2022年度巴菲特致股東年信

今天早上七點鍾起床，打開電腦，瀏覽頭條新聞。其中一條是關於Warrant Buffett的股東年信：

OMAHA, NE—Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s 2022 Annual Report to the shareholders will be posted on the Internet on Saturday, February 25, 2023, at approximately 8:00 a.m. eastern time where it can be accessed at www.berkshirehathaway.com. Concurrent with the posting of the Annual Report, Berkshire will also issue an earnings release. The Annual Report will include Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders as well as information about Berkshire’s financial position and results of operations.

好多人肯定在迫切等待，尤其是Warren Buffett 致股東的年信，爭取第一時間讀到。我隻是早上起來瀏覽新聞恰好看到相關報道，並沒有為這個而專門早起。不過，他以往的年信，我大都讀過，即使不是第一時間，之後都會找來讀讀。來自九旬傳奇投資老人關於人生和投資的智慧，很值得期待。

大約半小時後，年報和年信刊登出來了。我捷足先登，打開鏈接，下載了年信的 pdf 版本，迅速啟動快速閱讀模式。

巴菲特的寫作風格一如既往，嫣然是一位和藹可親的耄耋老人在談論人生和投資。

下麵是幾點隨感和內容摘要：

1. 巴菲特的公司 Berkshire 的投資者大都大款，不是普通百姓。普通百姓投資是為了準備退休用。而這些大款的投資不是用於個人消費（因為他們的錢太多了花不完），最終歸宿是捐給公益。

A common belief is that people choose to save when young, expecting thereby to maintain their living standards after retirement. Any assets that remain at death, this theory says, will usually be left to their families or, possibly, to friends and philanthropy.

Our experience has differed. We believe Berkshire’s individual holders largely to be of the once-a-saver, always-a-saver variety. Though these people live well, they eventually dispense most of their funds to philanthropic organizations.

2. 過去十年美國政府的稅收總收入及財政支出

During the decade ending in 2021, the United States Treasury received about $32.3 trillion in taxes while it spent $43.9 trillion.

The $32 trillion of revenue was garnered by the Treasury through

individual income taxes (48%),

social security and related receipts (34.5%),

corporate income tax payments (8.5%) and

a wide variety of lesser levies.

3. Berkshire 過去十年對美國政府稅收總收入的貢獻：千分之一。

Berkshire's contribution via the corporate income tax was $32 billion during the decade, almost exactly a tenth of 1% of all money that the Treasury collected.

4. 一組好玩的關於錢的數字：

Millions, billions, trillions – we all know the words, but the sums involved are almost impossible to comprehend. Let’s put physical dimensions to the numbers:

If you convert $1 million into newly-printed $100 bills, you will have a stack that reaches your chest.

Perform the same exercise with $1 billion – this is getting exciting! – and the stack reaches about ¾ of a mile into the sky.

Finally, imagine piling up $32 billion, the total of Berkshire’s 2012-21 federal income tax payments. Now the stack grows to more than 21 miles in height, about three times the level at which commercial airplanes usually cruise.

5. At yearend 2022, Berkshire was the largest owner of eight of these giants:
American Express
Bank of America
Chevron
Coca-Cola
HP Inc.
Moody's
Occidental Petroleum and
Paramount Global.

6. Nothing Beats Having a Great Partner。來自巴菲特的老夥計Charlie Munger 的一些警句：

The world is full of foolish gamblers, and they will not do as well as the patient investor.

If you don't care whether you are rational or not, you won't work on it. Then you will stay irrational and get lousy results.

Patience can be learned. Having a long attention span and the ability to concentrate on one thing for a long time is a huge advantage.

Don't bail away in a sinking boat if you can swim to one that is seaworthy.

Warren and I don't focus on the froth of the market. We seek out good long-term
investments and stubbornly hold them for a long time.

Ben Graham said, “Day to day, the stock market is a voting machine; in the long term it’s a weighing machine.” If you keep making something more valuable, then some wise person is going to notice it and start buying.

There is no such thing as a 100% sure thing when investing. Thus, the use of leverage is dangerous. A string of wonderful numbers times zero will always equal zero. Don't count on getting rich twice.

You don't, however, need to own a lot of things in order to get rich.

You have to keep learning if you want to become a great investor. When the world changes, you must change.

注：

The Annual Report that includes Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders can be found here: https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2022ar/2022ar.pdf

If you want to read the letter only, click the link below:
https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2022ltr.pdf

2023年2月25日