A friend sent me a screenshot and asked what I thought about a certain passage in it—the gist was that Buffett regretted not selling Coca-Cola at its 1998 high.

I told him straight out: that's completely taken out of context.

What Buffett actually said back then wasn't that at all. His original words were something like: "A few years ago, Coca-Cola's price really got out of hand. You can blame me for not selling if you want, but I just love this business. A P/E of 50? Insanely expensive. But I still think it's wonderful, and ten years from now we'll still be holding it."

Get it? He never said he regretted it—in fact, he emphasized, "Even if it's crazy expensive, I'm keeping it."

Another thing: If your cost is low enough, dividends are king. For companies like Coca-Cola, even if growth peaks and profits stay flat, if you bought in cheaply back then and collected dividends for decades, that's solid cash in your pocket every year. It's a lot better than gambling on uncertain assets where you could lose everything.

Bottom line, too many people like to use Buffett's name as a banner—talking about value investing, but actually just speculating. Haven't we all seen people selling courses and fleecing newbies under Buffett's name?

When it comes to investing, don't get misled by second-hand interpretations.