Warren Buffett

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Warren Buffett has been called the world’s greatest investor. That is a very accurate nickname. He certainly knows about investing, or he wouldn’t be worth over $36 billion today (www.forbes.com). In fact, if you had invested $10,000 in Berkshire Hathaway when he took over in 1965, you would have about $22,000,000 today (www.investorguide.com). Moreover, had you invested $10,000 with him from the beginning, in 1956, you would now be worth closer to $85 million (Lowe).

Warren Edward Buffett was born on August 30, 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska. He is the son of Howard and Leila Buffett. Howard, a long-time resident of Omaha, was a local stockbroker and member of the U.S. House of Representatives. As a boy, young Warren loved numbers and could easily keep track of mathematical calculations in his head. At eight, he began reading books on the stock market. And, at eleven, he bought his first shares of stock, Cities Service Preferred.

In junior high and high school he became quite a young businessman. He was living in the Washington, D.C. area at the time, while his father served four terms as a congressman. At thirteen, he worked two newspaper routes, retrieved lost golf balls, and handicapped racehorses. He saved the money he earned and bought reconditioned pinball machine for $25 each and put them in the local barbershops where he was soon making about $50 dollars per week (Train). In high school, Buffett and a friend bought a 1934 Rolls Royce for $350 and rented it out for $35 per day. When he graduated high school at sixteen, Warren had already saved up over$6000 (which would worth $60,000, today), which helped to finance his college tuition.

In his senior year at the University of Nebraska he read Benjamin Graham’s book, The Intelligent Investor. This book impressed him so much that he went to study with Graham at the Columbia Business School in New York.

He returned to Omaha after earning his masters degree in economics. Buffett worked for his father’s firm for a short time, but soon moved to New York to work for his friend and mentor, Graham, at Graham-Newman. However, after only two years the partnership dissolved. Graham, then sixty-one, had decided to retire. Warren returned to Omaha and opened his own limited investment partnership. He was only twenty-five years old...

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...way. Warren Buffett is 69 years old the number two man, Charles Munger, is 76 and there is worry that the company will not be able to continue at the same financial pace. Of course, in 1994 Buffett said, “I have publicly announced I plan to run Berkshire until 5 or 10 years after I die. But Berkshire is pretty easy to run” (Lowe).

Works Cited

Hagstrom, Robert G,. The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World’s Greatest Investor. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1994.

Lowe, Janet C., Warren Buffett Speaks: Wit and Wisdom From the World’s Greatest Investor. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997.

Train, John. The Midas Touch. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1987.

"The World’s Richest People." www.forbes.com. 08 Nov. 1999. Forbes Inc. 08 Nov. 1999. < http://www.forbes.com/tool/toolbox/billnew/index.asp >.

"Warren Buffett." www.investorguide.com. 08 Nov. 1999. InvestorGuide.com Inc. 08 Nov. 1999. < http://www.investorguide.com/Buffett.htm >.

"Warren Buffett." www.berkshirehathaway.com. 08 Nov. 1999. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 08 Nov. 1999. < http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1998htm.htm