Warren Buffett = The Man...or possibly 100 of them.
As we all have come to know, Warren Buffett is a P.I.M.P. He can out-invest you, out-donate you, and even out-school you any day of the week. But *why* is that?Does he drink a fancy potion every morning at 5a.m.? Is he related to both Chuck Norris AND Jack Bauer? Unfortunately I don't know. But what I DO know is that he lives a simple life, with some pretty simple rules.
I base this conclusion on an email forwarded by none other than the guy who inspired the Wal-Mart is huge as my Johnson post - my dad. Amongst the old-man jokes and viral beer commercials, he does tend to slip in a few nuggets of info. every now and then (probably to see if i'm paying attention). So today's post is based off a powerpoint slide he sent over that was "supposedly" inspired from a one hour interview by CNBC. My google skills couldn't find this alleged interview, but it really doesn't matter anyways as it's the lessons here that are really important. You can check out the pretty pictures & slideshow here, or just read the stripped down points here:
- He bought his 1st share at age 11, and he regrets he started too late!
- He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.
- He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha, that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.
- He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.
- He initially resisted traveling by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.
- His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis.
- He has given the CEOs only two rules: #1 - Do not lose any of your shareholders' money. #2 - Do not forget rule #1. (rule #3: fight club is Awesome!)
- He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some popcorn and watch tv.
- Warren Buffett does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk. (WHAT? crazy!)
- Warren initially didn't think he had anything in common w/ Bill Gates. He scheduled his first meeting with him for only half an hour, but when they met, the meeting lasted for 10 hours!
- His advice to young people: "Stay away from credit cards & bank loans, and invest in yourself." He also had the following to add:
a) Money doesn't create man, but it is the man who created money
b) Live your life as simply as possible.
c) Don't do what others say - listen to them, but do what you feel good doing.
d) Don't follow brand names; just wear those things in which you feel comfortable.
e) Don't waste your money on unnecessary things; just spend on those things you really need.
If you can master just a few of these you'll be a LOT better off financially.For me, I've been trying to do the "live below your means" one and so far so good. In fact, I'm pretty sure I have some friends who think I make minimum wage ;) But that's okay! All that matters is how I feel about it, and what I want out of life (Mrs. Budgetsaresexy included, ofcourse). It's not always gonna be easy, but I guarantee you it'll always be financially sexy!
-------
Here's another cool Bio on Mr. Buffett by WideOpenWallet.com
Labels: advice, awesomely awesome, financial forwards, money management, Warren Buffett
posted by J. Money at
7:18 AM
22 Comments:
Amazing post! I absolutely love Warren Buffett. Did you know he used to collect and sell used golf balls? His life story, including how he still lives, is an absolute testament to sound financial principals.
What a classy, classy guy. I'd love to read one of the highly-acclaimed biographies published about him.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe he intends to donate nearly his entire estate to charitable organizations (mostly Bill Gates' foundation). He's an amazing dude.
This reminds me of Ingvar Kamprad the founder of IKEA. He's right up there with Mister Buffett but drives a 15 year old car, never buys new clothes and flied economy everywhere. He even encourages IKEA staff to write on both sides of the paper to avoid more costs.
The man is a genius. Lovely to see that the men at the top are living just as frugal lives as we are!!
This a really good post! Some of the biggest names in finances are big names because they keep it simple.
Dang, I wish I'd bought a farm with the money I made on my paper route... instead I blew it all on Archie Comics and Butterfingers :D
Naw, scratch that, I regret nothing... oh man that crispity crunchity Butterfinger-y goodness!
I am living below my means and my friends think I am nuts!!! I loved the saying that goes "live like no one else today, so you can live like no one else tomorrow" (or something to that effect.
Thanks for the mention!
Im LOVING that you toss in Jack Bauer into this one! Way to bring it back!!!! http://frugalfundamentals.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-ive-learned-from-jack-bauer.html
Finally, Im loving the 11 lessons. We can all learn from the Buffet man. One thing I would add is that even though Buffet is a great guy and great investor, its our responsibility to ourselves to look beyond the nice guy image and also examine the underlying investments and performance. Madoff seemed like a swell guy to his investors too right?
Living below your means is the way to go!!! I rock a solid bank account. Thats what I like :)
Good post, I love hearing about how the super rich live! Amazing that Mr. Buffett lives so much like an ordinary guy! I read this article somewhere as well before, but the lessons are well worth reading again.Lol-- I wanted to say that I agree with Pirate Kitty; I wish I had bought a farm with my paper route money! Buffett is a PIMP-too funny! Just one side note---he plans on donating all of his money which is great, but he plans on leaving no money to his extended family. He paid for everyone's college(great too), but no inheritance coming with all that money? That must sting!Ouch! Check out my blog--www.moneylifedebt.blogspot.com!
I just finished reading the biography about him, courtesy of AFM's giveaway, and it's awesome. There's so much more nuance to each of the items you list above.
It is quite amazing to see just how simple he carries his life.
I mean he probably lives worse off then poor people. Poor people have like cell phones, brand name clothing, etc.
Love this post J. Money!
Such fantastic advice, every person should be taught these points in grade school. Then get a refresher course in high school. And college. And graduate school... :D
Huh! I knew about some of his eccentricities but not all the ones you listed. I find his story quite fascinating.
Great post. and I can help you with the CNBC article. I actually watched it and wrote about it on my own blog.
http://www.debtfree4ever.net/2006/11/miscellanious-thoughts-dont-buy-unless.html
Th post is from November 2006, which could be why you are having trouble finding the actual link. At one time their was a video of part of it, but it was removed by the owner from youtube. It was great because it included the part where they were walking through the mall, and some guy walked up, shook his hand and said, "I've never met a billionaire for."
I think the important point for us financial mortals to keep in mind is that everybody can achieve a state of financial freedom regardless of our income, since the two are not inevitably tied together!
For the record, when it comes to he world's riches individuals, I am ranked #2,935,430,508. Yeah, baby!
Len
@Baker @ Man Vs. Debt - Thx bro, and no never knew that! pretty freakin' sweet (and doesn't surprise me) :)
@Blake - Yessir, now I HAVE heard that. The only publication I ever read about him was in Fortune or Forbes I believe...I should really read one of his books though, guess i'm just afraid it'll be a bit boring, but hopefully i'm wrong.
@Holly - YES! That Ingvar dude is craaaaaazy smooth w/ money. Read about him too over at Wide Open Wallet's bio section....Good call.
@Brad Chaffee - Thanks man :) btw, love your blog name "Enemy of Debt" - reminds me of some type of shoot 'em up video game! haha...
@PirateKitty - well i'll agree that as a kid butterfingers go MUCH farther than some ol' farm...although i kinda remember liking pigs and stuff too, so perhaps either would have worked :)
@lulugal11 - oooh nice one! never heard that quote before, but i'm digging it.
@Ashley @ Wide Open Wallet - what can i say, your bios are intriguing...and somehow stick in my mind!
@Frugal Fundamentals - heyyy yeah i remember that! i actually just read it out loud to Mrs. Budgetsaresexy and she goes "Yeah, you already read that one, remember?!" and then i looked at the comments and saw that i indeed had ;) might fine post to read twice though! gotta love some JB action. oh, and my favorite line from your post - "Time is short.. that ticking is there for a reason." awesome.
@RyansDad - wow, ouch indeed! that's pretty interesting though, i bet it's so that everyone learns on their own and doesn't just "expect" to live off his money and totally go against everything he stood for. and checked out your blog, i'll have to poke around some more :)
@Revanche - I'm beginning to think this should go at the top of my reading list now.
@tom - haha...yes indeed sir, yes indeed sir.
@Broke Bettie - thanks! and then also in the "real world". ESPECIALLY in the real world, my goodness.
@Mike - He is a baller.
@Prince of Thrift said... - oh nice, thanks man! i'll have to bookmark that and then read it tomorrow morning (american idol is on now...haha....) I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to chill with him or even shake his hand for that matter. I wonder if he's funny in real life? probably not.
@Len Penzo - Hooray! Len = The 2,935,430,508th Man. haha...keep going at it brotha.
I think this man is my new hero! Thanks for sharing!!
I love Warren Buffett! And Chuck Norris and Jack Bauer! Three of my favorite people all in one post. Can't beat that! LOL.
Anyway, I've heard most of those things about Buffett before and I'm willing to bet they're all true. I think that's cool that he still lives in the same 3 bedroom house he bought 50 years ago. Can you imagine? I have to say, I'm not sure I would be disciplined enough to do that in his financial position. That shiny new BMW would be allllll mine!!! Hehehehe.
Ah well, probably why I'm not rich, eh? Still, the dude's got class!
yeah, i might be able to do the same house part, but DEF. not in most of the other areas. gotta have my cell, laptop, escalade on 20" chromes, ferrari (for the weekends), etc etc.
i wouldn't go *that* much overboard, but i figure a few splurges would be fine - and not all at once either. just gradually to pat myself on the back ;)
There is so much we can learn from Buffet.
It's not what you earn, it's what you spend.
So many people think that being rich is looking rich.
This is not always the case.
Thanks for the great post. I write the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder's Weekend blog at http://www.borsheimsbrk.com. I try to put up the best quotes from Buffett over that weekend. My favorite from last year: "Your best asset is your own self. The reason people are affective is because people wanna be around you. You pick that up by being generous, humorous…”
Keep up the great posts.
Very cool! Thx for dropping by, i'll check out your site :)
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Back to Budgetsaresexy.com