Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. The son of congressman and businessman Howard Buffett, he developed an interest in business and investing during his youth and is currently one of the best-known fundamental investors in the world. Lets take a further look into his life:
Buffet was born on August 30, 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska. As of September 2023, he possessed a net worth of $121 billion making him the seventh-richest person in the world.
He created Buffett Partnership, Ltd in 1956 and his investment firm eventually acquired a textile manufacturing firm called Berkshire Hathaway, assuming its name to create a diversified holding company, and later as the company’s chairman and majority shareholder in 1970. In 1978, Charlie Munger joined Buffett as vice-chairman.[6][7]
Let’s take a peek into his childhood and education
Buffett was the second of three children and the only son of Leila (née Stahl) and Congressman Howard Buffett. He began his education at Rose Hill Elementary School. In 1942, his father was elected to the first of four terms in the United States Congress, and after moving with his family to Washington, D.C., Warren finished elementary school, attended Alice Deal Junior High School and graduated from what was then Woodrow Wilson High School in 1947, where his senior yearbook picture reads: “likes math; a future stockbroker”. After finishing high school and finding success with his side entrepreneurial and investment ventures, Buffett wanted to skip college to go directly into business but was overruled by his father.
Buffett, now 93, entered the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 before transferring to and graduating from the University of Nebraska at age 19.
He went on to graduate from Columbia Business School, where he molded his investment philosophy around the concept of value investing pioneered by Benjamin Graham. He attended New York Institute of Finance to focus on his economics background and soon after began various investment business partnerships, including one with Graham.
Buffett displayed an interest in business and investing at a young age. He was inspired by a book he borrowed from the Omaha public library at age seven, One Thousand Ways to Make $1000.[17] Much of Buffett’s early childhood years were enlivened with entrepreneurial ventures. In one of his first business ventures,
Buffett sold chewing gum, Coca-Cola, and weekly magazines door to door. He worked in his grandfather’s grocery store. While still in high school, he made money delivering newspapers, selling golf balls and stamps, and detailing cars, among other means. On his first income tax return in 1944, Buffett took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route. In 1945, as a high school sophomore, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in the local barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in three different barber shops across Omaha. They later sold the business to a war veteran for a tidy sum of $1200.
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Buffett’s interest in the stock market and investing dated back to his schoolboy days he spent in the customers’ lounge of a regional stock brokerage near his father’s own brokerage office. His father took interest in educating the young Warren, at one point taking him to visit the New York Stock Exchange when he was 10.[20] At 11, he bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred for himself, and three for his sister Doris Buffett (who also became a philanthropist).[21][22][23] At 15, Warren made more than $175 monthly delivering Washington Post newspapers. In high school, he invested in a business owned by his father and bought a 40-acre farm worked by a tenant farmer.[24] He bought the land when he was 14 years old with $1,200 of his savings.[24] By the time he finished college, Buffett had amassed $9,800 in savings (about $121,000 today).[19][25]
What is Buffet’s role at Berkshire Hathaway?
Since 1970, Buffett has presided as the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, one of America’s foremost holding companies and world’s leading corporate conglomerates. He has been referred to as the “Oracle” or “Sage” of Omaha by global media as a result of having accumulated a massive fortune derived from his business and investment success.[8][9] He is noted for his adherence to the principles of value investing, and his frugality despite his vast wealth.[10]
Buffett is also a noted philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99 percent[11] of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He founded The Giving Pledge in 2010 with Bill Gates, whereby billionaires pledge to give away at least half of their fortunes.[12]
Has Warren Buffet ever been married?
According to Wikipedia, Buffett married Susan Buffett (born Thompson) in 1952. They had three children, Susie, Howard and Peter. The couple began living separately in 1977, although they remained married until Susan Buffett’s death in July 2004.
Susan was an American activist for the causes of civil rights, abortion rights and birth control. She was a director of Berkshire Hathaway, owning 2.2 percent of the company worth about $3 billion at the time of her death, making her the 153rd richest person in the world. She was president of the Buffett Foundation, which has contributed millions of dollars to educational groups, medical research, family planning groups and other charities.
Their daughter, Susie, lives in Omaha, is a national board member of Girls, Inc., and does charitable work through the Susan A. Buffett Foundation.
In 2006, on his 76th birthday, Buffett married his longtime companion, Astrid Menks, who was then 60 years old and had lived with him since Susan’s departure to San Francisco in 1977. Susan had arranged for the two to meet before she left Omaha to pursue her singing career. All three were close and Christmas cards to friends were signed “Warren, Susie and Astrid”.[106]
Susan briefly discussed this relationship in an interview on the Charlie Rose Show shortly before her death, in a rare glimpse into Buffett’s personal life.
How has Buffet’s health status been?
Buffett was diagnosed with stage I prostate cancer during a routine test on April 11, 2012. He announced he would begin two months of daily radiation treatment from mid-July. In a letter to shareholders, Buffett said he felt “great – as if I were in my normal excellent health – and my energy level is 100 percent”. On September 15, 2012, Buffett announced that he had completed the full 44-day radiation treatment cycle, saying “it’s a great day for me” and “I am so glad to say that’s over”, according to Wikipedia.
What is Buffet’s Net Worth?
Through business savvy, and a series of incredibly well thought out investments, Warren Buffet has, for decades, been one of the wealthiest people in the world. Most people would think that, with a net worth of more than $100 billion, someone would own a private island somewhere, or, at the very least, live in a house the size of a small town. Source: investing.com
Warren Buffett has been more than “happy” to continue living in the house in Omaha, Nebraska, that he purchased back in the late 1950s, for just over $31,000 ($250,000 in 2021).