“How much money you can accumulate in your life depends not on how much money you can earn, but on how you invest and manage your money, money looks for you is better than looking for money, know how to make money work for you rather than working for money.”
- Warren Buffet

I enjoy working with American women in terms of having business corporations. Their courage and passion have inspired me, a lazy bone who used to chill in Vancouver, to keep moving forward.

Recently I talked to my friend Jing from Chicago to see if we should organize a Warren Buffett shareholder meeting activity. My concern is whether this Pope finance of the world, who is in his 90s, still has the appeal he used to have?

Warren Buffett Shareholder Conferenc

The Warren Buffett Shareholder Conference is one of the biggest events in the quiet city of Omaha. Since its first held in 1973, more than 50,000 global investors have traveled to this beautiful town on the Mississippi River in recent years hoping to learn and comprehend Mr. Buffett's investment gain from last year and his predictions for next year at the first moment, and to grasp the latest trends of the investment market.

The house where Buffett lived for over 40 years in Omaha
Image source：TEDizen

Whenever a Summit is held, the prices of local hotels, restaurants and even bookstores in this small city rises, and it is a luxury to be able to book a comfortable hotel in town. Ha Ha!

The quiet little town, Omaha, on the Mississippi River
Image source：Tony Webster

Mr. Warren Edward Buffet and his long-time partner Mr. Charles Thomas Munger, two "post-90s" with a combined age of more than 190 years old, will share their own wisdom and experience on macroeconomics, investment research, business operation, life philosophy and so on in a five-hour long conference.

Image source：Wall Street Insight

Mr. Buffett always brings a new perspective and way of thinking that is different from what has come before, and it benefits all listeners every year.

The Omaha Banquet - The International Social Celling of China's Entrepreneu

At last year's Summit, someone asked which stock was the best to buy in this period of hyperinflation. Mr. Buffett answered this way:

"especially during times of inflation, the most important is your personal ability. Let others trade your ability, the best investment is to invest in yourself."

For us Chinese entrepreneurs and investors, the annual dinner party “Omaha Dialogue”, is the best opportunity to obtain and exchange valuable investment information and improve one’s abilities.

It is definitely an exchange event that Chinese investors cannot miss. Three years ago, the 6th Omaha Dialogue provided a cross-industrial platform that attracted experts from various fields including politics, finance, education, etc. These include Wei Zhenglin, the counselor of the Chinese Embassy in the United States; Professor Dwight Hopkins from the University of Chicago; Wang Danwei, Nasdaq Chinese representative; Gao Hai, Qing Ling Capital founder, and other distinguished guests. Moreover, this event attracted nearly two hundred investors to attend.

At the forum, a group of scholars from various fields, distinguished guests and audience are in an engaging discussion about how to inherit the traditional wisdom while keeping up with the times and opening up new situations in today's rapid global political and economic transformation.

The Summit analyzed Mr. Buffett's investment philosophy in detail and extensively discussed his way to business success and positive social influence, providing a rare learning opportunity for contemporary business, investors, and business leaders in how to look into the future and invest wisely.

Pete Ricketts, the governor of Nebraska, where Omaha is located, had fully supported the Summit for the fifth consecutive year and sent a congratulatory letter, praising the Summit’s deep positive impact on Sino - U.S. trade and investment.

Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, this event has been suspended for two years since 2020. And the good news just received, the 2023’s Summit will resume in-person together with the Warren Buffett Shareholder Conference! Under the changing market environment, the views of leading figures seem more precious, this is a gluttonous feast that you must come to!

Mr. Buffett's investment in the new era

Epidemics, high inflation, regional wars, energy issues. Looking back on the return of the investment portfolio last year, we should not look at how much we earned, but how much we lost.

Nevertheless, under such circumstances, the report card of Buffett's is still amazingly appealing.

There are many investment masters on Wall Street, but only Warren Buffett has earned the title of "God of Stocks". According to data from Buffett's letter to shareholders at the end of February 2022: The company's compound annual growth rate of 20.1% in value per share from 1965, when Buffett took over Berkshire, to 2021, is significantly ahead of the S&P 500's 10.5%.

In other words, if an investor bought $100 of Berkshire shares in 1965, his investment would have "snowballed" to $3.642 million by the end of 2021.

As the market continued to decline last year, as of November last year, all investment bigwig were having a hard time: Dalio, the "godfather of hedge funds", lost 15%, and Simmons, the "god of quantification" of high-frequency trading, lost 18%, and Soros, who pioneered the reflexive theory, lost 40%.

In the context of the Nasdaq index falling by more than 30%, although Buffett, who maintains "value investment and long-term holding", is also losing money, but the loss rate of 7% compared to the general market environment can already be called "poor", especially after the third quarter, the loss continued to shrink, the stock price rose again, and Buffett still maintained his "Pope" status among many investors.

On June 17, 2022, the Grand Finale Event Power Charity Auction Lunch with Warren Buffett raised $19 million, which illustrates that Mr. Buffett still maintains his unassailable "Pope" status in the eyes of investors around the world.

Over the years, the investment philosophy of Buffett’s has become the religious belief of the financial world. However, with the advent of a new era of investment, crypto currencies and NFTs have begun to impact the traditional market. Does Warren Buffett who once said he would not invest in cryptocurrencies carry the same weight in the eyes of a new generation of investors as it does in the hearts of traditional investors?

There are indeed some dissenting voices at the moment, for example, they believe that Buffett’s investment concept is too conservative, in the information age of the 21st century. He tends to keep more of his wealth rather than choosing to take higher risks in exchange for greater returns. As an old man, his criticism of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, and lack of insight into advances in artificial intelligence, telecommunications services, and automation, remind us that his investment views are still rooted in the 20th century, and in this fast-paced 21st century, our “belief” in Buffett has exceeded the actual returns that his investment can bring.

For example, cyberstar stock investor, David Portnoy, has said：

“I’m sure Warren Buffett is a great guy but when it comes to stocks he’s washed up. I’m the captain now.”

However, a new generation investor I’m well acquainted with describes his view towards Buffett this way:

"Buffett, as an outstanding investor spanning two centuries, has influenced generations of investors with his excellent performance and straightforward investment philosophy. As a new generation investor, I think Buffett's investment philosophy comes from his understanding of life, which made his investment paradigm, but shackled his types of investment at the same time.

Undoubtedly, Buffett's analysis of traditional companies can be used as a contemporary textbook. It not only teaches us how to find high quality companies, but also helps us think about the certainty of return on investment from the perspective of margin of safety. More importantly, he teaches us that continuous learning is the prerequisite to achieve great success, since people always scheme too much but ignore continuous thinking. This is also the purpose of his practice of his own investment philosophy, which means there are three investment decisions: to invest, not to invest, and not to understand.

Although technology companies have always been the target that he does not understand, it can be seen that Buffett, who is over 90 years old, is learning to embrace new things constantly. No matter whether it is a technology company typified by APPLE or a software company represented by the recent big hit SNOW, he keeps pace with the times through continuous learning. Just like Buffett made it clear that he was unwilling to invest in technology companies before, he makes it clear that he doesn’t understand electronic currency. However, once this lifelong learning wise man continues to understand this industry, I think he will open his arms and embrace the future as always!"

Buffett's investment philosophy has represented the 20th century’s economic situations and has proved its validity.

In recent years, he has invested in new things he doesn’t know much about, including APPLE and cloud provider Snowflake, which means that the old man who was born in 1930 is still moving forward with the times and has enough foresight to keep his “value investment” in this impetuous era.

To most laymen investors like us, not only do we have to obtain our peaceful mind and power from the religious beliefs we gain from the Pope, but also pay attention to the new trend of decentralization in the new century. All in all, life Investment isn't an all you can eat buffet, but a feast. The fools rush to eat, the wise get to taste. Let us embrace the attitude of ever developing, rather than judging right from wrong, or good from bad, and to embrace changes and the future.