Warren Buffett is a legendary investor who, through hard work and business acumen, rose to become one of the richest men in the world. Known for his long-term investment strategy and assessment of market risk, Warren Buffett’s name is synonymous with one of the world’s largest conglomerates, Berkshire Hathaway, a company that is his greatest achievement. Known for his quiet and humble way of life, Warren is also a famous philanthropist and has pledged to donate a significant portion of his wealth to charity.
bio and age
Business mogul Warren Edward Buffett was born on August 30, 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska. He is the second child of his mother, Leila, and father, Howard Buffett, a local stockbroker and banker turned congressman. Buffett’s entrepreneurial career began at a very early age when he began to show an amazing aptitude for business and money.
Buffett, who appeared to be genetically inherited, reportedly showed his father’s professional skills as a child interested in stocks. The young man bought his first shares in an oil and gas company when he was just 11, while also buying shares for his sister. After the effects of the Great Depression, when his father lost his job and life savings, Buffett learned to respect the value of money and lead a frugal lifestyle. Buffett and his family moved to Washington in 1942 after his father was elected to the US Congress.
He attended Alice Deal Junior High School and Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, DC, graduating in 1947. At the age of 13 he got his first job as a newspaper boy. In addition to delivering newspapers, Buffett was a young businessman who sold postage stamps, chewing gum, Coca-Cola drinks, golf balls and magazines, etc. door to door. In addition, Warren worked as an editor for a horse racing tips paper, Stable Hand Selection, and later started a pinball rental business with a high school friend, Don Danly , and was soon taking home $50 a week.
As a teenager, he saved and invested the money he made from his business. By the age of 15, Warren had saved up to $2,000 to buy a 40-acre farmland in Nebraska and hired a farm hand to work on it. Warren used the profits from the country to support himself through college.
Career and success journey
After college, Warren returned to Omaha and worked from 1951 to 1954 as an investment salesman at Buffett-Falk & Co., his father’s company. During those early years, Warren also began teaching at the University of Nebraska, overcoming his fear of public speaking.
In 1954, the young stockbroker was finally handed the opportunity he had long awaited after his mentor/idol called him to work at Benjamin Graham’s partnership in New York. Two years later, Benjamin Graham retired and dissolved his partnership. Buffett then returned to Omaha with the knowledge he had learned from Graham and formed a limited partnership that eventually spawned several other partnerships in the United States that made him a millionaire by 1962.
All partnerships later became a single entity, a textile mill called Berkshire Hathaway. In the early 1960s, Warren aggressively acquired Berkshire Hathaway’s shares and eventually took control of the company. The savvy investor gradually shifted the company’s business from the textile industry to the insurance industry in the late 1960s. He also acquired significant stakes in other companies such as Salomon Inc. in 1987 and soft drink house Coca-Cola in 1988. Warren Buffett’s reputation as a savvy investor has grown over the years, and up until 2008 Forbes named him the richest person in the world an estimated net worth of $62 billion.
Warren Buffett is also considered one of the greatest philanthropists of his time, believing that the best way to be loved is to be lovable. While he spends sparingly, he spends generously and has pledged to spend most of his wealth on social and humanitarian causes. The legendary investor, who is currently worth more than $77 billion, has pledged to gradually donate 99% of his wealth to charity. Most of it goes to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2010, Warren worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to create The Giving Pledge, an initiative designed to encourage the world’s richest people to devote most of their wealth to philanthropy.
Warren Buffett’s family – wife, children
Warren Buffett had an unconventional marriage. The investment guru has been married twice. He was first married to Susan Thompson in 1952, in a long-term marriage that produced three children, a daughter Susan Alice and two sons Howard Graham and Peter Andrew. However, halfway through their marriage, Warren and Susan separated in 1977. Although Susan was still married to Warren, she left him to live alone in an apartment in San Francisco and pursue a career in singing. Although the new arrangement was pretty devastating for Warren, the couple stayed close and spent time with their children.
Susie eventually introduced Warren to a waitress, Astrid Menks, and with her blessing, Menks later moved in with Warren. The three maintained an oddly close relationship as Susan and Warren never divorced and were legally married for over 50 years until Susan’s death in 2004. Buffett was reportedly at Susan’s side at the time of her death.
Menks and Buffett, who have long beencompanions, tied the knot at a modest wedding ceremony in 2006, two years after Susan’s death from oral cancer. The low-key event took place in Omaha, Nebraska. Interestingly, neither Buffett’s two sons nor top businessmen were present at the intimate ceremony.
Menks is a Latvian immigrant who loves to keep a low profile and also lives a frugal lifestyle like her husband. Despite the couple living happily together, Buffett once admitted that he harbors regrets over his relationship with his first wife, Susan. According to the investment guru, his biggest mistake was giving up on his marriage when Susan informed him of her plans to leave, also admitting that the breakup of their relationship was largely his fault.
Size, religion, other facts
1. The business mogul stands at an average height of 5ft 10″ and weighs 83kg.
2. Although Buffett was raised a Presbyterian Christian, he is known to have an agnostic attitude towards religion. Buffett’s agnostic views suggest that he essentially professes no belief in any supernatural deity and sees no one as wrong when it comes to religion. He prefers to separate business practices from religion.
3. Warren Buffett lives in a modest home in Omaha, Nebraska. The frugal investor bought the five-bedroom home in 1956 for $31,500.
4. Buffett is known as an unhealthy eater who drinks an alarming amount of Coca-Cola every day.
5. Buffett broke his own charity record in 2016 when he donated $2.9 billion to various charities.