15 Surprising Insights That Unveil the Real Warren Buffett

15 Things You Didn’t Know About Warren Buffett

15 Fascinating Facts About Warren Buffett’s Life and Career

Hello guys, and welcome to an amazing article on the legendary investor, Warren Buffett.

In this series, we cover many fascinating business people and entrepreneurs, but few are as renowned and iconic as the Oracle of Omaha.

Born during the Great Depression, Buffett went on to become world-famous for his wealth and investment savvy. He’s a stalwart of value investing and the traditional cornerstones of investment. As a result, he was named the richest person in the world in 2008 and is currently the third-richest, after Bill Gates and Amancio Ortega.

When it comes to investing, there probably isn’t a name with a stronger pedigree than Buffett’s. So, we simply had to do an article on him. Here are 15 things you didn’t know about Warren Buffett.

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1. Buffett Bought His First Stock at 11 Years Old

Buffett had set his sights very high from a young age and started off by buying shares in City Service Preferred for $38 each. He then filed his first tax return during his teenage years and had sold his first venture before graduating from high school.

While his school colleagues wanted to be movie stars, at the age of 10, Buffett was having lunch with a member of the New York Stock Exchange and setting life goals. By the time he was 16, he had already accumulated the equivalent of around $50,000 today, and was earning around $175 per month — more than any of his teachers and even adults.

2. He’s Been Working from the Same Desk for 50 Years

Buffett is an 86-year-old man, so he’s predictably a little bit old-school. Instead of a computer, he uses old-fashioned pen and paper and keeps an encyclopedia set by his desk too. There’s also a cabinet full of football memorabilia.

He’s been working from the same office for 50 years and has no plans to move. Before deciding on his office, he wanted to go work for his idol, Benjamin Graham, the author of “The Intelligent Investor.” However, Graham refused to hire him because he was Jewish.

3. He’s Surprisingly Thrifty for a Billionaire and a Bit of a Technophobe

During an interview on the Piers Morgan show, Buffett said he only had a Nokia flip phone and had no intentions of upgrading it. He also said, “I don’t throw anything away until I’ve had it for 20 or 25 years,” and has only sent one email in his life, and that was to Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

4. He Spends Most of His Day Reading

Buffett once said, “I just sit in my office and read all day.” He sees his job as about learning as much as he can and reading as much as possible. He now reads between 600 and 1,000 pages of material a day.

5. Buffett Doesn’t Believe That Gold Is a Good Investment

In 1998, Buffett said that gold had no use or purpose, so it wasn’t worth investing in. He thinks that if aliens could look down and see us digging gold out of the ground, they would be mystified.

6. He Loves Junk Food and Eats About 2,500 Calories a Day

Buffett’s favorite meal is a burger and a Cherry Coke, and he says that he eats whatever he wants. He’s even quoted as saying that he couldn’t be bothered eating any vegetables, even if he was told it would lengthen his life.

7. Buffett Contemplates His Investments While Soaking in the Bath

Before he invested in Bank of America, he spent a while reading over the facts and figures in the bath. The bubbles must have done a lot for his thought process because he then bought $5 billion in Bank of America shares.

8. He Has Donated a Total of $25 Billion to Charities All Over the World

Buffett’s children have their own charitable foundations, which he regularly contributes to. That’s what happens when your dad’s a billionaire — you can be a professional philanthropist. He also gives to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

9. Bill Gates and Buffett Are BFFs

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have been friends for 25 years, love playing bridge, give each other book recommendations, and even have sleepovers sometimes. If you want to hear more about Buffett’s friendship with Bill Gates, check out our article “15 Things You Didn’t Know About Bill Gates.”

10. Buffett Continues to Live in the $31,500 Five-Bedroom House in Omaha That He Bought in 1958

He practices frugality in many aspects of his life despite being so successful. One of the ways he’s done this is to stay in the same house he’s lived in for many years, and he’s not that much of a lavish spender when it comes to the usual trappings of wealth either.

11. Buffett’s Net Worth is Greater Than the Combined GDP of Ghana and Cambodia

Buffett’s net worth at the end of 2016 was $71 billion, which is more than some countries are worth. He’s currently the third-richest man in the world, even though his salary from his investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, is rumored to be a relatively modest $100,000 a year.

12. He’s a Passionate Investor in and Supporter of Renewable Energy

Buffett has invested $15 billion in renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power, and has just announced that he’s ready to invest another $15 billion to the cause.

13. Buffett Earned 99% of His Current Total Wealth After His 50th Birthday

Despite a very strong and enthusiastic start in business, Buffett earned the large majority of his wealth in later life. He made 70.4% of his $71 billion after he turned 50, because many of his investment strategies are long-term.

14. He Has the Best Track Record for Investment in the S&P 500

Buffett has beaten the market more than any other investor according to the Standard & Poor’s 500, an American stock market index which records stocks listed according to their graph. He’s a more successful investor than Walter Schloss, Peter Lynch, Joel Greenblat, and David Einhorn. As a result of his longevity, he’s earned the title “The Oracle of Omaha.”

15. In 2013, Buffett Earned Around $37 Million Every Single Day

According to Forbes, he made an astonishing amount of money every day, more than his best friend Bill Gates, which probably added a bit of tension to their bridge games. In comparison, Jennifer Lawrence earned $34 million over that year as the second-highest paid actress in the world.

Like many entrepreneurs, there are many stories about Warren Buffett and what his investment secrets are. Does his frugality help him? Is he just a born investor and a prodigy? We’ll never know — we’ll just be watching his stats rise in admiration.

If you could have 10 minutes with Warren Buffett, what would you ask him? How would you find out about his investment secrets?

Oh, and here’s one more amazing fact about Warren Buffett for you: when he bought Berkshire Hathaway in 1964, he did it because he was angry at the CEO and wanted to fire him. In hindsight, he’s called the purchase the “dumbest stock” he’s ever bought.

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