Warren Buffett: Biography and How the Most Successful Investor Became the Richest Person in the World
Warren Buffet is known as the most successful investor in the world and is still one of the richest people thanks to his investment strategy. Apart from being the most successful stock investor of the 20th century, Warren Buffet is also known as a philanthropist. He even donated 99 percent of his assets when he died for humanitarian purposes. What’s the story?
Warren Buffet Biography
Warren Buffett was born in Omaha, America, on August 30, 1930. He is the son of Howard and Leila Buffett. Warren has two sisters. His father is known to be a member of the American Council.
Warren began his education at Rose Hill Elementary School. After completing his education, he attended Alice Deal Junior High School. Next, he attended Woodrow Wilson High School and graduated in 1947.
Investor since childhood
His ability to invest has been visible since childhood. When he was 11 years old, for example, Warren Buffett was just a newspaper deliveryman. He also used to earn money by selling chewing gum and soft drinks. He is diligent in saving and investing his money.
He spends his free time traveling around golf courses. He looked for lost golf balls and resold them cheaply to golfers around the golf course.
When Buffet was 14, he was still in high school, and he started working and had $ 1,200. He then used the money to buy 40 hectares of agricultural land. He then rented the land back to local farmers. From here, he has created passive income from land rental.
Warren Buffett completed his studies at the University of Nebraska and earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration. After that, Buffet continued his master’s degree at Columbia Business School and obtained a Master of Science degree in economics in 1951.
Warren Buffett also took investment classes taught by investor gurus Benjamin Graham and David Dodd. After completing his studies, Buffett worked at his father’s company, Buffett-Falk & Co.
Warren Buffett worked there from 1951 to 1954 as an investment salesman. At 20, Warren Buffet accumulated savings worth almost 10 thousand dollars in 1950. Benjamin Graham then appointed him an employee with a salary of 12 thousand dollars per year.
In 1956, Warren Buffet stopped working for Benjamin Graham. Buffett then used his savings to open Buffett Partnership Ltd, an investment company in Omaha. Stay up-to-date with Deltsapure! Provide accurate and updated news for readers.
Purchased the Berkshire Hathaway Company
His company was successful, making Warren Buffet a millionaire in 1962. Next, he invested in a textile manufacturing company called Berkshire Hathaway.
Warren Buffett actively bought shares in Berkshire Hathaway in the early 1960s. And then took control of the company after becoming the majority shareholder. Warren then shifted the company’s Berkshire Hathaway business to the insurance sector from the textile business. In 1985, he sold the last textile mill under the ownership of Berkshire Hathaway.
Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway bought a 12 percent stake in Salomon Inc. in 1987 and later became its largest shareholder. The company he bought always improved as much as possible.
Buying Coca-Cola Shares
Business fundamentals are improved so that financial performance is shiny. A company that was about to go bankrupt, in his hands, can turn into a sexy company that attracts the interest of many other investors. Next, Warren Buffett began buying shares in the Coca-Cola Company in 1988 through Berkshire Hathaway.
He then bought up to 7 percent of the Coca-Cola Company shares for a total of 1.02 billion dollars. Investing in Coca-Cola is one of Warren Buffet’s best investments. Even though Coca-Cola shares collapsed in 1998-1999, it still relies on long-term trends. He maintains Coca-Cola shares to this day.
Warren Buffett then bought a futures contract worth 11 billion dollars in 2002. In 2006, he made a profit of more than 2 billion dollars from future contracts.
Berkshire Hathaway, the company he used to buy many other companies, continues skyrocketing in the capital markets. For example, Berkshire Hathaway’s share price in January 2008 soared by 35%. Even in December 2011, the share price reached an all-time high, to US$ 150,000 per share.
A True Investor
Warren Buffet is a true investor. For him, short-term stock games are not profitable. He learned this at 11 when he bought his first City Services stock for $38.25 per share. After that, he resold the shares for $40. The price of the shares he sold continued to rise and, a few years later, reached $200 per share.
From that lesson, he concluded that he should not rush to sell his shares. Buffett’s business moves are ultimately about long-term investing. He invests his capital in shares of companies whose products he knows well. That’s why he never wanted to buy shares in Microsoft or dot-com companies.
For Warren Buffet, long-term investment also means business. Buffett never applies the principle of buying shares but buying a business (buying a business, not shares). He cleverly invested the company’s idle money. For example, he bought insurance companies, gem companies, utilities and food through Berkshire. He also controls several world-class companies such as Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, IBM, Gillette, Walmart, and others through this company.
Buffett can live as luxuriously as possible with such abundant wealth wherever he wants. But he chooses to live simply in the house he bought four decades ago in Omaha. According to Adbuster magazine, Buffet only has two private jets and one luxury yacht.
The Benefactor
Buffett even promised to donate his wealth when he died. In June 2006, Buffett acted more quickly by donating most of his shares to Berkshire. The total donation at that time reached 300 trillion USD.
Unsurprisingly, this donation was recorded as the largest donation in American history. Uniquely, part of the donation was handed over to Bill Gates’s charitable foundation, namely the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for humanitarian activities. The donation from Warren Buffet is twice the funds usually collected by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation so far.
Warren Buffet Net Worth
According to Forbes magazine, in 2022, Warren Buffett net worth will be around 1.925 trillion USD. In 2024, Warren Buffett net worth reached 132.9 billion USD. With his wealth, Buffet is included among the top 10 richest people in the world. Where he got all his wealth from clever investments, it is not surprising that Warren Buffet is known as the most successful investor in the world.
