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A couple of days ago, I announced my return to writing and also released the long-awaited Capital Compounders 2023.

But to be honest, I also thought about simply outsourcing my newsletter to ChatGPT. Though I came to my senses, realizing that that might not go over too well. You’re not alone if you had to look up what “GPT” stands for… “Generative Pre-trained Transformer”. Are you bullish on AI? Or do you have doubts?

Let’s face it, the past few years have been a roller coaster. Feeling like a non-stop stomach-churning ride that at times made it hard to look at one’s portfolio. Inevitably we’ll hit bumps in the road. That feeling happens to the best of us, including Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s long-time partner at Berkshire Hathaway:

“I regard Alibaba as one of the worst mistakes I ever made. I got charmed by the idea of their position in the Chinese internet; I didn’t stop to realize they’re still a goddamn retailer. It’s going to be a competitive business, the internet — it’s not going to be a cakewalk for everybody.”

(You can watch Charlie’s full talk at the Feb 15. 2023 Daily Journal’s Shareholders Meeting below)

Charlie’s Alibaba experience shows that investing is ever-challenging – it’s impossible to get every bet right – but also that time can smooth out returns over the long run. You don‘t need a perfect batting average to win the game.

Luckily for Munger, Costco more than makes up for Alibaba. As one of Costco’s largest individual shareholders, with 166,489 shares under personal ownership, Charlie says that:

“As long as Costco keeps the faith with its strong culture and extreme low-markup policy, I don’t see any stopping it… it’s a perfect damn company. It has a marvelous future and it has a wonderful culture and it’s been run by wonderful people. I love everything about Costco, I’m a total addict, and I’m never going to sell a share.”

What’s your ‘Costco’? The company that you’ve been investing in and bullish on for as long as you can remember?

Speaking of superinvestors – the 13Fs were recently released – and can be found here – where you can see what other other top investors are doing in the market – positions they’re buying, adding to, and selling.

Those insights can be helpful…

But what really inspires me are the normal everyday people that build some serious wealth over their lifetimes. The unlikely millionaire secretaries, teachers, and janitors. They truly understood that with time on their side, and some discipline – financial freedom was absolutely possible.

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