What Warren Buffett says about Non-Commodity (Franchise) Companies

NON-COMMODITY COMPANIES

Warren Buffett prefers to invest in non-commodity companies - companies whose products or services are unique or special in some way.

Here customers either need the product, or there is no real competitor, or the reputation of the product is such that people will keep buying it. Suppliers and distributors have no choice but to stock the product or people will go elsewhere.

Generally, but not always, either the product will be a brand name (eg Coke, Gillette), the company will be a brand name (H & R Block) or the company will be in a monopoly situation or monopolistic cartel.

WHAT WARREN BUFFETT SAYS ABOUT NON-COMMODITY COMPANIES

Warren Buffett illustrated this difference in 1982:

‘[There is the] constant struggle of every vendor to establish special qualities of product or services. This works with candy bars (customers buy by brand name, not by asking for a "two-ounce candy bar") but doesn't work with sugar (how often do you hear, "I’ll have a cup of coffee with cream and C & H sugar, please").’

What Warren Buffett says about Commodity Companies

COMMODITY COMPANIES

Warren Buffett does not like to invest in what he calls commodity companies - companies whose product does not differ from that of competitors in any significant way.

A company like this can be vulnerable to the actions of competitors and have limited power to raise prices to retain their profit position in the light of inflation.

WHAT WARREN BUFFETT SAYS ABOUT COMMODITY COMPANIES

Warren Buffett said this in 1982:

‘[Where] costs and prices are determined by full-bore competition, there is more than ample capacity, and the buyer cares little about whose product or distribution services he uses, industry economics are almost certain to be unexciting. They may well be disastrous.’

WHAT WARREN BUFFETT SAYS ABOUT GOOD BUSINESSES

Good businesses with that ‘protective moat’ that Warren Buffett likes have the ability to cope with inflation by raising prices. As he said in 1993:

‘The might of their brand names, the attributes of their products and the strength of their distribution systems gives them an enormous competitive advantage, setting up a protective moat around their economic activities. The average company, in contrast, does battle daily without any means of protection.’

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOLDINGS

Stocks held by Berkshire Hathaway in 2002, as stated by Buffett in his letter to stockholders include:

• The Coca Cola Company
• American Express
• The Gillette Company
• H and R Block Inc
• Moody’s Corporation
• The Washington Post Company
• Wells Fargo and Company

These are all companies with a unique or special product, or with a company brand name, or in a market domination position. They or their products have a loyalty (voluntary or otherwise) that means customers want or must come back.

Another desirable quality in non-commodity companies is repeat business. Customers drink their Coke, wear out their razor blades, or finish reading their Washington Post, and then, eventually have to replace it.

WHAT WARREN BUFFETT SAYS ABOUT DEBT

Warren Buffet acknowledges that debt can effectively increase the return on equity in a company but warns against it. In 1987, he said this:

‘Good business or investment decisions will eventually produce quite satisfactory economic results, with no aid from leverage.'

'It seems to us both foolish and improper to risk what is important (including, necessarily, the welfare of innocent bystanders such as policyholders and employees) for some extra returns that are relatively unimportant.’

WARREN BUFFETT DOES NOT LIKE DEBT

Warren Buffett does not like debt and does not like to invest in companies that have too much debt, particularly long-term debt. With long-term debt, increases in interest rates can drastically affect company profits and make future cash flows less predictable.

• In 1982, Warren Buffett noted that Berkshire Hathaway preferred to buy companies with little or no debt and has repeated this mantra on many occasions. 
• He adopts the same philosophy for his company, preferring to avoid debt but where necessary going into it on a long-term basis only with fixed rates of interest and to obtain the finance before they need it.

Warren Buffett and Long-Term Debt

WARREN BUFFETT AND LONG-TERM DEBT

Warren Buffett speaks only generally of his approach to debt. Mary Buffett and David Clark have concluded that he focuses on long-term debt, a conclusion that is supported by his public comments. They believe that his concern lies with the company’s ability to repay its debts, should the need arise, from its profits; the longer the time period, the more vulnerable is the company to external changes and the less predictable are its future earnings.

The formula for such a calculation is:

Number of years to pay out debt = Long term debt
                                                 Current annual profit

COMPANY EXAMPLES

If we apply this formula to Johnson and Johnson, for example, we find, using Value Line, that for 2002, the long-term debt of the company was $2022 million and the profit for that year was $6610 million. Dividing the first figure by the second, we can calculate that at that rate the company could pay off its long-term debt in 0.3 of a year.

If we apply the same formula to McDonald’s Corporation, we find, using Value Line, that for 2002, the long-term debt of that company was $9703 million and the profit for that year was $ 1692 million. Dividing the first figure by the second, we can calculate that at that rate the company could pay off its long-term debt in 5.73 years.

Charlie Munger - A Short Biography

CHARLIE MUNGER AND WARREN BUFFETT

Charlie T Munger works alongside Warren Buffett, as Vice-Chairman ofBerkshire Hathaway and Warren invariably refers to him as his partner and right hand man, generously giving Charlie credit for much of his success and that of the company.

Charlie Munger was a practising lawyer, having got into Harvard Law School without then having an existing Bachelor degree, not an easy thing to do.Roger Lowenstein recounts that Charlie was somewhat assertive as a student; when challenged by a professor in the Harvard Socratic fashion to analyze a case, Charlie, who had not prepared for the lesson, is reputed to have told the professor to give him the facts of the case and he, Charlie, would give him the law.

Charlie was practising law in Omaha Nebraska when he met Warren Buffett and Buffett eventually persuaded him to give up the law and get into financial investment. Charlie did so, a decision that one suspects neither man has regretted. Certainly, long time shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway would not.

Munger is chief executive officer of Wesco, an associate of Berkshire Hathaway, and like Buffet, his annual letters to shareholders can give good clues as to the investment secrets of this brilliant duo.

Charlie Munger is not only a brilliant investor; he is also a deep thinker with strong views on society, education and the philosophy of life. Go here to read an example of Charlie Munger’s frank discission of investment philosophy.

In 1995, Charlie Munger addressed students at the Harvard Law School on the issue of psychology of human misjudgement.

Charlie Munger is an interesting man and the recent subject of a book on investment philosophy, Investing: The Last Liberal Art

FURTHER RESOURCES

Our review of Investing: The Last Liberal Art, by Robert Hagstrom

EXTERNAL RESOURCES

The philosophy of Charlie Munger

http://www.buffettsecrets.com/charlie-munger.htm

Warren Buffett - A Short Biography

EARLY LIFE

Buffet was born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of a stockbroker and Congressman, and has become probably the world’s most successful investor.

As a boy, irrespective of his family background, he delivered newspapers to make extra money and this probably sparked his interest in the media where he has made several successful investments including the Washington Post Company, a stock that has made him a lot of money and which he vows never to sell.

Imbued with a determination to make good and an entrepreneurial nature, Warren dabbled in several part time businesses but his destiny was chartered early in the piece when, after graduating from the University of Nebraska, he studied business at the Columbia Graduate Business Schoolunder the legendary Benjamin Graham.

WORKING WITH BENJAMIN GRAHAM

He tried to get a position with Graham’s firm and was at first unsuccessful. He finally got the job and, as he generously acknowledges, learned a lot about stock investment from The Master.

Graham eventually retired and Buffett started a limited partnership in Omaha, using capital contributed by family and friends. The partnership was a great success and Buffett is said to have averaged an annual rate of return for the partnership in excess of 23 per cent, far in excess of the market.

BUYING BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY

Buffett, after several years, decided to wind up the partnership, returning the lucky investors their capital and their share of the profits, and bought an interest in Berkshire Hathaway, a textile company, giving his original investors the the chance to invest. The smart ones did so.

Buffett’s early days at Berkshire Hathaway were not great. The company was in an industry facing real challenges from exports and high manufacturing costs. Warren Buffett had not, however, forgotten what he had learned under Graham, and arranged for the company to buy out two Nebraska insurance companies.

This was the start of Buffett’s interest in insurance and the rise to financial fame of both himself and Berkshire Hathaway. The insurance game is a hard one but under Buffett, the company has become, not only a successful share investor, but a leading provider of insurance.

BUFFETT AND CHARLIE MUNGER

Buffett struck up a friendship with Charles T Munger, a lawyer and investor and Charlie Munger eventually joined Warren at Berkshire Hathaway as his Vice-Chairman, alter ego, and friend. Warren Buffett is always the first to acknowledge the contribution that Charlie Munger has made to Berkshire Hathaway. (Listen to an interview with Charlie Munger, or read our biography)

Under Buffett and Munger, Berkshire Hathaway has become an investment giant that wholly owns a number of successful companies that include:

• Geico Corporation
• Nebraska Furniture Mart
• See’s Candy Shops

WARREN BUFFET, THE MAN

Warren Buffett, the man, is just as hard to define as Warren Buffett, the investor. He projects a homespun frugality but one suspects that he plays his personality as close to the chest as he does his investment secrets. He always claims that it is his partner, Charlie Munger, who keeps his feet planted firmly in the ground.

Warren Buffet has become a legend and is generally ranked, along with his mentor, Benjamin Graham, first in a stellar cast of investors that includes Peter Lynch, John Neff, and Philip Fisher.

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY AND RETAINED EARNINGS

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY AND RETAINED EARNINGS

Berkshire Hathaway does not, following Buffett’s mantra, pay dividends to its shareholders and this is one reason why its compound return over the years of Buffett-Munger management has been so high.

• The downside of course is that shareholders have not received dividends, meaning, that if they were dependent on money coming in at a given time, their only recourse, in relation to their shareholding, would be to sell the shares or borrow against them.
• Having regard to the huge price of a single share over the past few years, this meant that investors may have had to either keep all their shareholding or dispose of it, not always the choice they wanted. Berkshire Hathaway partly catered for this dilemma by introducing B shares, which are in essence a fractional unit of the normal shares.

A POWERFUL FORCE

When asked to nominate the most powerful force on earth, Albert Einstein is reputed to have answered ‘compound interest’. Buffett might well agree.

Buffett likes companies with high and increasing returns on equity (ROE)

HIGH RETURNS ON EQUITY

Buffett is interested in companies that have rights rates of earnings on equity and likes them even more where the return rates are increasing. He reasons that, with a company like this, he is better off if the company pays no or little dividends and retains the money to earn even more for its owners.

• In addition, where no dividend is received, there is no income tax payable by the shareholder. 
• Instead, the investor gets the value of the increase in value in the shares which will, eventually, rise to reflect the enhanced earnings. 
• The shareholder can then retain the shares, sell them at a time that best suits them, if they wish, and take advantage of the capital gains taxation regime.

It is why potential investors should calculate the company’s history of returns on equity and management of retained earnings.

Compounding and Retained Earnings

Warren Buffet is said to look at the compounding factor when deciding on investments, requiring a stock investment to show a high probability of compound growth in earnings of at least 10 per cent before making an investment decision.

Warren Buffett has on several occasions referred to the use by a company of its retained earnings as a test of company management.

• He tells us that, if a company can earn more money on retained earnings than the shareholder can, the shareholder is better off (taxation aside) if the company retains profits and does not pay them out in dividends. 
• If the shareholder can achieve a higher rate of return than the company, the shareholder would be better off if the company paid out all its profits in dividends (taxation situation again excluded) so that they could use the money themselves.

Put simply, 

• if a company can retain earnings to grow shareholder wealth at better than the market rates available to shareholders, it should do so. 
• If it can’t, it should pay the earnings to shareholders and let them do with them what they wish.

The Wealthiest Life - Start In The Right Direction

Have you ever thought that your life could be better? It can be!

Start In The Right Direction

Most people step towards wealthy living with great anticipation, looking to everything that will change for the better. This is positive thinking but let us look at two principles that will ensure that your wealth dreams actually become a reality.

Two Keys To Living Wealthy

There are two keys to having the best life you could possibly hope for! 

• We must dream big dreams and 
• then commit to small steps that will lead us towards opportunities.

Dream Big

You were not meant to wake up in a year, or five years, and be in the same place that you are today. Dreams are the essence of life progress. Your dreams have the capacity to energize your present and future progress.

Take a pen and paper and write down all the improvements that you would like to see happen in your life. Take time to imagine your best life; see the end (the big picture). Then visualize the necessary changes taking place to propel you in the right direction.

Opportunities for advancement are awaiting each of us. Sadly, few experience the reality of these opportunities manifesting in their lives because they don't see them coming. Dreams open the hidden doorways to future life change.

If you have big dreams, you will eventually live a big life!

Commit To The Small

A very wise man once said, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." - King Solomon (The Book of Proverbs Chapter 13, verse 12)

I have watched people grow extremely bitter as they have allowed their lives to stagnate for decades, simply because they would not take some simple life changing steps.

Experiencing another year will not necessarily change your life unless you commit to personal change in specific areas. Without making selective changes to our life patterns we will most likely remain in the same state for decades. This is a sad truth for many!

Each small step you take to change your life will activate opportunities in corresponding areas. For example, if you lose weight, your self-esteem will rise, your attitudes will brighten, your emotional and physical appeal will advance and you will attract greater relationship opportunities.

Think about how you will move forward emotionally, relationally, physically and financially by making simple adjustments to your lifestyle.

5 Steps Towards Wealthy Living

1. Don't spend what you don't have. If you can't afford something, it's not your time to buy right now.

2. Brainstorm monthly for one creative idea to generate more wealth in your business, or personal finances!

3. Position yourself around people who have a higher net worth than you and ask sensible questions to help you increase financially. Do this at least once a month!

4. Keep track of your daily income and expenses. By making this a daily habit, your finances will never get out of control.

5. Start giving to others and form this as a habit in your life. What you do for others will happen for you in increased measure. This is a principle practiced by rich philanthropists.

If you will dream big wealth dreams and take small steps towards those dreams, doors of opportunity will open in your life for riches to come in!

You can have a wealthy life. Why not start on the path today.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6890105

The Wealthiest Life
By Dr Carmen Lynne

Money is actually a debt instrument: Over time debt grows per compounding interest and purchasing power diminishes with increased cost of living

Traditional financial recommendations typically ignore the risk factor represented by how money works in context of its monetary system. Same as with health issues; without knowledge of the cause of symptoms, treatments generally lack full effectiveness.

When it come to personal-finance success, responsibility for how we earn, spend, save and invest is obviously essential. However, financial objectives can easily elude us if we lack the whole story about money. The missing piece is systemic in nature. Overlooked and under reported, impersonal monetary-system mechanics grind away to leave families vulnerable; undermining goals of stability and wealth-building.

Also known as a hidden tax. Who benefits?

Central banks worldwide (Federal Reserve for the U.S.) issue currency at the precise moment it is borrowed via an automated procedure called fractional-reserve banking. Therefore, money is actually a debt instrument (Federal Reserve Note). This private profit, interest-delivering system was designed centuries ago.

Over time debt grows per compounding interest and purchasing power diminishes with increased cost of living. The cost of living rises as businesses add their interest cost from bank loans to the cost of the goods and services we purchase.

And so grows the gap between the haves and have-nots.

That brings me to the pivotal issue of how much purchasing power $1.00 has in the marketplace today. One dollar is only worth 4.5 cents and an online inflation calculator proves my point. An item purchased for $1.00 in 1913 (when the Federal Reserve System was created) would cost $22.10 in 2010; a 2000% increase in inflation!

It's a fact: Skilled advisers are definitely helping families lower their debt-loads and modify their budgets. That said, the "good-debt, bad-debt" conversation remains as conventional truth; leading individuals and families to believe they can tweak their budget and lifestyle here and there to make it through to better days.

Unfortunately, such household gains may not last. Without a working knowledge of money as debt, even the most sincere efforts may falter as a rising cost of living erodes hard-won forward movement. When following conventional financial wisdom, the solution to keeping up and making ends meet could well end up, once again, as participation in the vicious cycle of credit and debt. Who benefits?

More choices with the big picture.

When we add the missing-piece about money to our knowledge-base and decision-making process we also gain additional financial strategies. Those who set out to explore alternatives outside-the-traditional-personal-finance-box tend to develop a new part of their brain.They uncover a world of possibilities (perhaps previously under-valued) along with the thousands of others on the very same mission!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5646119

Personal finance action-steps to build a solid financial foundation

Here are personal finance action-steps formulated to help individuals and families build a solid financial foundation. Savings and investments are very important but in the 2011 economy they will be most SUSTAINABLE when a solid present-day foundation has been attended to first. You'll know you have completed the "foundation" step once you have more money coming in to your household than going out for at least four consecutive months!

1. Write down your short-term, mid-term, and long-term financial goals and put them somewhere to easily refer back to them.
2. Review your goals (at least) on a weekly basis.
3. Figure out your exact financial status today. How much money a) comes in and b) goes out each month. Create a line-item and categorized itemization of money in and out. Don't forget things like eating out and entertainment.
4. Track your expenses and out-of-pocket spending precisely for at least one month. Save all receipts and record out-of-pocket information daily. Also determine the exact amount of money (or average) that comes in each month.
5. Do you have more money going out than coming in? If so, exactly how much?
6. Use your list of current itemized expenses to create an action-plan regarding how and by when you will lower or eliminate line-items that exceed the amount of money currently coming in to your household. This may mean creative downsizing.
7. Create an action-plan about how and by when you will increase money coming in to your household. As debt becomes reduced or eliminated, this action step becomes the most important one in order to stay ahead of the cost-of-living debt curve for the long-term.
8. As you focus on ways to increase cash flow, perhaps consider an independent trade or service that people will always need and that best suits you. For example, car mechanics, computer techs, hair stylists, barbers, clean-water suppliers, pet care-givers, delivery-service providers etc.
9. Make debt-elimination a high-priority; the final goal being to consistently live within your means and pay as you go.
10. Once credit-card debt is paid off, get rid of all but one credit card because credit access is actually an instant-gratification state-of-mind.
11. Do NOT keep your one remaining credit card in your wallet. Leave it frozen in a bowel of water in your freezer. This tactic builds time into the otherwise instant-gratification decision-making mindset of a credit card in your wallet.
12. You might even want to reallocate existing assets towards building your "more money in than going out" household-budget foundation more quickly. Since money (as debt) is worth the most today than it will be tomorrow, it's best to put it to work today! A stable present situation will increase your well-being. Increased well-being empowers a healthy decision-making process
13. Use cash first and foremost. Most people will pay more attention to what they spend when it comes straight out of their wallet.
14. Stop shopping for entertainment. Shop purposefully using coupons, during sales and buy bulk whenever possible. Generally shop recycled including for cars.
15. Include your children in the how and why of your decision-making process (should you accept this mission)and invite their imitation of your thinking and efforts.
16. If you have savings and/or investments to preserve, keep some of YOUR money entirely out of the reach of the banking-services industry. They consider their own interests before they consider yours! More and more people are moving their bank capital into hard (tangible) assets.
17. Specifically per 16 above, consider anything you have in savings, retirement funds or the stock market. (Remember the stock-market 2008 and FYI: The U.S. government is currently floating the idea of nationalizing 401(k)'s and IRA's given their nearly 14-trillion-dollar deficit. In other words, individuals would lose control over their account and the government instead would ration annuity-type payments.)

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5646119

The Basics of Personal Finance Investing: Stocks, Bonds, and Short-term investments.

Overall, investing is a great way to build wealth or a 'nest egg' for your retirement. If you invest regular amounts of money on a consistent basis over a long period of time, you are more likely to be successful in reaching your financial goals. By knowing just a few investing basics, you can get started with a variety of income options.

Three Types Of Investments

There are three basic types of investments you can choose from. There are stocks, bonds, and short-term investments.

Stocks

Stocks can also be referred to as equity investments. These are investments in individual companies that are publicly held. Stocks allow you to hold a small ownership in these companies. When invested in long-term, stocks have a high potential for growth. Stocks are not without risk, however. If the price of the stock drops, so do the investor's earnings. If a company goes out of business, the owners of the stock can lose their entire investment. It is wise to invest in the stock of companies that have been around for a very long time and that have a track record of rising stock prices.

Bonds

Buying a bond is basically lending money to the company you are purchasing it from. An example of this is buying a bond from the U.S. Treasury. After purchase a bond, you would be paid back after you cash it in. Buying bonds has the potential to increase your wealth with a lower risk than purchasing stocks, as well as the benefit of having a bit of protection from economic inflation.

Short-Term Investments

Short term investments can include money market investments, certificates of deposit (CD's), and others. After a short period of time, you can earn interest on these investments. You can usually begin receiving interest in as little as one year or less. These short-term investments are much less risky than stocks and bonds, but there is lower potential for growth. This means you can not expect as large of a return on a short-term investment as you could from stocks or bonds.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1408204

The Basics of Personal Finance Investing
By Richard MacGrueber

Jump-Starting Your Personal Finance - Achieving Higher Rates of Return

For many people, it is usually after years of not paying much attention to how they handle money, or after taking bad advice from others they've trusted (including professionals), that they finally realize: "Hey, this is my money and no one really cares more about it than I do. And it will not multiply unless I do something about it". At this point, the path you take can have long-term effects. Let me bring a few important points to your attention to help you on your journey.

Higher Rates of Return

When you finally come to the realization that you need to take a more active role in handling you personal finance there is a natural tendency to look to the stock market. That's usually because stock in a company is one of the easiest securities to acquire. There is also a sense of excitement or prestige with being in the stock market. However, lets put the emotions aside and look at what the real issues are.

One thing you must consider, especially when starting out is the return on investment. The stock market historically gives 7-10% annually. This is not a bad return if you are looking to park a huge amount of cash (say a few hundred thousand and up). But if you are starting out with not much excess cash, you need to get higher rates of return. If you have $5000 and you invest that at a rate of 10% a year, in 5 years you will have about $8000. That is not fast enough if you really want to take control of your personal finances. You will need to learn how to get higher rates of return than that. Remember the higher your rate the less time it takes for your money to multiply.

Assessing Your Options

The question then becomes how can you achieve higher rates of return. Many, at this point tend to gravitate towards using aggressive stock strategies or short-term trading to get higher rates of return. This could take years and many dollars (both in the cost of educating yourself and bad trades) to learn how to do and the probability of success is not very high. But if you are just starting out you don't have that kind of money to loose. Your best alternative for higher rates of return is to start a business that meets certain criteria.

The kind of business you want to start is one with low startup cost and high profit potential. Yes, it does take more effort to manage than a passive instrument such as stocks. But this is where you have a higher probability of getting returns that are in the 100% per year range, and even higher if you play your cards right. And these returns can be much more consistent than with stocks. Here are some other points to consider about starting your business for higher rates of return:

1. No longer is the option of starting your business limited to huge upfront investments (such as buying a franchise). Today it is possible to start businesses with very little money and have high profit margins.

2. The time requirement need not be prohibitive. Many successful businesses are started part-time buy full time employees. Also, depending on the kind of business you start, the internet can help to make it easier to manage.

3. You have more control of your investment. Once you place your money into a stock you have no control over what the price of that stock will be. With your own business, you control it. And there are many resources to help business owners.

4. The long-term prospects of starting your own business are good. You may not hit a home run on your first try (although that has been done before, and is far more likely than making a million on the first stock you pick) but if you keep at it you will improve and so will your personal finances.

Remember to approach your business like an investment. Learn how much is required to start, the expected rate of return, when you expect to make your money back etc. Even if you do decide to take a more active path in the stock market (i.e., trading stocks), take the time to learn how it is done before risking your hard earned money.

To your success.

Rodger Campbell is an entrepreneur and writes on various topics including personal finance and investing. For more insights similar to the article you just read, go to PersonalFinanceBuzz.com [http://www.personalfinancebuzz.com]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rodger_Campbell

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/728466

Jump-Starting Your Personal Finance - Achieving Higher Rates of Return
by Rodger Campbell

Drop in business investment pulls down UK's annual growth

Drop in business investment pulls down UK's annual growth
Malaysia Sun
Friday 24th February, 2012  

  •  Biggest drop in business investment for a year at 5.6% Biggest drop in business investment for a year at 5.6% 
  •  Gross capital formation also fell by 7.6 %
  •  Household consumption, government spending, exports prop up growth

LONDON - The United Kingdoms economy contracted by 0.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011, while gross domestic product (GDP) growth
of 0.7 per cent was lower than expectations, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data released Friday morning.

The consensus expectation was for an increase of 0.2% quarter-on-quarter, while the annual GDP growth expectations was for 0.8% .

The fall in GDP was largely driven by the biggest drop in business investment for a year at 5.6 per cent, while the production sector, which includes manufacturing, declined 1.4% compared with previous estimates of 1.2%.

The construction sector contracted and the energy services sector was flat.

The break up of the data shows that by components, final household consumption grew by 0.5%, government spending by 1.0% and exports by
2.3%. Imports, on the other hand, fell 0.4%, while gross capital formation fell by 7.6%.

Trade data showed that while gross fixed capital formation was down by 2.8%, the business investment also dipped by 5.6%.

When view from year-on-year terms, net trade added 1.2 percentage points to growth, while gross capital formation took away 0.3 percentage points.

But from quarterly data shows that while consumption contributed 0.3 percentage points to the GDP growth together with 0.6 points coming
from external demand and another 0.2 from public spending, but gross capital formation subtracted 1.2 points.

Economists are currently unsure about whether the UK's economy will continue to deteriorate in the first quarter of 2012, after encouraging industry surveys in recent months.

A further contraction in the first quarter of 2012 would see the UK economy officially enter a double-dip recession. However, economic data from the manufacturing and vital services sector in the early weeks of 2012 have been encouraging.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said: "Unless the euro zone debt crisis escalates, the coming year is therefore likely to see modest growth. However, there will no doubt be high volatility in the GDP numbers due to factors such as the Olympics and additional bank holiday for the Queen's Jubilee."

Ahead of the budget announcement on March 21, Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: "For the sake of hard-pressed families, pensioners, young people and businesses, George Osborne needs to listen and use next month's Budget to change course. It's his last chance to make a difference to our economic prospects this year and next."

http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/3a8a80d6f705f8cc/id/203760558/cs/1/

The Investment Philosophy of Warren Buffett - In 23 Quotes

Warren Buffett is the most successful investor of our time, perhaps of any time. He is famous for his pithy quotes, which often appear in his annual letter to shareholders.

Taken together, his quotes pretty well sum up his investment philosophy and approach. Here are his best sound bites of all time on being a sensible investor.

1. Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.

2. Investing is laying out money now to get more money back in the future.

3. Never invest in a business you cannot understand.

4. I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

5. I put heavy weight on certainty. It's not risky to buy securities at a fraction of what they're worth.

6. If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

7. It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

8. Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.

9. For some reason people take their cues from price action rather than from values. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

10. In the short run, the market is a voting machine. In the long run, it's a weighing machine.

11. The most common cause of low prices is pessimism. We want to do business in such an environment, not because we like pessimism, but because we like the prices it produces. It's optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer. None of this means, however, that a business or stock is an intelligent purchase simply because it is unpopular; a contrarian approach is just as foolish as a follow-the-crowd strategy. What's required is thinking rather than polling.

12. Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.

13. It is better to be approximately right than precisely wrong.

14. All there is to investing is picking good stocks at good times and staying with them as long as they remain good companies.

15. Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

16. You do things when the opportunities come along. I have had periods in my life when I have had a bundle of ideas come along, and I've had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do something. If not, I won't do a damn thing.

17. [On the dot-com bubble:] What we learn from history is that people don't learn from history.

18. You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right.

19. You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.

20. You should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because someday a fool will.

21. When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.

22. The best business returns are usually achieved by companies that are doing something quite similar today to what they were doing five or ten years ago.

23. Diversification may preserve wealth, but concentration builds wealth.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/528157

By David Van Knapp

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Investment-Philosophy-of-Warren-Buffett---In-23-Quotes&id=528157

What is Warren Buffett's investing philosophy?

Buffett's investment philosophy has changed over time and can generally be thought of in two parts:

• Early Buffett (pre-1970): buy at a significant discount to intrinsic value. "Fair business at a wonderful price."
• Late Buffett (post-1970): buy companies at a price at or near intrinsic value, that can consistently increase their intrinsic value,.  "Wonderful business at a fair price."

He has said that the latter philosophy is far superior to the former and that it took him far too long to realize it.  Buffett's investment philosophy certainly evolved over the course of his investing lifetime, and did shift towards more of a focus on quality rather than cheapness, in part due to his association with and learning from his business partner Charlie Munger.  The intellectual father - the "Benjamin Graham," if you will - of this quality focus was Phil Fisher.  Generally, Buffett is a value investor; he studied under and worked for Benjamin Graham, the author of The Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis and the man generally considered the father of modern-day value investing, and credits Graham for much of his investment philosophy and success.

The best way to truly understand Buffett's investment philosophy is to read the following (links below):

1. His letters to investors from his early investment partnerships

2. His letters to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway

3. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

4. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Phil Fisher

Early Partnership Letters (1959-1969):

http://www.ticonline.com/buffett...

Berkshire Hathaway Letters (1977-2010):

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com...

Intelligent Investor:

http://amzn.to/fycq54

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits:

http://amzn.to/dU2p1i

http://www.quora.com/Warren-Buffett/What-is-Warren-Buffetts-investing-philosophy

Warren Buffett's secret - THE COMPOUNDING FACTOR

EXPLANATION

This may be old hat to some readers but it is worth remembering how compounding is one of the keys to Warren Buffett’s investment success.

The compounding factor is easy to understand. Compound interest (or compounding of earnings) is simply the ability of interest (or investment return) earned on a sum of money to earn additional interest (or investment return), thereby increasing the return to the owner of the money or investor. It works like this and we will use interest as the exemplar:

You deposit a sum of money, say $1,000, in a bank or other financial institution that earns interest at the rate of 5 per cent, payable annually. At the end of the first year, you have earned $50 and have the right to get your $1,000 back.

Suppose however that you want to invest the money long-term, for say 10 years. You now have two options.

OPTION A: TAKE INTEREST PAYMENTS

You can have the interest paid to each year, in which case you will receive $50 each year to spend or use as you wish. At the end of the 10-year period, you will get your final interest payment and your $1,000 back.

OPTION B: RE-INVEST INTEREST

You can choose to re-invest your interest and earn interest each year on the accumulated interest payments as well as on the original investment. This means that you do not get annual payments but, at the end of the 10-year period, you will get a lump sum payment of $1625. This is compound interest.

Why this much larger amount? Because your interest earns interest each year like this (calculations rounded to nearest 50 cents). 

Year	Principal sum	Interest earned	New principal sum
1	1000	50	1050
2	1050	52.50	1102.50
3	1102.50	55.00	1157.50
4	1157.50	58	1215.50
5	1212.50	61	1273.50
6	1273.50	64	1337.50
7	1337.50	67	1404.50
8	1404.50	70	1474.50
9	1474.50	74	1548.50
10	1548.50	77	1625

The higher the interest, the bigger the capital gain. At 10 per cent, the sum would increase to $2594.00; at 15 per cent, to $4055.00.

Warren Buffet is said to look at the compounding factor when deciding on investments, requiring a stock investment to show a high probability of compound growth in earnings of at least 10 per cent before making an investment decision.

COMPOUNDING AND RETAINED EARNINGS

Warren Buffett has on several occasions referred to the use by a company of its retained earnings as a test of company management. He tells us that, if a company can earn more money on retained earnings than the shareholder can, the shareholder is better off (taxation aside) if the company retains profits and does not pay them out in dividends. If the shareholder can achieve a higher rate of return than the company, the shareholder would be better off if the company paid out all its profits in dividends (taxation situation again excluded) so that they could use the money themselves.

Put simply, if a company can retain earnings to grow shareholder wealth at better than the market rates available to shareholders, it should do so. If it can’t, it should pay the earnings to shareholders and let them do with them what they wish.

 HIGH RETURNS ON EQUITY

This is why Buffett is interested in companies that have rights rates of earnings on equity and likes them even more where the return rates are increasing. He reasons that, with a company like this, he is better off if the company pays no or little dividends and retains the money to earn even more for its owners.

In addition, where no dividend is received, there is no income tax payable by the shareholder. Instead, the investor gets the value of the increase in value in the shares which will, eventually, rise to reflect the enhanced earnings. The shareholder can then retain the shares, sell them at a time that best suits them, if they wish, and take advantage of the capital gains taxation regime.

It is why potential investors should calculate the company’s history of returns on equity and management of retained earnings.

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY AND RETAINED EARNINGS

Berkshire Hathaway does not, following Buffett’s mantra, pay dividends to its shareholders and this is one reason why its compound return over the years of Buffett-Munger management has been so high.

The downside of course is that shareholders have not received dividends, meaning, that if they were dependent on money coming in at a given time, their only recourse, in relation to their shareholding, would be to sell the shares or borrow against them.

Having regard to the huge price of a single share over the past few years, this meant that investors may have had to either keep all their shareholding or dispose of it, not always the choice they wanted. Berkshire Hathaway partly catered for this dilemma by introducing B shares, which are in essence a fractional unit of the normal shares.

A POWERFUL FORCE

When asked to nominate the most powerful force on earth, Albert Einstein is reputed to have answered ‘compound interest’. Buffett might well agree.

http://www.buffettsecrets.com/compound-interest.htm