Warren Buffett – A Source of Inspiration

Warren Buffett, age 75, is the 2nd richest man in the world. In June 2006, he shook the world by pledging 85% of his Berkshire stock (valued at over $37billion USD) to charitable foundations. Here are a few tidbits from his life. I hope they inspire you as much as they inspire me!

• He bought his first stock at age 11, three shares of Cities Service Preferred for the price of $38 a share. He sold them when the price went up to $40 a share. Within the next few years the price rose to $200 a share, teaching Buffett one of his first lessons in investing - patience.


• He filed his first income tax return at age 13, deducting his bicycle as a work expense.


• His first real estate purchase was at age 14. He used $1200 saved from his two paper routes to buy 40 acres of Nebraska farmland, which he leased to tenant farmers.


• Even after becoming a billionaire, he maintains a very frugal life style. He continues to live in the same house that he bought in 1958 for $31,500.


• His only indulgence is a corporate jet he bought in 1989. He calls it "The Indefensible" because of his past criticisms of such purchases by other CEOs.


• His salary in 2005 as CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway: $100,000 USD. Average CEO salary for 2004 according to this MSN money article: $10.7 million USD.


• His net worth: $46billion USD. Amount pledged to charity: $37billion USD – over 80% of his net worth.


• One of his famous quotes: "[The perfect amount of money to leave children is] enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing."


• Berkshire Hathaway averaged a phenomenal 25%+ annual return to its shareholders for the last 25 years while employing large amounts of capital and minimal debt.


• Berkshire's Class A shares sell for over $100,000 apiece! They have never had a stock split. Class B stock, have a value of 1/30th of that of the class A shares.

Additional Resources:

• Warren Buffett @ Wikipedia


• Berkshire Hathaway @ Wikipedia


• Profile on Salon.com


• Profile on Surferess.com


• Quotes by Warren Buffett on Wikiquote.com.


• 29 part series, each part looking at one year of the Warren Buffett's "Annual Letters to Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway".

If you like this article, you can bookmark it or subscribe to the feed.