• Re the first asset listed (below), symbol ARLP, it is my understanding that since this is a limited partnership any taxable gains or deductible losses need to be filed with IRS using special partnership forms which, however, can be cumbersome to properly complete. Hence I believe it is advantageous to hold this security only in tax-deferred accounts.

• As a group, this set of suggested equities likely has reasonably lower than market risk, and it is only in the context of several holdings at once that particular ones are recommended, since individually they may have relatively high volatility.

• The effects of price swings can also be diminished, and even benefited from, by spreading an investment out over time. Thus it seems best with these stocks or funds to dollar-cost-average (investing the same amount of money in them over several equal investment durations, for instance quarterly) or to invest additional amounts, after an initial smaller purchase, when they have fallen significantly in price, either procedure thus assuring that one gains more shares when the price is down, reducing one's average asset cost basis.

• The equities are not intended for short-term trades but as long-term holdings, for instance to be kept in one's portfolio for 3-5 years or longer.

• It is particularly important not to enter into such a portfolio of investments with the idea that one can quickly get out if the stock market begins to go south. As a rule, most investment losses occur when one abandons her or his strategy for the assumed lower risk of cash reserves or short-term bonds. These types of assets, however, offer nothing like the inflation-beating potential of stocks or stock funds and cannot adequately compensate a person for the consequences of having sold below their previous holdings' cost bases.

The one significant fly in that attractive ointment, however, is that Warren Buffett is now in his 80s. It is hard to imagine anyone else, even the best person he might select ahead of time, being able to easily or reliably match his legacy. My anxieties along these lines were not allayed on learning that David Sokol, till then one of BRK's best executives and earlier speculated as among Buffett's top picks to be his successor, left the company in some disgrace last spring after an ethically questionable act. Nor were they dispelled on learning this month that WB had selected his son, Howard, whose history has been somewhat checkered, to be Berkshire Hathaway's "guardian of the culture" and chairman after Warren dies. Finally, it is unlikely that any company as large as Berkshire Hathaway has become (market capitalization $186 billion this month) can continue to grow its profits at anything like the 20%+ annual rate it has in the past.

Nonetheless, due to understandable skittishness about BRK, as above, I have excluded it from my current suggested purchases for 2012.

• DXJ is a fund specializing in large-cap Japanese equities. In that country the average security is now priced below its book value and so is at a bargain level. (By comparison, the stocks of U.S. public enterprises are generally selling at about twice their book value.) Yet the majority of companies in Japan are productive and have low dept. In addition, the fund hedges against currency risk, so that, even if the Japanese Yen falls relative to the U.S. dollar, most of the fund's returns to U.S. investors will be unaffected. (Note: Folks willing to take on somewhat higher risk for the long-term prospect of higher returns on Japanese equities may want to select the SPDR Russell/Nomura Small Cap Japan ETF [JSC] instead. It is not hedged against currency risk. However, some of Japan's finest price to book value stock deals are said to be among the smaller cap equities which, accordingly, should ultimately provide more exceptional returns for patient investors.)

• IF, LAQ, and TDF have each shown total returns of about 20% or greater per year for at least a decade, are selling at discounts to their net asset values, and are focused on thriving emerging markets (Indonesia, Latin America, and China, respectively) that are expected to continue, though with ups and downs along the way, to grow at paces superior to those of most developed nations.

• INTC is considered low risk and yet is a dominant IT company with estimated performance of around 100% in the next 3-5 years, high return on equity, low debt, and an annual yield of about 3.6%.

• PAAS is a well established silver producing company and should do well once there begins to be a pick-up in the global economy, as many industrial processes require silver, which is also seen as a good hedge against inflation.

• STM sports a forward dividend estimate of 6.2%, about three times what one can obtain from ten-year Treasuries, yet has reasonably low debt and a low dividend payout ratio as well as a low price to earnings ratio and a price to book value of only 0.6.

Happy investing, for 2012 and beyond!