Berkshire Class B Stock

[rkser]

I am getting tempted to buy Berkshire Class B individual stock.

We have -
VTI & VXUS in Taxable &
VTI & VGT in Roths,
BND & CDs in IRAs

I was reading the glorious write up on BRK.B individual Stock which has around 50 companies, so it acts like a mutual fund of sorts..
It has had a better run than VTI in long term time span & being an individual stock does not have any expense ratio.
It has loads of money in it & has Warren Buffet picking the investments including some income earning investments, but has not had much of any capital gains.

I think of myself as committed Index investor but have VGT - investing in information technology with Artificial Intelligence type of stocks & am now thinking of BRK. B after reading a write up of its praise.

The stocks/companies in VGT & BRK.B are already present in the VTI which is our major holding, but will be emphasizing & betting that these companies will do better than other companies in the 3000 odd stocks present in VTI.

We are retired & have won the game so to speak & the money in these investments will probably go to our children.

We have around 5% of our Stock section in VGT & will build up the BRB.B gradually to another 5% of our stock investments.
The saying goes that any investment if less than 5% of one’s total portfolio does not change the returns but will end up in confusion in the portfolio.
At present we have 4 ETFs + Cash, this will be the 5th one.

When all is done with & settle , we will concentrate more & gamble in having 10% of our stocks in VTI as a repeat in VGT & BRK.B.

The new money will be cash from our bank or exchange in our Roths & not involve capital gains from selling VTI.

Your thoughts & opinions on this DIY portfolio ?

Thanks & regards

 

[Sunset]

We've held BRK for over 15 years.
I like that it doesn't throw off any taxable income until sold.

I view it as a basic, old school holding and it's getting back to that since selling off 1/2 of it's Apple shares.

I also have VTI , which is now concentrated on high tech.

I liked the philosophy and feel that Warren is pretty honest, and careful with the money.

 

[rkser]

Thankyou Sunset

 

[RE2Boys]

Berkshire Hathaway makes up about 1 and 1/2% of the VTI holdings

 

[tutan]

According to Portfolio Visualizer, since Jan 2015, BRK-B, VTI, and VOO has returned 11.83% 12.28%. 12.86%
Since Jan, 2020: 17.51%. 15.94% 15.52%
BRK probably got a healthy boost from Apple in the last few years. It may revert to underperforming. Even Warren Buffet recommends betting on S&P500 index IIRC.

 

[rkser]

How much more work or complication will it be in adding BRB.B to our present 3 ETF taxable & Roth stock VTI, VXUS & VGT portfolio ?

I do see our 7 figure portfolio on weekends even when if I do not need to do anything, I expect BRB will be more volatile than VTI.

At present, I do & have done Roth conversions in our IRAs when during the day I happen to hear that S&P 500 on the news or otherwise has gone down significantly so our VTI also is on sale & I open the Laptop.
So yes full disclosure I am a market timer when the market has gone down significantly ( more than 3-4 %, like earlier this month) I buy VTI in Roth/Taxable

I do not know whether above practice has helped my portfolio or hurt it as time in the market is always better than buying it when on sale, I just do not know the answer or maybe it is just child play in the long run.

But I ( & more so DW does not ) do not want to be tethered to laptop transacting stock ETFs & messing up our retirement sitting with the portfolio when we will not outlive our savings & all these acrobatics are being done for the children’s

After seeing the impressive BRK track record over years & years I intend to not go near it to sell it or may buy more when it goes down in Taxable & in Roth.
All intentions of everyone are good, but time tells. That is all behavioral finance.

I think in general BRK.B will be a positive step but am hoping its volatility will be able to be handled by me.

I am sorry for my babbling, & a long post.

 

[athena53]

I left an employer with a very bad 401(k) plan in early 2002 and bought BRK.B. Later, as I accumulated more after-tax savings, I gradually sold it in the rollover IRA and bought with after-tax since the favorable tax treatment was wasted in an IRA. Bonus: we moved to the Kansas City area in 2003, about 3 hours from Omaha, so I've been to several of the meetings (and have a nice pair of Justin boots bought at a discount at one of the meetings).

I'd been concerned about succession but am confident seeing Ajit Jain on the podium. I don't know the railroad guy but if he's good enough for Warren he's good enough for me.

Funny story: one year I had to fly to Bangalore on business the day of the meeting. DH and I drove up, attended the morning portion, then he dropped me off at the Omaha airport and drove home. I'd told my boss that my documentation would show that I'd left from Omaha, not KC, because we were at a Berkshire meeting since I owned the B shares. "Well", he said, "for a minute there I thought we were paying you too much".