Beyond the lower price , the big advantage of the Class B shares for investors is that they can give them to people without triggering the gift tax , which kicks in for gifts above $ 14,000 each year .
With any investment pool , the larger you get , the harder it is to produce outstanding results . Berkshire Hathaway is no different and Buffett addressed this issue in his shareholder letter :
As for Berkshire , our size precludes a brilliant result : Prospective returns fall as assets increase . Nonetheless , Berkshire ' s collection of good businesses , along with the company ' s impregnable financial strength and owner-oriented culture , should deliver decent results . We won ' t be satisfied with less .
The Warren Buffett way For the adventurous ( or foolish ), you can try your hand at investing in stocks like the master of value investing himself .
You don ' t have to go it alone . Plenty of stock screeners , such as those from the American Association of Individual Investors , Morningstar and ValueWalk , strive to identify stocks of companies with positive free cash flows , good returns on capital and strong competitive advantages ( what Buffett calls " moats " as in a castle with a moat ). Automated investing service Motif lets you buy a basket of Buffett-like stocks for less than $ 10 per trade .
To be sure , it is extremely difficult to generate a record anything close to what Buffett has done just by stock-picking . Public companies represent only a part of Berkshire Hathaway ' s portfolio holdings , while the rest come from private deals ordinary investors can ' t access .
Where most investors lose their way in following in Buffett ' s legendary footsteps is consistency . Even Buffett stumbles from time to time .
" The problem that most people would have investing like Buffett is the time frame . Many of his investments can take years to pan out , and the average investor doesn ' t have that sort of patience ," said George Gagliardi , a CFP and founder of Coromandel Wealth Management in Lexington , Massachusetts .
" Remember the derogatory comments about Buffett during the Internet stock boom years ? He went from a pariah in 1998 to a genius in 2003 ," Gagliardi said .
The key to Buffett ' s stock-picking success has been his ability to buy when others are fearful .
" Many companies , of course , will fall behind , and some will fail . Winnowing of that sort is a product of market dynamism . Moreover , the years ahead will occasionally deliver major market declines – even panics – that will affect virtually all stocks . No one can tell you when these traumas will occur – not me , not Charlie [ Munger ], not economists , not the media ," Buffett writes in his 2016 letter .
" During such scary periods , you should never forget two things : First , widespread fear is your friend as an investor , because it serves up bargain purchases . Second , personal fear is your enemy ."