I just finished listening to the Warren Buffet interviews I posted the other day.  I’ve always heard good things about Warren, about how he’s a really nice guy and all, but after watching the interviews he really struck me as a genuine, cool guy.  Oh, and I guess it’s really awesome that he’s giving billions to charity.  He also gave some pretty useful tips for
investing in the second interview, including a test he uses to determine whether an investment is worthy of his money.

Buffet learned how to invest money from a man named Ben Graham.  Ben Graham practiced what is called “value investing.”  The idea of value investing is to invest in a company when you think that company is undervalued, and wait for the stock market to correct the mispricing.  For instance, if you look at a company’s earnings, debt, growth rate, potential future growth rates, etcetera and determine that it is worth $15 billion when the stock price only implies it is worth $10 billion, then you would purchase the stock.  Buffet says he learned a few key principles from Mr. Graham:

I’m sure everyone has seen a Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb in the grocery store by now. Often they look curly and odd, but they work just the same as ordinary incandescent lightbulbs. Well, except for the fact that they last four times longer (or more), use about 1/4 the amount of electricity, and produce substantially less heat than an incandescent bulb of the same luminosity.

So why aren’t these lightbulbs being used everywhere? It has been argued that a global switch to CFLs would reduce the world’s energy demand by about 10%. There are a few reasons why many people decide not to switch, but for the most part, these reasons seem to be bogus.

The first reason why people might not switch is because they think the light quality of the bulbs is not the same as incandescent bulbs. This is false. From personal experience, I can tell you that CFLs light the room exactly the same way that incandescent bulbs do. I bought a CFL for my room at school when my incandescent burned out after a few months for the zillionth time. It is a phenomenal bulb. Not only is the light the same “quality” as an incandescent, but it seems even brighter than my incandescent used to be. It’s true that early CFLs used to have pretty poor light quality, but newer ones have been improving that quality of light rapidly. They also take about 1 second to light up rather than turning on instantly. I actually think this is kind of cool.

A comment was recently posted on gimme-five, asking me to check out the Charlie Rose Show, as Warren Buffet would be interviewed on it. Well, I missed it, but now the videos are free online! Woohoo! I thought perhaps others would be interested in checking these videos out, so I’m posting links to them. Enjoy!

• Charlie Rose - Warren Buffett: The Man - Part One in a Three Part Series
• Charlie Rose - Warren Buffett: The Business - Part Two in a Three Part Series
• Charlie Rose - Warren Buffett: The Gift - Part Three in a Three Part Series

These are each about an hour long, so make sure you have plenty of time before you start watching. You can see all of the Charlie Rose Show’s videos here on Google video.

Today is July 11, which means you can get free slurpees at 7-11 in 7.11oz Slurpee cups. Enjoy!

I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Get Rich Slowly, and found a pretty cool article, entitled: “Twelve Financial Truths.” Ok, it wasn’t really an article, but it’s from an article from the Wall Street Journal that GRS made bullet points for. Very useful, practical, concise advice. The most interesting point I found:

Your family could prove to be your greatest liability. It’s not just kids: adult children can be a drain on finances, and so can elderly parents who haven’t saved for retirement. Encourage your entire family to engage in sensible personal finance habits.

And the most practical point I saw was:

Fancy cars and expensive clothes aren’t a sign of wealth. They’re merely a sign of spent money. (Or, quite often, borrowed money.)

Enjoy