Life update: I saw Warren Buffett retire in person, and 6 other things to do in the first week of May in Omaha. :)
1. Attend VALUExBRK: If you attended, you might have met me manning the doors. There were some amazing talks here, you can watch the recording (highly recommended) here.
2. Make friends while waiting in line at 4 AM for the Berkshire Hathaway AGM: Multiple people, including Guy and Mohnish, talk about this. There's something to waiting in line at 4AM that brings people together.
3. Meet incredibly successful people, true titans of industry: If you know the right places, you will meet some of the most accomplished people in the business and investing world.
4. Shopping at the CHI health center: buy great products you hear of and own as part of Berkshire. Chocolate fudge by See's candies was my favorite :)
5. Go for a run in the Brooks 5K in Omaha: You have to balance off the Chocolate fudge.
6. The Berkshire Q&A: Watch Buffett answer questions posed by any of the 40,000 attendees with clarity, wit, and insight of someone half his age.
Traveling across the world to see the Berkshire annual meeting was surreal. A dream come true to watch and learn from the best in the world. The Annual meeting is a celebration that will leave you feeling grateful, and inspired to achieve greater things. The biggest takeaways for me:
1. Lead with your interest and curiosity. This theme was repeated almost daily by different people in Omaha (including Buffett!). All were highly successful in their respective fields, and more importantly, felt joy in talking about their work.
2. Compounding goes far beyond money. All good things in life - friendships, careers, relationships, hobbies, health - are improved through years of consistent effort and compounding.
To all the friends and idols I met in Omaha and so many more, thank you :) It was meeting all of you that made the Berkshire meeting a celebration over and above an AGM. Special thanks to team Aquamarine Capital and Guy for having made this possible for me!
I urge anyone remotely interested in business and/or investing, to attend this celebration of human capabilities. You will come back far richer, through the friendships you make, the folksy atmosphere of Omaha, and the lessons you learn.
For anyone interested in attending the Berkshire meeting, have a look at Tilman's fantastic guide to attending the Berkshire meeting here.
Saturday, 17 May 2025
Berkshire Experience 2025
Monday, 6 January 2025
How a charity turned £2,000 into £1.3 Billion
How can you end up with £1.3 Billion with a £2000 investment? Give it 400 years. That's the story of the Henry Smith Charity.
I stumbled upon the Henry Smith Charity while going through the Wikipedia homepage. Henry Smith came up as a "Did you know..." on 24th November 2024. (Sidenote: The Wikipedia homepage is a great source of information for learning more about the world.) It was a charity started by a 16th/17th century moneylender named Henry Smith.
As of 31st December 2023, the charity managed assets in excess of £1.3 Billion. However, the charity had more humble beginnings. The charity was bequeathed £2000 in 1628. The initial aim was to support ‘the poore Captives being slaves under the Turkish pirates' and to provide 'relief of the poorest of his kindred who were unable to work for their living'.
According to the Bank of England's inflation calculator, his initial £2000 (Inflation calculator | Bank of England) is worth £447,061.74 as of 2023. That's a 223.5x multiple increase since the initial donation corresponding to an inflation rate of approximately 1.375% annually. (Perhaps inflation is the wrong measure here given the centuries that have passed in the interim.)
If the £2000 bequeath simply kept up with inflation, it would only be worth around £450k as of 2023. So how did the donation turn into £1.3 Billion?
The initial donation was invested in acquiring land around London in the parishes of Kensington, Chelsea and St. Margaret's, Westminster. As London grew, the value of the investment kept growing. According to the Charity's investment strategy, they have since diversified and also invest in other assets as well now.
In effect, they bought an asset, held onto it for almost 400 years, and let compounding do its magic. The Henry Smith Charity was able to compound its assets at 3.429% annually for 396 years. In percent terms, 1.375% and 3.429% do not appear too far apart, but, given centuries of compounding, it can result in mind-bogglingly different numbers.
I like this story because it reflects the flipside of letting compounding do its magic. Many times, the focus of compounding stories is on percent results, and rightfully so, one only has limited time on our planet. However, if one has the luxury of (relatively speaking) infinite time, even a (relatively) low growth rate can lead to mind boggling results.
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