I bought one share of Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock to get a shareholder discount on my Geico auto insurance.
Why not Class A?
My spouse and I own enough "B" shares to buy one or more "A" shares, but the options market for "A" shares sucks. And if you try to sell naked puts on "A" shares, Fidelity gets downright peevish about your margin limits.
Seriously, though, Berkshire makes up 23% of our portfolio's asset allocation.
We try to keep our four equities in an asset-allocation band of 18%-28% each, and when one bumps into the limits of those bands then we sell the appropriate out-of-the-money put or call option with a strike price about 10%-15% away from the current share price. That way we collect a small premium on the amount of the shares we'd need to rebalance, and we can enjoy a nice dinner out (or buy more surf wax). If the price never hits the strike then nothing changes. If the price hits the strike then we automatically rebalance. It's the best way we've ever found in 28 years of marriage to avoid the "Do you really need to rebalance right now??!" debate.
One share of Berkshire Hathaway Class B as a birthday present to myself. I bought it so that whenever I open my brokerage account I have a reminder of the power of taking the long view and ignoring the short term whims of the market.
On the topic of BH, are you worried about management once WB is no longer in the picture for whatever reason?
Check out who the other people are running it apart from Buffett.
He knows how to pick excellent people. For example, Charlie Munger (to be fair, he's quite old as well.) But you get my point. Certainly Buffett isn't eternal, unfortunately, but whoever is appointed successor will similarly be a value investor, and be able to grab those best opportunities every two years or so that they may happen.
Munger just turned 91 years old on New Year's Day. Buffett will be 85 years old on 30 August.
Lately I'm beginning to wonder whether it makes sense to sell Berkshire shares. Our portfolio is more diversified without them, yet they certainly don't hurt the portfolio's total value. I wonder whether this would be like buying Apple or Microsoft or Wal-Mart stock in its early years, although those three have all certainly had scary volatility and a few near-death experiences. We've sold a few Berkshire shares over the last decade, but now our cost basis on a $150 share is $42.80. When Buffett or Munger step down, I sincerely hope that the shorts hammer down the price so that my naked puts will exercise and we'll end up buying more shares at a nice discount. However the extant business owners along with names like Jain, Weschler, Coombs, and Cool should keep the company lurching along on its present course. Guys like Howard Buffett and Bill Gates should be around for a while to help with the culture.
