Value Investing Conference: Alice Schroeder, author of "The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life".

Keynote: Alice Schroeder, author of "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life". Introductory remarks by John Macfarlane.



"The function of margin of safety is, in essence, that of rendering unnecessary an accurate estimate of the future" from the Intelligent Investor.

Do you know if you are getting poorer?

For me, the new year started off with a lot of reading about economics and what the future may look like in years to come. But the more I read, the more I am concern about my own future. The reason is because of the following themes that some economist are predicting over the long term:

• Rise in electricity bill (energy)
• Rise in petrol prices (fuel)
• Rise in food prices (soft commodities such as rice, wheat)

Key word.. Inflation!

That said, some suggests that not all things are getting expensive. For example, cars, electronics, airfares. These are some examples of deflation (or simply, things getting cheaper). Hence, even though headline in some of the newspaper suggests that inflation is not a problem. I tend to think otherwise. This is because the prices are rising on things we need, while prices of what we want are falling. 

Another problem is that a dollar increase in groceries or petrol cost is not something we may have noticed every time we pay for it. This means that prices are creeping up without us knowing. This is a serious problem since we can't manage things we don't know. And seriously, how many of us compare monthly groceries bills, I don't even do it when I am a professional accountant. 

So what we can we do to deal with inflation? Well, one logical step for regular hard working employee (like  myself) is to ask for a pay rise. But how many of us can really have that conversation with your boss?  Even if you do get "a pay rise for inflation", is there anyway to tell that your increment actually do cover it?

In short, prices on essentials are rising and if you are already struggling to make ends meet, there are no good news in the future.  

Do I have a solution? No. The only thing I am doing is to start saving more today and be prepared for this rainy day. Even if it's not raining tomorrow, it's just a matter of time.