Warren Buffett is value $169 billion, in accordance with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making the 94-year-old Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO the world’s fifth-wealthiest particular person.
He is $1 billion richer than Microsoft founder Invoice Gates, and value greater than LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and any of the three Walton heirs.
The famed investor, well-known for his frugal methods, is now getting ready for retirement after saying he plans to step down as CEO on the finish of 2025.
Nonetheless residing in the home he purchased within the Nineteen Fifties and driving an equally modest automotive, the “Oracle of Omaha” prefers to maintain and develop his cash moderately than take it out of the financial institution. Buffett typically eats breakfast from McDonald’s and famously borrowed furnishings when his youngsters have been born.
This is how he spends — or would not spend — his billions.
Buffett’s hobbies embrace bridge, golf, and enjoying the ukulele.
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Buffett loves enjoying bridge, typically enjoying for over 8 hours every week, the Washington Publish reported. He additionally likes to hit the inexperienced for some golf, spends an excessive amount of his time studying, and likes to play the ukulele — he mentioned in 2020 that he has a group of twenty-two ukuleles. He is performed the ukulele since he was younger and used his abilities to court docket his first spouse Susan, their son Peter as soon as informed NPR.
Buffett as soon as purchased and donated 17 Hilo ukuleles to the North Omaha department of the nonprofit Ladies Inc, and confirmed up on the group’s constructing to offer a gaggle lesson.
His fortune is basically tied to his funding firm.
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The overwhelming majority of Buffett’s internet value is tied to Berkshire Hathaway, his publicly traded conglomerate that owns companies like GEICO and See’s Candies and holds multibillion-dollar stakes in firms together with Apple and Coca-Cola.
Buffett owns about 15% of Berkshire — a stake value near $150 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway itself has belongings value greater than $1 trillion.
Buffett started investing at a younger age.
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The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway started constructing his wealth by investing within the inventory market at age 11 and first filed a tax return when he was 13.
As a teen, he was raking in about $175 a month by delivering The Washington Publish — greater than his academics (and most adults). Berkshire Hathaway later owned almost 30% of the newspaper for 40 years till shedding the stake in 2014.
He additionally offered calendars, used golf balls, and stamps. He had amassed the equal of $53,000 by the point he was simply 16.
Most of Buffett’s fortune was constructed later in life.
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The overwhelming majority of Buffett’s wealth was earned after his fiftieth birthday. His wage at Berkshire Hathaway final 12 months was simply $100,000, the identical as it has been the final 40 years, and he reimbursed the corporate $50,000 partly to cowl his private calls and postage.
The corporate spent triple Buffett’s yearly wage — $313,595 — on his private and residential safety final 12 months, in accordance with the corporate’s 2023 proxy assertion.
Buffett’s worst funding was a Sinclair fuel station.
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Buffett’s biggest funding mistake is alleged to be a Sinclair fuel station that he purchased in 1951 on the age of 21 — he purchased a stake within the station with a pal, and the enterprise was constantly outsold by the bigger Texaco station reverse it.
He ultimately misplaced the $2,000 he invested out of his whole internet wealth of $10,000 on the time, Yahoo Finance reported, referencing Glen Arnold’s e book “The Offers of Warren Buffett, Quantity 1: The First $100M.”
Buffett has been married twice and has three youngsters.
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Buffett married his first spouse, Susan Buffett, in 1952. Collectively they’d three youngsters: Susie, Howard, and Peter. Although he and Susan remained married till Susan’s dying in 2004, they’d lived aside because the Seventies. He married his second spouse and longtime companion, Astrid Menks, in 2006.
When Susie was born, Buffett apparently turned a dresser drawer right into a bassinet for her to sleep in, in accordance with Roger Lowenstein’s 2008 biography of the billionaire. For his second baby, Howard, he borrowed a crib.
Buffett lives a modest way of life.
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Regardless of his multibillionaire standing, Buffett has lengthy lived a comparatively modest and frugal way of life. He beforehand informed CNBC and Yahoo Finance’s “Off the Cuff” that he is “by no means had any nice need to have a number of homes and every kind of issues and a number of vehicles.”
Buffett lives in the identical dwelling he purchased within the Nineteen Fifties in Omaha, Nebraska.
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Buffett lives in a modest dwelling in Omaha, Nebraska, which he as soon as referred to as the “third-best funding” he is ever made in a letter to Berkshire shareholders.
He purchased the house for $31,500 in 1958 — adjusted for inflation, that is about $342,000. It is now value an estimated $1.4 million, in accordance with Zillow, and spans 6,280 sq. ft with 5 bedrooms and a pair of.5 loos.
Buffett has made some safety upgrades since shopping for it and it is now guarded by fences and safety cameras.
Buffett used to personal a trip dwelling in California.
Villa Actual Property
In 1971, Buffett bought a trip dwelling in Laguna Seaside, California, for $150,000. A part of a gated group referred to as Emerald Bay, the home has six bedrooms, is strolling distance from the seaside, and was renovated after Buffett purchased it.
He initially put up for sale in early 2017 for $11 million, then minimize the worth to $3 million later that 12 months. It offered in October 2018 for $7.5 million, after virtually two years in the marketplace.
Buffett’s alternative of car has additionally lengthy been modest.
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In contrast to many different ultra-wealthy people, Buffett has lengthy pushed a reasonably modest set of wheels.
He beforehand drove a 2001 Lincoln City Automotive with a license plate that learn “THRIFTY” for a couple of decade, earlier than auctioning it off for charity and changing it with a 2006 Cadillac DTS. In 2014, he changed the DTS with a Cadillac XTS, in accordance with Forbes.
“The reality is, I solely drive about 3,500 miles a 12 months so I’ll purchase a brand new automotive very sometimes,” Buffett as soon as informed the outlet.
Buffett has splurged on a non-public jet.
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One splurge Buffett has made is on a non-public jet. Buffett spent $850,000 on a used Falcon 20 jet in 1986, then offered the primary jet and upgraded to a distinct used jet in 1989, spending $6.7 million.
He and his late enterprise associate Charlie Munger nicknamed the second jet “The Indefensible,” Buffett revealed in a letter to shareholders.
Buffett used a flip cellphone for years.
CNN
Even if Berkshire Hathaway is a significant Apple shareholder, Buffett did not improve to a smartphone till 2020.
Earlier than that he most popular the Samsung SCH-U320.
Although Buffett did swap to an iPhone ultimately, he informed CNBC he simply makes use of it “as a cellphone.”
Buffett’s type contains fits from a Chinese language designer and reasonably priced haircuts.
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Buffett as soon as mentioned he has about 20 fits, all made in China by designer Madame Li.
He has a longstanding friendship with Li, an entrepreneur who labored her approach up within the enterprise. Buffett’s gotten the identical $18 hair minimize for years from a barber store in the identical constructing as his workplace.
Buffett usually eats at McDonald’s and drinks numerous Coke.
Reuters/Rick Wilking
Buffett as soon as informed Fortune that he eats “like a six-year-old.” He will get his breakfast at McDonald’s virtually each morning on the best way to work.
In 2017, he was spending not more than $3.17 on his order, paying with actual change, he mentioned within the HBO documentary “Turning into Warren Buffett.” He additionally drinks at the very least 5 Cokes a day.
Buffett is longtime mates with Invoice Gates.
Invoice Gates/YouTube
Buffett as soon as went to McDonald’s in Hong Kong with longtime pal Invoice Gates and paid with coupons, Gates reminisced in his 2017 annual letter.
The letter reads: “Keep in mind the snort we had after we traveled collectively to Hong Kong and determined to get lunch at McDonald’s? You supplied to pay, dug into your pocket, and pulled out … coupons!”
Gates has described Buffett as a “considerate and sort” pal, and has mentioned that each time he visits Omaha, Buffett drives to the airport to choose him up.
Buffett is among the world’s most beneficiant philanthropists.
REUTERS/Rick Wilking
Warren Buffett is taken into account one of many world’s most beneficiant philanthropists. In 2006 he pledged to donate about 85% of his Berkshire Class A shares to 5 foundations: the Invoice & Melinda Gates Basis, the Susan Thompson Buffett Basis (named after his late spouse), and three foundations run by his three youngsters.
He teamed up with Invoice and Melinda Gates in 2010 to kind The Giving Pledge, an initiative that asks the world’s wealthiest folks to dedicate the vast majority of their wealth to philanthropy. Buffett himself has pledged that 99% of his wealth will go to philanthropy throughout his lifetime or upon his dying.
Buffett plans on leaving his children $2 billion every, The Washington Publish reported in 2014. He as soon as mentioned in a letter to shareholders that he recommends that super-wealthy households “depart the kids sufficient in order that they will do something however not sufficient that they will do nothing.”
Even for Buffett, there are issues that cash cannot purchase.
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“There are issues cash cannot purchase,” Buffett as soon as mentioned at a shareholders’ assembly. “I do not assume way of life equates with value of residing past a sure level. My life could not be happier. In actual fact, it would be worse if I had six or eight homes. So, I’ve all the pieces I must have, and I do not want any extra as a result of it would not make a distinction after some extent.”
In his 2025 letter to shareholders, Buffett urged the federal government to spend the tax Berkshire paid “correctly,” including: “Maintain the various who, for no fault of their very own, get the quick straws in life. They deserve higher.”
Hillary Howoffer, Taylor Nicole Rogers and Kylie Kirschner contributed to earlier variations of this story.