In an exclusive
excerpt from his upcoming shareholder letter, Warren Buffett looks back at a
pair of real estate purchases and the lessons they offer for equity investors.
"Investment is most intelligent when it is most businesslike." --Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor
It is fitting to have a Ben Graham quote open this essay because I owe so much of what I know about investing to him. I will talk more about Ben a bit later, and I will even sooner talk about common stocks. But let me first tell you about two small nonstock investments that I made long ago. Though neither changed my net worth by much, they are instructive.