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The best investment is "in your own abilities"

Buffett & Munger2005-04-30videoOpen original ↗

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SpeakersQuestioner1Warren1
QuestionerDo you think an individual or a business owner here in U.S. should be concerned about the purchasing power of his future dollar earnings or savings and diversify his or her investments in non-dollar-based securities?
WarrenI think it's very tough for individuals to either select individual stocks, select individual times to enter the market, select currencies. I mean, I just, I think that's a game that they tend to get interested in. at the wrong time. There's some adverse selection in terms of when people who do not follow stocks carefully get interested in stocks, and I think that, you know, the best investment you can have for most people is in your own abilities. I mean, when I talk to students, you know, I would pay a student. In many cases, I would be glad to, you know, pay them $100,000 for cash up front for 10% of all their future earnings. So if I'm willing to pay 100,000 for 10% of them, I'm valuing the whole person at a million dollars, just capital values standing there in front of me. And those, anything you do to develop your own abilities is probably going to be, or your own business is probably going to be more productive for you than starting to think about individually making commitments into foreign exchange.