These resources provide millions of euros in value at a cost just above €200. I found them incredibly helpful in understanding the fundamentals of business, especially during times when, as Charlie would say, "common sense is so rare it should be called uncommon sense".
It takes hundreds of hours to fully understand these ideas. If this is not for you, I believe that you will get 80 % of the result just from "Poor Charlie's Almanack". But you might want the context "The Snowball" provides to find it interesting. And it's probably the remaining 20% that really make the difference.
If you want to go all the way, this is my recommendation:
- The Snowball is the only Buffett biography he helped create. I recommend the audiobook.
- Poor Charlie's Almanack contains Mungers "elementary worldly wisdom". It is my favorite book.
- The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America is like a Buffett version of Charlie's Almanack but it is entirely focussed on the business world.
- The Warren Buffett Portfolio explains how Buffett applies the key concepts of his favorite books on investing: The Intelligent Investor & Common Stocks And Uncommon Profits. Those are great to understand where the ideas came from so read them too if you find that interesting.
- Now that you know the concepts you're probably wondering how the hell Berkshire happened. And this is where the fun begins. Start with the Special Letters from Warren & Charlie RE: Past, Present and Future.
- There's a guy called Adam Mead who wrote The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway - A Chronological Analysis of Warren Buffet & Charlie Munger's Conglomerate Masterpiece. He analyzes every single year of Berkshires financial history. I'll just leave it at that. By now you will either feel like you have finally found the missing puzzle piece or I have lost you completely.
- To state the obvious, I also recommend reading the annual letters and watching the annual meetings.
To understand the financials you will need basic accounting knowledge. The free podcast Accounting 101 with Jimmy Stewart will make you feel comfortable around the debits and credits and it only takes a few hours. Accounting can be very interesting. Just look at this example by Jeff Bezos based on Warren Buffett's concept of owner earnings.