Early life and education
Buffett was born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska, the second of three children and the only son of Leila (née Stahl) and Congressman Howard Buffett.[15] 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 Woodrow Wilson High School in 1947, where his senior yearbook picture reads: "likes math; a future stockbroker."[16] 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.[17][18]
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.[19] 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 bottles, 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.[20] 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 sold the business later in the year for $1,200 to a war veteran.[21]
Buffett's interest in the stock market and investing dated to schoolboy days he spent in the customers' lounge of a regional stock brokerage near his father's own brokerage office. On a trip to New York City at age ten, he made a point to visit the New York Stock Exchange. At 11, he bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred for himself, and three for his sister Doris Buffett (who also became a philanthropist).[22][23]
[24] 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. He bought the land when he was 14 years old with $1,200 of his savings. By the time he finished college, Buffett had accumulated $9,800 in savings (about $107,000 today).[21][25]
In 1947, Buffett entered the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He would have preferred to focus on his business ventures, but his father pressured him to enroll.[21] Warren studied there for two years and joined the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.[26] He then transferred to the University of Nebraska where at 19, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. After being rejected by
Harvard Business School, Buffett enrolled at Columbia Business School of Columbia University upon learning that Benjamin Graham taught there. He earned a Master of Science in Economics from Columbia in 1951. After graduating, Buffett attended the New York Institute of Finance.[27]
The basic ideas of investing are to look at stocks as business, use the market's fluctuations to your advantage, and seek a margin of safety. That's what Ben Graham taught us. A hundred years from now they will still be the cornerstones of investing.[28][29][30]
— Warren Buffett
Investment career
Wealth and philanthropy
In 2008, Buffett was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of approximately $62 billion.[131] In 2009, after donating billions of dollars to charity, he was ranked as the second richest man in the United States with a net worth of $37 billion[132][133] with only Bill Gates ranked higher than Buffett. His net worth had risen to $58.5 billion as of September 2013.[134]
In 1999, Buffett was named the top money manager of the Twentieth Century in a survey by the Carson Group, ahead of Peter Lynch and John Templeton.[135] In 2007, he was listed among Time's 100 Most Influential People in the world.[136] In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[137] Buffett, along with Bill Gates, was named the most influential global thinker in Foreign Policy's 2010 report.[138]
Buffett has written several times of his belief that, in a market economy, the rich earn outsized rewards for their talents.[139] His children will not inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. He once commented, "I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing".[140]
Buffett had long stated his intention to give away his fortune to charity, and in June 2006, he announced a new plan to give 83% of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).[141] He pledged about the equivalent of 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (worth approximately $30.7 billion as of June 23, 2006),[142] making it the largest charitable donation in history, and Buffett one of the leaders of philanthrocapitalism.[143] The foundation will receive 5% of the total each July, beginning in
2006. The pledge is conditional upon three requirements:
- Bill or Melinda Gates must be alive and active in BMGF
- BMGF must continue to qualify as a charity
- Each year BMGF must give away an amount equal to the prior year's Berkshire gift plus the additional 5% of net assets as required of all US foundations
Buffett joined the Gates Foundation's board, but did not plan to be actively involved in the foundation's investments.[144][145] Buffett announced his resignation as a trustee of the Gates Foundation on June 23, 2021.[146]
This represented a significant shift from Buffett's previous statements, to the effect that most of his fortune would pass to his Buffett Foundation.[147] The bulk of the estate of his wife, valued at $2.6 billion, went there when she died in 2004.[148] He also pledged $50 million to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, in Washington, where he began serving as an adviser in 2002.[149]
In 2006, he auctioned his 2001 Lincoln Town Car[150] on eBay to raise money for Girls, Inc.[151] In 2007, he auctioned a luncheon with himself that raised a final bid of $650,100 for the Glide Foundation.[152] Later auctions raised $2.1 million[153][154] $1.7 million[155] and $3.5 million. The winners traditionally dine with Buffett at New York's Smith and Wollensky steak house. The restaurant donates at least $10,000 to Glide each year to host the meal.[156]
In 2009, Ralph Nader wrote the book Only the Super Rich Can Save Us, a novel about "a movement of billionaires led by Warren Buffett and featuring, among others, Ted Turner, George Soros and Barry Diller, who use their fortunes to clean up America." On C-SPAN BookTV, Nader said Buffett invited him to breakfast after the book came out and was "quite intrigued by the book." He also told Nader of his plan to get "billionaires all over the world to donate 50% of their estate to charity or good works."[157] On December 9, 2010, Buffett, Bill Gates, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg signed a promise they called the "Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge", in which they promise to donate to charity
at least half of their wealth, and invite other wealthy people to follow suit.[13][158] In 2018, after making almost $3.4 billion donations,[159] Buffett was ranked 3rd in the Forbes' List of Billionaire 2018.[160]
Warren Buffett continues to help fund and support his family's individual foundations which include Susan Buffett's Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Susan Alice Buffett's Sherwood Foundation, Howard Graham Buffett's Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and Peter Buffett's NoVo Foundation.[161][162] Warren Buffett was also supportive of his sister Doris Buffett's Letters Foundation and Learning By Giving Foundation.[163][164]
Warren Buffett
