Thread: $13M Bank Statement left in Cafe with message

Wow, that is badass! And on top of that, he just deposited 345k!

Where is this from? I like how its a recent picture and not something from 4-5 years ago..

That's so awesome! Cheers to freedom!!!! I can't wait to be free!!!

To those not wanting to squint:

The secret to happiness is freedom.
This, right here, is freedom.

The secret to freedom is courage. All of your dreams can come true if you have the COURAGE to PURSUE them. RID your life of distractions, DON'T focus on relationships, thats a big one. DON'T listen to the people who say stop. Just focus on YOU and your BUSINESS.

Everything else can come later, as it's easier to get later than THIS.

I was in a sales training yesterday and a speaker said there are some people who sit in a corner with their arms open waiting for their dreams to run to them. As if their dreams say "I know you've been waiting for me, here I am". He said this is not the way dreams work. In most cases, your dreams may meet you half way and then you have to have the will to walk toward them.

I believe this reality helps each of us honor our dreams when we achieve them.

Who the hell keeps 12 million in cash sitting in a bank; thats wasted value. Let alone leaving your statement laying around for all to see.

Originally Posted by socaldude

Who the hell keeps 12 million in cash sitting in a bank; thats wasted value. Let alone leaving your statement laying around for all to see.

Mr. Buffett, the world’s most successful (and richest) value investor, is sitting on almost $41-billion (U.S.) of cash at his Berkshire Hathaway holding company, the most in a year.

“He thinks of cash differently than conventional investors,” Ms. Schroeder says. “This is one of the most important things I learned from him: the optionality of cash. He thinks of cash as a call option with no expiration date, an option on every asset class, with no strike price.”

It is a pretty fundamental insight. Because once an investor looks at cash as an option – in essence, the price of being able to scoop up a bargain when it becomes available – it is less tempting to be bothered by the fact that in the short term, it earns almost nothing.

Suddenly, an investor’s asset allocation decisions are not simply between earning nothing in cash and earning something in bonds or stocks. The key question becomes: How much can the cash earn if I have it when I need it to buy other assets that are cheap, versus the upfront cost of holding it?

For Warren Buffett, the cash option is priceless - The Globe and Mail

Maybe it's in a brokerage account?

Originally Posted by Rickson9

Mr. Buffett, the world’s most successful (and richest) value investor, is sitting on almost $41-billion (U.S.) of cash at his Berkshire Hathaway holding company, the most in a year.

“He thinks of cash differently than conventional investors,” Ms. Schroeder says. “This is one of the most important things I learned from him: the optionality of cash. He thinks of cash as a call option with no expiration date, an option on every asset class, with no strike price.”

It is a pretty fundamental insight. Because once an investor looks at cash as an option – in essence, the price of being able to scoop up a bargain when it becomes available – it is less tempting to be bothered by the fact that in the short term, it earns almost nothing.

Suddenly, an investor’s asset allocation decisions are not simply between earning nothing in cash and earning something in bonds or stocks. The key question becomes: How much can the cash earn if I have it when I need it to buy other assets that are cheap, versus the upfront cost of holding it?

For Warren Buffett, the cash option is priceless - The Globe and Mail

Well, the problem isn't so much that the cash earns nothing but it's actually worse than that since every year that goes by the cash depreciates in value due to inflation. But, if he's sitting on the cash to use it to buy up companies and assets quickly then that's not bad of course. Apple is sitting on over $117 billion in cash which is why the new CEO Tim Cook is giving out dividends for the first time in 17 years.

Apple shareholders are about to receive their first dividends in 17 years. Starting Aug. 16, Cupertino will issue quarterly dividends of $2.65 per share, according to AppleInsider.First announced in March, Apple’s dividend and stock repurchase plan will help the company give back a little bit of their growing stock pile of cash. With 935 million share outstanding, Apple is expected to disburse nearly $2.5 billion in payments to investors each quarter at least through fiscal year 2015.
However, this amount is small compared to the company’s accumulated holdings. In the last quarter alone, Apple added $7 billion in cash, with its hoard rising to $117 billion.

http://mashable.com/2012/08/15/apple-dividends/

Steve Jobs' policy was not to issue dividends but rather to use the money to invest in growth, which I agree with. It makes more sense to use profits to buy up new companies or for research and development to launch new products than to just give it out to shareholders.

There is a big difference between having cash sitting in a bank for strategic reasons and having cash in the bank without any prospective investment and ignorance of a statistical risk free rate of interest for the time value of money.

Originally Posted by socaldude

There is a big difference between having cash sitting in a bank for strategic reasons and having cash in the bank without any prospective investment and ignorance of a statistical risk free rate of interest for the time value of money.

True. But there is no evidence that the cash is not sitting there for strategic reasons. Vice versa.

Originally Posted by socaldude

Who the hell keeps 12 million in cash sitting in a bank; thats wasted value.

Someone who has $12 billion in net worth... it's just spending money

Not enough money to find freedom from ego, it seems.

Originally Posted by Rawr

Not enough money to find freedom from ego, it seems.

I think it would be interesting to know the story behind this. Maybe the note was solicited by a waiter to a regular at the cafe? There were definitely people in my life that I asked the questions and never got the answers to.

I'm thinking cash is low risk at the moment. My 401K this month sent me a notice that expect to add a withdrawal fee and a time delay to withdraw money from the money market fund. They didn't say how much yet but makes me think they are concerned about the value of their money market fund if too many people withdraw at the same time. Maybe money in a financially strong bank is safer than in a brokerage account?

Originally Posted by mohawkdcg

I'm thinking cash is low risk at the moment. My 401K this month sent me a notice that expect to add a withdrawal fee and a time delay to withdraw money from the money market fund. They didn't say how much yet but makes me think they are concerned about the value of their money market fund if too many people withdraw at the same time. Maybe money in a financially strong bank is safer than in a brokerage account?

That's if you consider the US a good investment. I'm waiting for the collapse of the US dollar because of the abuse of the fed and am hoping to make a serious profit from it hahaha.

The guy who took the picture is a member on L4P where is was also posted...

Sure, let me post a pic of the statement in front of this thread. Give me a few minutes.

Somehow, this image went viral. I've seen it on various forums such as bodybuilding.com, the message boards for 'The Millionare Fastlane' book, an Entrepreneurial Facebook group, and this forum. Oh, and reddit. Wow. What's even a bigger mindblower is that the actual statement's owner got in touch with me from a forum and then subsequently via Facebook. After messaging with him, and even planning to meet up later on in October, here's some more insights:

- He's in his late 20's, and has a loving family who he loves. He's not suggesting to be some kind of hermit.

- He has had a girlfriend in the past, but broke up with her two years ago as she was holding him back. He is dating now and is looking to settle down with someone. His point was to follow your dreams first, then build a family.

- He operates several businesses, all of which are mainly passive income (of which he'll tell me when I meet with him sometime in October).

- He does invest, this money is simply one of his businesses' excess cash accounts, it's a CIBC Business Interest Account. It gets transferred out every quarter to proper investments. The deposit was a cheque from a finalized order of one of his products.

So, there's some clarification I guess on some people's points and what his message was trying to say. Pretty damn cool! If anyone's interested, I'll be posting more stuff on him when I actually meet him for coffee in several weeks! Can't believe this image has made it so big.

I'll post proof of me holding the statement in a few mins.

http://www.luxury4play.com/attachmen...essage-l4p.jpg

That looks like a cool forum I am going to join!

Looks like he started a facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/BankStatementGuy