2022年度巴菲特致股东年信

今天早上七点钟起床，打开电脑，浏览头条新闻。其中一条是关于Warrant Buffett的股东年信：

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 致股东的年信，争取第一时间读到。我只是早上起来浏览新闻恰好看到相关报道，并没有为这个而专门早起。不过，他以往的年信，我大都读过，即使不是第一时间，之后都会找来读读。来自九旬传奇投资老人关于人生和投资的智慧，很值得期待。

大约半小时后，年报和年信刊登出来了。我捷足先登，打开链接，下载了年信的 pdf 版本，迅速启动快速阅读模式。

巴菲特的写作风格一如既往，嫣然是一位和蔼可亲的耄耋老人在谈论人生和投资。

下面是几点随感和内容摘要：

1. 巴菲特的公司 Berkshire 的投资者大都大款，不是普通百姓。普通百姓投资是为了准备退休用。而这些大款的投资不是用于个人消费（因为他们的钱太多了花不完），最终归宿是捐给公益。

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. 过去十年美国政府的税收总收入及财政支出

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 过去十年对美国政府税收总收入的贡献：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. 一组好玩的关于钱的数字：

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。来自巴菲特的老伙计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