Forbes puts his net worth at $157.2 billion.
Go look at his house. He’s still in the five-bedroom place in Dundee he bought for $31,505 back in 1958. Berkshire Hathaway’s headquarters are in Omaha. Not Wall Street. Just Nebraska. This is where you get the “Oracle” label. It’s not just a brand. It’s a lifestyle.
Most people think frugal means cheap. For Buffett, it means smart. Value investing isn’t just for stocks. It’s how he buys socks. How he lives.
But he isn’t cheap. Just picky. There are five areas where he drops the penny-pinching act entirely.
Money to Give Away
He gives it all.
In 2010. He and Bill Gates signed The Giving Pledge along with a hundred other billionaires. They promised to dump most of their wealth into charity.
Buffett has already actively given away $90 billion to charities
That’s $90 billion gone. And he’s promising another 99% after he kicks. You might say that’s extravagant. It is.
It tracks with Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Those industrial giants knew something. Holding onto wealth doesn’t feel good. Spending it on society does. Giving doesn’t cost you social capital. It buys it.
Buying His Own Time
This was an indulgence. He called the private jet “The Indefensible.”
He paid $850k for one. Then $6.7m for another used one. At the time. His net worth was north of $600m. A drop in the bucket? Sure.
But consider the utility. He flies all over. Constantly. Jumping on and off planes as needed saves time. And for a guy who charges a premium on his schedule, time is the only real asset left.
It makes sense. Even if you call it silly.
Quality Over Quantity
Listen to the 2008 shareholder letter.
“Price is what you pay, value is what you get.”
Buffett applies this to stocks. And shoes. Socks. Cars. Houses.
He won’t buy cheap junk just because it’s cheap. Cheap things break. You buy them again. Waste of money. He buys quality. When it’s marked down. That’s the key. Discounted quality is the sweet spot.
Don’t save five dollars on something that lasts two days. It’s bad math.
The One Thing No One Can Tax
Himself.
“You are your own biggest asset by far.”
Investing in yourself yields returns you can’t steal. The IRS can’t take your knowledge. Nobody can rob you of a skill.
He suggests:
– Therapy
– Fitness
– Diet
– New languages
– Learning how to invest
– Post-graduate courses
He’s blunt about health too.
“You only get one mind and body… If you don’t take care of it… they’ll be a wreck in forty years, like a car.”
Neglect is a bad strategy. For the body. For the portfolio.
Reading. Just Reading
Business America moves fast.
Buffett insists on sitting and thinking. Daily. Almost every day. Most CEOs are terrified of silence. They fill the void with meetings. He fills it with books.
His shareholder letters are full of it. Biblical references. Literary nods. He reads constantly. Writes constantly. Thinks constantly.
That’s where the edge comes from. Not faster data. Slower processing.
“I do more reading and thinking… than most people in business.”
It keeps the mental machinery running. Keeps the impulse decisions away.
We read. We think. We wait.
Maybe that’s why he’s rich. Maybe we should just buy the books instead.
