Warren Buffett facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Warren Buffett
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Buffett in 2015
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Warren Edward Buffett
August 30, 1930 Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
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| Education | |
| Occupation | |
| Years active | 1951–present |
| Known for | Berkshire Hathaway |
| Political party | Democratic |
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Susan Thompson Buffett
(m. 1952; died 2004)Astrid Menks Buffett
(m. 2006) |
| Children |
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| Family | Buffett family |
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Warren Edward Buffett (born August 30, 1930) is an American investor and someone who gives a lot to charity. He is the head of a big company called Berkshire Hathaway. Because he has been so good at investing, Buffett is one of the most famous investors in the world. He is also one of the wealthiest people on Earth.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Warren Edward Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on August 30, 1930. He was the second of three children. His father, Howard Buffett, was a member of the United States Congress. When Warren was 12, his family moved to Washington, D.C., because his father was elected to Congress. Warren finished elementary school and high school there. He graduated in 1947. His yearbook said he "likes math; a future stockbroker." After high school, Warren wanted to start his own business right away. But his father wanted him to go to college first.
Warren was interested in business and investing from a young age. When he was seven, he read a book called One Thousand Ways to Make $1000. This book inspired him. As a child, Warren had many small businesses. He sold chewing gum, Coca-Cola, and magazines door-to-door. He also worked in his grandfather's grocery store. In high school, he delivered newspapers, sold golf balls and stamps, and cleaned cars. When he filed his first income tax return in 1944, he even claimed $35 for using his bicycle and watch on his paper route!
In 1945, when he was a high school sophomore, Warren and a friend bought a used pinball machine for $25. They put it in a local barber shop. In just a few months, they owned several machines in three different barber shops. Later, they sold their business for $1200.
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Warren's interest in the stock market started when he was a schoolboy. He would spend time at a stock brokerage office near his father's office. His father helped him learn about business and investing. When Warren was 10, his father even took him to visit the New York Stock Exchange. At 11, Warren bought his first shares of stock. He bought three shares for himself and three for his sister, Doris Buffett.
When he was 15, Warren earned more than $175 a month delivering Washington Post newspapers. In high school, he invested in a business his father owned. He also bought a 40-acre farm when he was 14 years old, using $1,200 of his savings. By the time he finished college, Warren had saved $9,800.
In 1947, Buffett started college at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He studied there for two years. Then he moved to the University of Nebraska, where he earned a degree in business at age 19. After being turned down by Harvard Business School, Buffett went to Columbia Business School. He chose Columbia because he learned that a famous investor named Benjamin Graham taught there. Warren earned a master's degree in economics from Columbia in 1951.
Warren Buffett learned a lot from Benjamin Graham. He once said:
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.
Business Career
Warren Buffett became very interested in business and investing when he was young. He started several businesses and investment groups. One of his early partners was Benjamin Graham. In 1956, he created a company called Buffett Partnership Ltd. This company later bought a textile factory called Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett changed his company's name to Berkshire Hathaway. It became a large company that owns many different businesses. In 1970, Buffett became the chairman and main owner of Berkshire Hathaway. In 1978, another investor and long-time friend, Charlie Munger, joined him as vice-chairman.
Since 1970, Buffett has been the chairman and largest owner of Berkshire Hathaway. It is one of America's biggest holding companies and one of the world's leading groups of companies. On May 3, 2025, Buffett asked the company's board to choose Greg Abel to take over as CEO by the end of the year.
People around the world call Warren Buffett the "Oracle of Omaha" or "Sage of Omaha." This is because he has made a huge fortune from his smart business and investment choices. He is known for his way of investing, called "value investing." He also lives a simple life, even though he is very rich.
Buffett believes that everyone should share in a country's wealth. He said:
We have learned to turn out lots of goods and services, but we haven't learned as well how to have everybody share in the bounty. The obligation of a society as prosperous as ours is to figure out how nobody gets left too far behind.
After the economic crisis of 2008, Buffett helped his company recover. By 2014, Berkshire Hathaway made $6.4 billion in profit in just three months. This was the most it had ever made in such a short time.
Buffett has promised to give away 99 percent of his money to good causes. Most of it will go to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2010, he started the Giving Pledge with Bill Gates. This is a promise where billionaires agree to give away at least half of their money.
Personal Life
In 1949, Warren Buffett learned to play the ukulele. He bought one to try and impress a girl whose boyfriend played the instrument. Even though it didn't work to get her attention, playing music became important in his life. It helped him connect with Susan Thompson, who later became his wife. Buffett often plays the ukulele at meetings for his company's shareholders.
Buffett married Susan Buffett in 1952. They had three children: Susie, Howard, and Peter. They started living separately in 1977 but remained married until Susan died in 2004. Their daughter, Susie, lives in Omaha and does charity work.
In 2006, on his 76th birthday, Buffett married Astrid Menks. She had lived with him since his first wife moved to San Francisco in 1977.
Warren Buffett is known for living simply. His yearly salary is much smaller than what other company leaders make. In 2008, he earned $175,000, with a base salary of only $100,000. He still lives in the same house in Omaha that he bought in 1958 for $31,500. He used to own a vacation home in Laguna Beach, California, which he sold in 2018.
Bridge is such a sensational game that I wouldn't mind being in jail if I had three cellmates who were decent players and who were willing to keep the game going twenty-four hours a day.
Buffett loves playing bridge. He often plays with his friend Bill Gates. He spends about 12 hours a week playing the game. In 2006, he even sponsored a bridge tournament called the Buffett Cup.
He is a big fan of Nebraska football and goes to games when he can. In 2009, he watched a game from the sideline as an honorary assistant coach.
In 2009, Buffett was chosen to be a member of the American Philosophical Society.
Buffett also worked on a cartoon series for kids called "Secret Millionaires Club." It featured Buffett and Charlie Munger. The show taught children good money habits.
Warren Buffett is known for not using much technology. In 2006, it was reported that he didn't have a cell phone or a computer at his desk. He drove his own car, a Cadillac DTS. In 2013, he had an old flip phone and had only sent one email in his whole life. But in 2020, he shared that he had switched to an iPhone 11. Buffett reads five newspapers every day, starting with the Omaha World Herald, which his company bought in 2011.
Warren Buffett is distantly related to former U.S. President Barack Obama. He was also a long-time friend of singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. They would often call each other "Uncle Warren" and "Cousin Jimmy," even though a DNA test showed they were not related.
Wealth and Giving Back
In 2008, Forbes magazine said Buffett was the richest person in the world. In 2009, after giving billions of dollars to charity, he was the second richest man in the United States. Only Bill Gates was richer.
In 1999, a survey named Buffett the best money manager of the 20th century. In 2007, Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2011, President Barack Obama gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Buffett and Bill Gates were also named the most influential global thinkers in a 2010 report.
Buffett believes that rich people earn a lot because of their skills. He has said that his children will not inherit most of his money. He once said, "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."
Buffett had always planned to give away his money to charity. In 2006, he announced a plan to give 83% of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This was one of the largest charitable donations ever. He joined the Gates Foundation's board but did not plan to be involved in their investments. In 2021, he stepped down from the board.
This was a big change from his earlier plans to give most of his money to his own Buffett Foundation. His wife's estate, worth $2.6 billion, went to that foundation when she died in 2004. He also gave $50 million to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which works to reduce nuclear dangers.
Buffett has used auctions to raise money for charity. In 2006, he auctioned his car on eBay for Girls, Inc.. In 2007, he auctioned a lunch with himself, which raised $650,100 for the Glide Foundation. Later auctions raised even more money, sometimes millions of dollars. The winners usually eat with Buffett at a steakhouse in New York.
In 2009, a book called Only the Super Rich Can Save Us was written about billionaires helping America. The author said Buffett was interested in the book. On December 9, 2010, Buffett, Bill Gates, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg signed the "Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge." They promised to give at least half of their wealth to charity. They also asked other wealthy people to do the same. In 2018, after giving away almost $3.4 billion, Buffett was ranked 3rd on Forbes magazine's list of billionaires.
Warren Buffett also helps fund his children's own foundations. These include the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (named after his first wife), his daughter Susie's Sherwood Foundation, his son Howard's Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and his son Peter's NoVo Foundation. He also supported his sister Doris Buffett's Letters Foundation and Learning By Giving Foundation.
In November 2022, Warren Buffett gave $750 million in Berkshire Hathaway shares to four charities run by his children. He gave 1.5 million shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. He also gave 300,000 shares to the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation.
As of 2023, Buffett has given over $50 billion to charity.
Views on Society and Money
Health Care
Buffett has talked about health care costs in the United States. He said that the cost of health care is like a "tapeworm" that hurts America's ability to compete with other countries. He believes that the U.S. spends too much of its money on health care compared to other nations. He thinks that doctors should be paid for good results, not just for doing many procedures.
Population Growth
Buffett is concerned about the world's population growing too fast. In 2009, he met with other billionaires to talk about health care, education, and slowing population growth. This group was called "The Good Club."
Taxes
Buffett believes that rich people should pay more in taxes. He once said that he paid a lower percentage of his income in taxes than his employees did, even though he made much more money. He called this "class warfare" and said, "it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."
Buffett also supports the inheritance tax, which is a tax on money left to people after someone dies. He thinks it helps make things fair. Some people disagree, saying that Buffett's company benefits from this tax.
Buffett also believes that the government should not be involved in gambling or legalizing casinos. He calls it a "tax on ignorance."
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies
In 2018, Buffett said that the excitement around Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies would not end well. He said he didn't know when or how, but he wouldn't bet against them.
Film and Television
Warren Buffett has appeared in many TV shows and movies. He has been in documentaries and even fiction shows like Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), The Office (U.S.), and All My Children. He was also the subject of an HBO documentary called Becoming Warren Buffett (2017).
Warren Buffett Quotes
- "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it."
- "Take the job that you would take if you were independently wealthy."
- "Criticize by category — praise by name."
- "Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1."
- "People will always try to stop you doing the right thing if it is unconventional."
Images for kids
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Warren Buffett's signature
See also
In Spanish: Warren Buffett para niños
