One of my former colleagues used to keep a photo of the venerable investor, Warren Buffet, on his desk. (In most offices any pinups are of the Anna Kournikova/Keanu Reeves variety, but in a stockbroking company it's Warren Buffet, a man now in his seventies!)

Anyway, the reason his photo was on my colleague's desk was to remind him that investing is a long-term decision. Buffet practises what he preaches, of course, since his timescale for selling many stocks is "never".

In most cases - probably including my former workmate - you only remind yourself of the long-term nature of investing when one of your favourite shares has just gone down the toilet.

Last year in his letter to investors, Buffet was admitting that the market had defeated him and that his strategy, for which he made no apology and which he had no intention of changing, had let him down. This year he was trying not to allow the grin to split his face as he told investors not to get overexcited at the investments his fund, Berkshire Hathaway, had made in the last 12 months - in paint, insulation, carpets and bricks. The fund's stock had outperformed the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, and Buffet's investors were in the money again.

Since Buffet clearly thinks that the Nasdaq is the index from hell, and since it was the Nasdaq's performance the previous year that had many commentators suggesting that Buffet's style of investing was more suited to bygone eras, I can only imagine the pleasure he got out of writing his annual letter and thanking all of the hardworking people in the realeconomy industries in which he invests.

The newsletter is about 20 pages long and is written in a rambling chatty style that belies the content within. Buffet does warn his shareholders that market conditions are difficult and that acquisitions - his preferred mode of investing - are not especially cheap right now. So he's expecting slow and steady rather than anything phenomenal, but I'd imagine that most people who've had their fingers burned by the index from hell would be quite happy with slow and steady this year.

The newsletter alone is nearly worth an investment in Berkshire Hathaway, although you'll need around $70,000 (P76,600) these days, so it's not cheap. (However you can download Buffet's thoughts for free on www.berkshire hathaway.com)

Over the years I've invested in a number of different funds and I'm lucky if I get a one-page glossy in the year with an anodyne piece about markets and a pie chart showing how well (or badly) that company's funds have performed.

It rarely gives any information about individual companies in which the fund has invested or its rationale for investing in them, and usually ends up saying that market conditions are more volatile. (As far as the people who write these pieces of fluff for most funds are concerned, market conditions are always volatile.)

So I enjoy reading the Berkshire Hathaway newsletter because that's exactly what it is. Buffet usually gives a bit of news about himself and his family too - generally that he's still alive! It's good to see him regaining his lost status as a market guru because he cuts through the waffle and tells it like it is. When he stood back from the technology sector most people shook their heads and muttered that the old man had lost it.

It was, too, a kind of comment on an older generation who didn't understand technology, couldn't programme the video and weren't quick enough to understand that the world had become a different place.

The world never really becomes a different place. Changes in industry, in transport, in communications may alter the way we deal with each other and the way we market our goods or even buy our goods. But eventually investors want a return on their money and that never changes. If he can't see where a company will be in five or 10 years time, Buffet isn't comfortable about holding a part of it.

Back in 1999 he said that if he was going to bet on anyone in the tech sector he'd bet on Microsoft. But he didn't have to bet. So he didn't. Probably just as well.

The funny thing is that most financial advisers tell their customers to adopt the Warren Buffet approach. Be there for the long haul. Don't hop in and out of stocks. Know something about the company you're buying into.

Most investors know that they're supposed to be there for the long haul too but they still want to believe in the one big deal that'll set them up for life, or a least allow them to have a few expensive nights out without taking out a second mortgage.

And so investors walk away from folksy, 20-page newsletters in favour of sharp and snappy and something more Wall Streetish. Unfortunately, many of Wall Street's finest advisers have recommended stocks that have plummeted over the past 12 months.

There's always been a fine line to be walked regarding analysis of companies that have been brought to the market by your own firm and, while all of the advisers will repeat time after time that they're completely independent in their views, you'll find it difficult to locate one who's still working for a firm if he or she has given a negative call on the stock. (Actually, you'll find it difficult to find one who's given a negative call on the stock.)

There's no doubt that the Wall Street honchos are busy, buzzy, stylish and media savvy. Many of them appear regularly on Bloomberg News and CNN looking serious and in control and behaving like true gurus - at least until their employers engage in a round of cutbacks that means astronomically paid gurus are a luxury too far.

Gurus come and go but it's nice to see some people stand the test of time. And maybe the reasons why some people do better than others comes down to the reasons you get involved in the first place.

Although he's worth around $36 billion, Buffet leads a non-wealthy lifestyle. Sure, he has a jet, his main extravagance, but he takes a relatively modest salary as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway. He still lives in Omaha and is more of a burger and chips man than a timbale of crab with sundried tomatoes sort.

You can only live in one house at a time, sleep in one bed and wash in one bathroom. And, even if the big deal comes true, you still have a life to get on with. I hesitate to say that the best things in life are free (although they really are), but they sure as anything don't come with an IPO attached.