The Conservative Income Investor

@RetailInvestGuy We will know more details in May: reuters.com/legal/transact…

@TCII_Blog Interesting, hadn’t heard about this. Would be foolish to get rid of Amazon.

Very odd if speculative reporting is true that *all* of Todd Combs' picks at Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.B are being discarded by Greg Abel. Sure, get rid of SiriusXM $SIRI, but no need to discard Amazon $AMZN when you have $370+ billion in cash. Seems a bit personal (not rational).

Which Will Deliver Better Returns Over The Next Decade: Dividend Growth Consumer Staples or Stock Market Excluding Magnificent Seven?

Last May, when Berkshire $BRK.B hit $539, many shareholders remarked that the price was a bit high. Now that the stock is down 11% with another year of enormous profits under its belt, many shareholders are noting the price is reasonable. By far, most rational shareholder base.

My optimistic opinion on this: Only 19 of the largest 500 companies in 1975 have gone bankrupt since then. And even 1975 Kodak shareholders got shares of Eastman Chemical $EMN spun off in 1993, such that $10k in 1975 Kodak would be worth $125k today in Eastman Chemical shares and $0 in Kodak, i.e. even the bankrupt case contains 12.5x returns for shareholders.

Some people need to be taught to buy 30 dividend growth stocks to hold forever, pool the dividends for the first three months to pay to Uncle Sam as a front-loaded estimated tax payment, and then set the dividends from April - December to be payable to their checking account so they can be constantly hit with ~10 dividend checks per month that grow annually faster than inflation. Owning is a better way to live than gambling.

For those that initiated a position in Coca-Cola $KO in 1994 right after Berkshire Hathaway finished buying the stock, today's dividend marks $3,000 in cumulative dividends collected for every $1,000 invested. The dividend growth marches on.

The credit rating agencies made a mistake stripping Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.B of its AAA rating in 2009-2010, and it has been an ongoing error of misplaced pride that they have not restored Berkshire to AAA status at any point on the company's road to $370+ billion in cash.

What market sector do you generate the most dividends from?

There is one stock in particular (among several) that I am purchasing now at today's compelling valuation. To access and subscribe to my latest post on what I am buying now, click here: patreon.com/theconservativ…

@BRK_Student I hope that is the case.

@TCII_Blog I think we'll get a lot more substance from Abel & Co. An hour business update + 1.25h morning session + 1.25h afternoon session = 3.5 hours. That's pretty good when you're not fending off questions that have been asked year after year to the Sages.

Disappointed to see the Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.B meeting Q&A has been reduced to two sessions of slightly more than an hour. I hope to be wrong, but I sense a new era of sparse insight from management.

I think Buffett and Munger, and now Abel, have regarded true actionable information and knowledge as proprietary and something to be confidential. Which is why the most insightful responses from Buffett and Munger tended to be non-Berkshire specific "good financial life and informed citizen economically" type commentary, which I do not think Abel wants to provide. Abel regards the general financial educator role as outside his scope.

@TCII_Blog Do you think they're worried they won't have enough questions to fill 5+ hours? Maybe they're thinking start off small this year and then lengthen the meetings each year?

An interesting note from Berkshire's report: Warren Buffett's one reserved power is a right to consultation on buybacks, which will not occur as a matter of policy if Berkshire's $BRK.A $BRK.B cash position is ever below $30 billion, and Berkshire did not repurchase any stock in 2025 even at prices as low as $450s. Full quote: "Berkshire’s common stock repurchase program permits Berkshire to repurchase its Class A and Class B shares at prices below Berkshire’s intrinsic value, as conservatively determined by Berkshire’s Chief Executive Officer after consultation with the Chairman of the Board. We are not committed to a minimum or subject to a maximum repurchase amount. We will not repurchase our stock if it reduces our consolidated cash, cash equivalents and U.S. Treasury Bills holdings to below $30 billion. Financial strength and redundant liquidity will always be of paramount importance at Berkshire. There were no share repurchases in 2025."

Over 10% of Berkshire Hathaway's $BRK.B trillion-dollar market cap can be attributed to cash generated by selling shares of Apple $AAPL. Much of Buffett's 60-year career output relies upon the decision to buy, sell some, and hold Apple, despite it only being a small fraction of his overall efforts.

It is a disservice when finance pros say "do whatever you're comfortable with" on the "invest vs. payoff mortgage" question. If someone is earning historical market returns to pay off a mortgage at 3.5% or lower with at least 25 years remaining, the opportunity cost of selling stocks to pay off the mortgage is *at least* $1,000,000 in foregone wealth for every $250,000 to be paid off. And that is assuming the freed-up monthly payment goes towards market investments for 25 years. It could take a typical household until age 70 to be in the position they'd be in at age 60 if they didn't get this decision wrong.

Mattel $MAT is down ~30% after hours to $14. No surprise. Demographic headwinds, commodity-level products getting surpassed by tech alternatives, rising input costs, and a business model increasingly dependent on paying steep licensing fees to sell someone else's brands. It is now trading at the same price it was at in the early 1990s, and it is all justified.

A little bit of fun coming to the stock market. The more the great ones fall, the better it is to buy.

Coca-Cola $KO has been rising. That means all those shareholders that have been holding the past decade and reinvesting dividends are back up to 9-10% compounding. Not bad for Ole Reliable.