Mr. Buffett shared some of his other investment mantras: Why stocks matter?

Mr. Buffett shared some of his other investment mantras:
Why stocks matter?
To fight inflation.
"Inflation is a very cruel tax," said Mr. Buffett, because it lowers the worth of your paper money.
He said one of the best ways to keep the value of your money growing is to invest in good businesses and companies which keep growing. That helps investors "maintain purchasing power no matter what happens to the currency," said Mr. Buffett.
He advised against buying long-term bonds of any government, because both inflation and printing of new currency lowers the value of these investments.
The only better way to beat inflation, he said, is when individuals improve their earning power through further education and skills. "Maximize your talent," said Mr. Buffett.

Mr. Buffett shared some of his other investment mantras: When to sell a stock?

Mr. Buffett shared some of his other investment mantras:
When to sell a stock?
This, he said, is a harder decision than buying a stock.
Mr. Buffett typically holds on to stocks for years and years. "I don't feel like I have to grow rich in the next day or week," said Mr. Buffett. He said that investors who track stock prices daily are being "just foolish."
If they had bought a farm or an apartment, they would not expect it to appreciate the next day but over a period of time. Why treat stocks differently?
He added that while there's no law against speculating, those investors would "make more money if they don't trade as much."
Mr. Buffett said he would sell a stock only if some better investment opportunity came about, or if something changed at the company, such as its management, which he didn't approve of.
Get the investing mindset
A good investor needs reasonable intelligence and a passion for investing, said Mr. Buffett.
More important is the ability to look at the facts of an investment and evaluate them without getting influenced by what other people think. "You can't get excited because other people are excited," said Mr. Buffett.
He said that humans are susceptible to believing that something that has happened in the recent past will continue to go on. So, every now and then, there's a craze to buy something even at very high, irrational prices. "Then all of a sudden, the music stops," said Mr. Buffett, and the investment comes crashing down.
The key is to detach yourself from such a craze. Of course, that's easier said than done.
The importance of being comfortable
Mr. Buffett usually keeps a few billion dollars as a cash cushion or "margin of safety" at his company, Berkshire Hathaway  Inc., in order to tide over any potential economic or other crises. That margin also allows him to buy businesses which may become attractive during a downturn, he said.
Personally, he said, he doesn't keep much cash but says individuals should hold as much cash in their portfolio as would keep them comfortable during tough times.
"Some people might do something very foolish if they didn't have cash around," said Mr. Buffett, presumably referring to selling stocks after they have lost a lot of value.

Mr. Buffett shared some of his other investment mantras: Picking the right stock

Mr. Buffett shared some of his other investment mantras:
Picking the right stock
Mr. Buffett reiterated that he relies on principles taught by his guru, investor Benjamin Graham, who looked for stocks which were cheap compared to their worth. (Of course, the key is to figure out what the stock is worth, which is a subjective decision.)
Mr. Buffett said he doesn't look at sectors to identify stocks.
Instead, he looks for companies whose business he understands, and where he sees income and growth potential for the next five, 10 or 20 years.
He gave the example of Coca-Cola , one of his holdings. What are the chances that Coca-Cola will be selling more products over the next several years? "It's almost a certainty," said Mr. Buffett.
In comparison, he has stayed away from some technology and social media companies like Twitter or Facebook, which operate in a fast-changing world where the future is not clear to him. Some of these companies will be very big winners but "most of them will turn out to be overpriced," said Mr. Buffett.
He said he doesn't have to be a part of all successful companies – he looks for only a few good investing ideas.

Mr. Buffett said he preferred to invest in productive assets like company stocks and farm land, rather than on gold, oil or art.

Mr. Buffett said he preferred to invest in productive assets like company stocks and farm land, rather than on gold, oil or art.
He said if all the gold in the world could be condensed, it would be a cube which was 67 feet on all sides -- enough to fit a large auditorium. But what can you do with this cube? "You can fondle it," said Mr. Buffett, or stare at it, but it will not produce any returns. "You're betting on the price of the asset not on the productivity of the asset," said Mr. Buffett.
He said he preferred to bet on assets that are productive, like stocks of companies or farm land which produces crops.
These productive investments have helped the 80-year-old create vast wealth for himself, valued at nearly $50 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Warren Buffett's Investing Tips in India

Warren Buffett's Investing Tips in India

 this a good time to buy gold?
Not according to the world's third-richest man, Warren Buffett . In fact, Mr. Buffett doesn't care for gold as an investment at all, he told an audience of around 500 people in New Delhi on Friday night, even though gold is the favored investment for millions of Indians.
Mr. Buffett said that gold, oil and art are investments that don't produce any income or product. So, investors who buy these are counting on them becoming more attractive to other people in the future. "That's a whole different game" compared to investing, said Mr. Buffett.

Jim Rogers, a native of Demopolis, Alabama, is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor.

Jim Rogers, a native of Demopolis, Alabama, is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. He has been frequently featured in Time, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Barron’s, Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and most publications dealing with the economy or finance.
After attending Yale and Oxford University, Jim Rogers co-founded the Quantum Fund, a global-investment partnership. During the next 10 years, the portfolio gained 4200%, while the S&P 500 rose less than 50%. Rogers then decided to retire – at age 37.
In 1990-1992, Jim Rogers fulfilled his lifelong dream: motorcycling 100,000 miles across six continents, a feat that landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records. As a private investor, he constantly analyzed the countries through which he traveled for investment ideas. He chronicled his one-of-a-kind journey in Investment Biker: On the Road with Jim Rogers. Jim also embarked on a Millennium Adventure. He traveled for 1101 days on his round-the-world, Guinness World Record journey. Passing through 116 countries, he covered more than 245,000 kilometers, which he recounted in his book Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip. His latest book "A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing" was published in 2009.

Stocks Like In The 1970`s: Big Sideways Trading Range For Many Years

Stocks Like In The 1970`s: Big Sideways Trading Range For Many Years
Stocks, in my view, in most countries are like they were in the 1970s. In the 1970s stock markets, and economies around the world did not do very much and were in a big sideways trading range for many years. We are in that kind of period now. - in China Money Podcast

Jim Rogers is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. He has been frequently featured in Time, The New York Times, Barron’s, Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and is a regular guest on Bloomberg and CNBC.

U.S. Senate Passes Payroll Tax Cut Extension Q By Steven Sloan and Richard Rubin -

U.S. Senate Passes Payroll Tax Cut Extension
Q
By Steven Sloan and Richard Rubin -
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The U.S. Senate passed legislation that extends a payroll tax cut and emergency unemployment benefits for two months while calling on President Barack Obama to decide whether to approve a Canadian oil pipeline within 60 days.
Today’s 89-10 vote sends the bill to the U.S. House of Representatives, where lawmakers could meet to pass the measure as soon as Dec. 19 and send it to Obama. The $33 billion cost of the bill is covered by raising the guarantee fees that government-backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FMCC) charge to lenders for new home loans.
The short-term agreement will put the payroll tax cut and related issues before Congress early in 2012, and will give workers concerned about seeing their take-home pay decline a temporary reprieve.
“It makes no sense for two months to come back and fight the same fight we’ve been fighting for how long now,” said Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who opposed the extension. “I feel very strongly that we need to stay here and fix things.”
When they return in January, lawmakers will reprise the themes they have been focusing on for months.
Short-Term Extension
Democrats plan to again make the case for raising taxes on high earners as a way to pay for the expiring payroll tax cut. The payroll tax funds Social Security.
Senator Robert Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said he didn’t think Democrats have lost any leverage by agreeing to a two-month extension and to the pipeline language.
“You want to talk about leverage?” he said. “There are 160 million American workers who are depending upon people in both parties to make sure the payroll tax cut is in place for the entire year, and if you’re not in favor of that, I think you have a lot of explaining to do.”
Republicans, emboldened by their success in adding the Canadian Keystone pipeline language to the bill, said they are considering their conditions for another extension. One possibility, said Republican Mark Kirk of Illinois, would be language limiting industrial boiler regulation that was in the House-passed version of the bill.
Pipeline Issue
Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, claimed credit for the inclusion of the pipeline language, saying the project would spur immediate job creation if Obama approved it.
“Here’s the single-largest shovel-ready project in America,” McConnell said today. “It is literally ready to go, pending the approval of the president.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, told reporters last night the deal is “the best we could get.” He said Democrats will be better positioned to push for a long-term extension in February because lawmakers won’t also be negotiating a spending measure to keep the government funded.
“We have a lot of ammunition,” he said. “We will not have the threat of the government shutting down in two months.”
The payroll tax cut extension in the bill limits the benefit of the 2 percentage-point cut to the first $18,350 of wages or self-employment income earned in January and February. That’s one-sixth of the $110,100 limit of annual earnings subject to the Social Security cap.
That restriction means that high earners may not be able to receive the full benefit of the tax break on their January and February wages.
The mortgage fee provision raises by 10 basis points the fees that Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac charge to lenders. It makes a similar change to loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration. The Fannie and Freddie fees are permanent; the FHA change expires in 2021.
To contact the reporters on this story: Steven Sloan in Washington at ssloan7@bloomberg.net; Richard Rubin in Washington at rrubin12@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net

Courtesy By Bloomberg.
Thanks to BloomBerg