Emily Flippen

But the

The fact that this has measured fear or extreme fear for nearly a month now is absolutely crazy when you look at and you compare to the actual market performance itself.

Because if you had blindly entered this story, John, I'd say, well, the market is in greed mode.

That's certainly how it's acting.

And that just goes to show that there is a divide between how people are feeling and what they're actually experiencing.

But in my opinion, there's always a reason to be afraid.

There's never going to be a realistic world we live in where an investor sits down and says, there is nothing to be afraid of, whether that's terrible economic situations or if that's literally just the fear of missing out because the market is so hot.

But in my opinion, the fear is what drives the narrative.

And when that happens, that presents opportunities for diligent long-term investors.

Well, it really makes you wonder about what that transition plan looks like at Berkshire Hathaway and if the cash isn't part of that decision.

And to be honest, I think if you're an average person, of which I imagine everybody listening to this podcast, unless you're Warren Buffett, is an average person, probably shouldn't be looking to Berkshire Hathaway for portfolio management advice.

The amount of cash that Berkshire Hathaway has sitting isn't really an investment.

They're not trying to make some sort of macro call by holding it.

I honestly think, to your point, Lou, there's a lot of different dynamics that are going on behind the scenes with the transition of leadership at Berkshire Hathaway, investment opportunities, of course, but also just the sheer size of the cash that they're holding is, in my opinion, not representative of the challenge that the average investor seeks.

And while you're right that I never put money into the market that I need for the foreseeable future, my emergency fund over the next three years, I also do not keep a conscious cash position for my investment accounts.

In my opinion, investors, depending on your risk tolerance, probably shouldn't.

It doesn't make mathematical sense.

Stocks generally go up, so every penny that I intend to hold for the long-term, I like to keep that invested, regardless of what Berkshire Hathaway or the market is doing at the time.

Well, far be it for me to be the person to defend Tesla here as somebody who has been a skeptic of the stock for a while, but I actually really like this pay package.

And we've seen other pay packages that have been similar.