[dradernh]

Originally Posted by iminhell1

What bucket is stock in?
Commodities?
Land?

My definition of investing is tangible things. Land, commodities or the like. Stocks are gambling.

Buffet is a good gambler. He's done well to bet on things that people will need and need more of in the future, services, energy, etc.

Stocks? Which stock is the question, and Buffett's the prime example of how to answer it if you want to be a winner over the long term when investing in individual stocks.

Gamblers are not looking ten years out; ergo, Buffett is not a gambler. Those of us here who are looking ten and more years out are generally better served by index funds and the like. In that context, this calculator can be useful to see what the possibilities were during recent years and decades: https://ofdollarsanddata.com/sp500-calculator/.

I've known a number of gamblers on stocks, all very smart and professionally successful people. The stocks they gambled on – which were small parts of their overall portfolios – were nowhere near decade-long plays. They would've been much smarter gambling on Walmart, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, TSMC, and yes, Berkshire Hathaway, back before they became the monsters they are today. Not knowing how the world was going to turn out, however, they gambled on other stocks.

Commodities? Always speculation and often gambling. I favor gold as an example.

Land? It's another commodity and requires a high level of sophistication and, frequently, favorable connections to know a piece of it is a legitimate investment before you buy it. Been there, done that, and seen it successfully carried-off by those better than me.

Just my 2¢.