations: Berkshire–Hathaway is run sensibly and frugally by Buffett––there are no lavish corporate head–quarters or extravagant spending by company executives. The company invests in companies it determines will produce steady profits for the shareholders rather than those companies with a history of erratic performance. This accessible, well–researched look at the leading company′s investment strategy has received an "unofficial" endorsement by Buffett himself.
Robert P. Miles (Tampa, FL) is an entrepreneur and owns a small business. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Business School, has been an active shareholder of Berkshire–Hathaway for a number of years, and is frequently asked to speak to other investor groups about Buffett.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1461945 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
101 Reasons to Own the World's Greatest Investment is the result of Robert Miles' comments on an online message board. He showed up on one of The Motley Fool's discussion boards as "Simple Investor" and began a series of posts entitled "101 Reasons to Own Berkshire Hathaway." The result is this book. If you've ever considered buying shares of BRK.A or BRK.B, then definitely buy it. If not, then you might want to consider getting a copy anyway, as Miles clearly demonstrates why Berkshire Hathaway is one of the best investments going. --Harry C Edwards

USA Today
"People that thought Buffett had lost it last year now think he's brilliant".

Review
"People that thought Buffett had lost it last year now think he′s brilliant".
––USA Today

Customer Reviews

The Case for Owning Berkshire Hathaway Shares
The shelves are full of books that are aimed at helping you learn how to invest like Warren Buffett does. I generally find those books to be a waste of time. If you want to invest like Warren Buffett, why not simply buy Berkshire Hathaway's stock? Well, this book takes the positive side of that perspective. In the process, you can learn much more about how Mr. Buffett has invested for himself and others at Berkshire Hathaway. Where most books about Mr. Buffett's work are overly simple and general, this one captures many fine subtleties. The book's main weakness is that Mr. Miles is not open to seeing the vulnerabilities for the future in Mr. Buffett's approach.

This book had an interesting genesis. It started as posts by Mr. Miles on the Motley Fool bulletin boards. I suspect that we will see more examples of this kind of authorship in the future, and think that it is a good idea. Authors get feedback on-line about their ideas, and can create a market for the book at the same time. Very nicely done!

The book contains literally 101 arguments in favor of buying and holding Berkshire Hathaway stock. I suspect that there was a target number set, because some of the arguments repeat each other. The appendix is very valuable in providing more fundamental perspectives on buying stocks for a new investor.

Space limits me from praising or critiquing each concept, so I will just focus on a few points. In doing this, though, you should realize that there is a lot of very solid and valuable material here.

First, just for the record, let me note that there are CEOs whose stocks have outperformed Mr. Buffett's record in the last 10 years. These are concentrated in the high technology and service business areas. I suspect that there will be more and more of these in years to come. My studies of the most successful CEOs show that these success rates are improving. Where Mr. Buffett was once near the top of the list, he increasingly is falling in the rankings. This is primarily due to his focus on avoiding technology investments. Those have been and will be the driving force of economic growth, and it's tougher to grow fast if you stick to the sidelines. As Mr. Miles points out, this avoidance does have advantages -- your stock is not as volatile on the downside (as we have seen in the last year or so).

Second, you will find it helpful to compare this book to John Bogle's excellent book, Common Sense About Mutual Funds, which makes the case for indexed fund investing. In many ways, Mr. Buffett outdoes the index funds -- by having lower management fees, less stock turnover, and fewer taxes incurred.

Third, Mr. Miles is in denial about that fact that Mr. Buffett is a man in his 70s. You will not be able to invest with Mr. Buffett after he is no longer active as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. While no one knows when that will happen, and no one wishes it to happen, it will happen regardless. Mr. Miles treats this like it could be the best thing that ever happened to the company. I would have liked to have seen more discussion about the downside risk. Avoiding risk and losses, after all, is what Mr. Buffett's approach is all about. I know of no investment vehicle that did as well after its founder retired.

Even if you have no interest in buying Berkshire Hathaway stock, you can learn a lot about good investing from seeing what Mr. Buffett does, as expressed here.

As to buying Berkshire Hathaway, for most people this would be a good move as an alternative to some of the funds they would otherwise put into mutual funds that are actively managed. But I would argue that no one should have more than 10 percent of their financial assets here. A lot of Mr. Buffett's big winners in the past (like Gillette and Coca-Cola) are having real problems. He is also fueling the company's growth with exotic insurance products. The world is full of people who found the market could turn on them in specialized financial services.

If you do want to buy this stock, wait until the current bear market on Wall Street is over. The stock will probably be cheaper then. But feel free to follow and learn about Berkshire Hathaway in the meantime.

A good thing to do is to think about who is going to be the next Warren Buffett and is younger, and invest some there as well. Who are your candidates? I have mine.

Achieve your financial goals, whatever they may be!