Other than Berkshire, what would you have in the portfolio?

Well known, well regarded consumers brands, or industrial brands with moat. A short list, along with elevator speech:

Exxon (et al): People gonna be using energy forever, and more of it we have the more of it we use. The more solar and wind and nuke the more oil we use, without fail.

McDonald’s: As terrible as their food is, people seem to buy it. Unequaled footprint, not vulnerable to AI disruption.

CVS: Vertical stack in healthcare with retail, pharmacy benefit manager, insurance, adding captive sub for olders (Oak Street Health). Mail order notwithstanding, most people want a pharmacy around the corner, the front of the store is a general merchandise retail outlet.

Siemens: Generators. More power & powerline infrastructure

Apple: I’ad add this, but I have enough of it through a funny holding company called Berkshire.

Costco: To have some retail in there with growth potential. WalMart would be a fit, also. I’d put Amazon in here too, just to have some tech exposure (although it’s not really a tech play anymore) along with Apple and META. Oh yes, META, I might consider given moat, but I’d have to see signs of Zuck maturing and not pissing away gargantuan sums on “the next big thing” that isn’t.

These are the easy ones, obviously I have a lot of others in my portfolio, but those require monitoring and decision making, and the ones above don’t, mostly. They are companies that I expect to hold up over a 10-20 year time period, and ones that some advisor with dollar signs in his eyes will find difficult to argue against when trying to snatch my poor widow’s financial assets.

I used to have a couple utilities, but given the unknown risks that have showed up in California with wildfires, and regulatory risk on the horizon thanks to data center demand and consumer backlash, I’m not sure I’d have this. Have to think about it some more, I guess.

I’d like to buy Aldi or Chick Fil-a, but can’t, but if those ever came up I’d be in.