TBP Episode 4

Welcome to the fourth episode of The Better Podcast! We’re your co-hosts CHIN Hui Leong and CHONG Ser Jing. In The Better Podcast, we want you to get better at this game called life, together with us. This podcast is designed to share what we’ve learnt about life, business, investing, and so much more.

For our fourth episode, Chin shares his thoughts on the recent sharp declines in the stock market. He talked about the importance of remaining optimistic over the long run, and Warren Buffett’s iconic 2008 essay “Buy American. I Am”. The essay was written in the throes of the 2008/09 financial crisis and Buffett discussed how he was buying American stocks despite him not knowing what the market would do over the next month or even year. But he still bought anyway because he was still optimistic about the long-term prospects of American businesses.

Ser Jing also talks about Buffett, and his history with investing in The Washington Post Company. From his initial investment in Washing Post in the 1970s to 2007, Buffett made a return of 100 times or more. But according to investor Marcelo Lima, Washington Post’s stock price likely fell by 60% or more shortly after Buffett’s investment.

Finally, we discuss an interesting aspect of human evolution Ser Jing learned from our mutual friend Thomas Chua, where our spines appear to have not evolved to the extent where it is perfectly suited for us to be walking upright, and how this relates to the world of business.

Nothing on this show should be taken as investment advice. It is purely for informational and entertainment purposes only. All opinions expressed in this show by us and our guests are solely our own opinions. We and our guests may hold positions in the financial assets discussed in the show. These holdings are subject to change at any time.

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Show Notes

The Warren Buffett letter where he writes about Washington Post:

• https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1985.html

Marcelo Lima’s tweet about Buffett’s Washington Post investment:

Marcelo P. Lima @MarceloPLima

It looks like Buffett paid as much as $24.5 for Washington Post stock in early 1973. By Feb 1974 the stock was down 34% from that price. From that date through the bottom in Oct the SPX declined 35% so Buffett was likely down >60% on his WAPO stock (from top price paid).

You can reach Thomas here:

• Blog: https://steadycompounding.com/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SteadyCompound