# Warren Buffett early years



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Has anyone read any in-depth material on Warren Buffett's early years?

From the wikipedia page, I see that (as stated in today's dollars) at age 20 he had a net worth of 0.1 million. By age 26, his net worth was 1.5 million! I'm really curious about _how_ he went from 0.1 million to 1.5 million in just 6 years. I realize that he spent the rest of his life making amazing deals, but I suspect that this _massive early wealth_ was a key part of his later success. A guy who has 1.5 million at age 26 is already set for life.

So I'm trying to figure out what happened in that stretch of 6 years (1950-1956). Does anyone know?

From what I can find, he only started having a high income (100K-200K) in 1954. Even if we assume he could save substantially all of it, and if he invested fully in the Dow, that would barely get him halfway to 1.5 million. There's a huge gap -- what happened to drive his net worth so high?

I'm much more interested in how Buffett became so wealthy in his 20s than I am about how he became a multi billionaire. Whatever he was doing in his 20s _may_ be accessible to me.

This post on the same question I'm asking says that he found some amazing deals and market opportunities in his 20s, things like commodity arbitrage and probably some speculation. It's easy to believe that he may have made some big profits during this period, when the Dow was on fire (it was exactly the start of a new, grand bull market... what a lucky guy to run into that timing!)


----------



## zylon (Oct 27, 2010)

There might be some clues in this documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLXtRjfVwcw

What he was doing in his 20s is available today, but reading forums like this one, it's easy to see that not many have the investing aptitude. 

Buffett nearly falls under this definition of idiot savant: (ref Charles Peterson's description at 6:15 minutes into the video)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/idiot savant


----------



## tkirk62 (Jul 1, 2015)

Have you read the Snowball? That's where you should go first for any Buffett reading.


----------



## Oldroe (Sep 18, 2009)

Lot's of books on Buffet. And most of his early investments where company's of his class mates. Coke a Cola was one.


----------



## tygrus (Mar 13, 2012)

He had a hedge fund in his early youth.

The amazing thing is most people who got that kind of wealth at an early age would sit on it so tight for fear of losing it. He went on to turn it into billions.


----------



## Pluto (Sep 12, 2013)

I think it started younger than 20 with paper routes and stuff like that. He just never spent his money. He saved it. Even as an older billionaire his sister said he would not pay full price for a new car. She said he would wait for a car at the dealer with hail damage in transit that had been repainted and get it for a discount. LOL. In the 50's he made a ton of money on insurance companies. I think it was GIECO. He liked insurance because they got the $ up front essentially for free, and could invest it all before any payout. Amex - same principle with travelers cheques as with insurance - AMEX charges the customer a % to keep their money and invest it for themselves, not the customer. LOL.


----------



## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

He is listed as buying three shares of stock for himself and three for his sister at age 11. At age 14 with $1200 of his savings, he bought land while at age 15 he was making $175 a month delivering newspapers. When he finished college, he had $90K.

Cheers


----------



## treva84 (Dec 9, 2014)

Didn't he use to arbitrage a commodity (wheat?) as well? I thought I read something where he'd buy a quantity of said commodity and drive it 8 hours to a different state and sell it at a higher price or something like that.


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I haven't read Snowball but it sounds like I should.

He didn't get rich by "buying & holding" well established large cap stocks (as seems to be the common misinterpretation of his story). That period I'm describing in his 20s proves that -- he must have been doing some serious speculation and finding atypical deals, because the returns are insanely high.

Let's remember that 1950 was also precisely the start of a massive bull run. Shiller PE shows that the whole market was under-valued at the time; deploying capital in 1950 was highly profitable to begin with. Genuine bull markets also bring tremendous opportunities in M&A, etc.

Start with an undervalued market, fire up a big bull market, add Buffett's amazing ability to find deals and ... incredible results. (Can't be replicated today)


----------



## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

I would second The Snowball. Great book and read. Old post:
http://www.myownadvisor.ca/on-my-bookshelf-my-snowball-favourites-2/


----------



## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

First mention I saw of Buffett was in The Money Game by Adam Smith. Or maybe it was Supermoney. I know it was in the early 70s. He was already getting a reputation as a successful money manager.

I understood that he saved up $10000 by the time he was in his early twenties, a lot of money in 1950. Then he took a course in security analysis and value investing from Benjamin Graham at Columbia and was hooked. He started his first investment partnership with his own $10000 and $150000 contributed by investors. He started other partnerships later for other investors.

Then in the mid to late sixties, he couldn't find anything to buy. He thought it was because the investment world had gotten too sophisticated with too many fund managers beating the bushes for cheap stocks. His investors got antsy at him sitting on his hands for 2 or 3 years so he shut down the partnerships, and put the money into Berkshire Hathaway, a clothing company he bought cheap and dismantled. That meant he no longer had partners, just shareholders he could safely ignore.

Since then he has paid out one dividend and nothing else. All the money accumulates. If you are a retired person who bought Berkshire Hathaway stock in the 60s and stuck with him ever since, tough noogies. Find some other source of money to live on, you aren't getting anything back from Uncle Warren. You have a choice of staying poor or selling your stock.

He does have a remarkable record of compounding but a lot of that comes from using leverage or margin from the cash reserves of the insurance companies he controls.

Other investors have been very successful using the value approach. There is no reason it won't work today but nobody wants to do anything so stodgy and old fashioned. That is what they said about him in the sixties too. The value approach has been discounted for practically the whole time Buffet was using it to beat all the hot shots.


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Yes I realize all that but my belief is that the *critical period* of his personal wealth boom happened in 1950-1956. Even before Berkshire was created, he was already insanely rich at age 26. By that point he had other peoples money, Wall Street connections, M&A deals, and it's really not surprising he could rapidly increase his wealth further.

I'm much more impressed with how he increased his wealth in his early 20s _before_ he was a Wall Street guy. This is truly difficult.

How many people do we see posting here saying: "At age 20, I had $100 K saved up. By age 26, I had $1.5 million". I've never even heard a story here where someone has accomplished _half_ of that. That's exactly what he did, in today's dollars.


----------



## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

james4beach said:


> ... Start with an undervalued market, fire up a big bull market, add Buffett's amazing ability to find deals and ... incredible results. (Can't be replicated today)


He didn't seem worried about it in the speech I saw on YouTube ... he seemed more worried about the few who were interested should go for it, sticking to less than ten stocks. Everyone else should index.




james4beach said:


> ... I'm much more impressed with how he increased his wealth in his early 20s _before_ he was a Wall Street guy. This is truly difficult ...


I guess it depends on what you mean by "Wall Street guy". I would call a schoolboy who spends significant time in the customers' lounge of a regional stock brokerage near his father's own brokerage office - a wall street guy. At ten, during a trip to NYC he visited the New York Exchange. At eleven, despite the high trading commissions of the day, he bought stock.

This seems a similar passion/skill building as any other successful person who started early. 

OTOH, looking at the posts along the lines of "I'm thirty, just starting to learn" here on CMF, when one is starting to learn so late in the game, yes it is difficult to come close.




james4beach said:


> ... How many people do we see posting here saying: "At age 20, I had $100 K saved up...
> I've never even heard a story here where someone has accomplished half of that. That's exactly what he did, in today's dollars.


Granted ... it is rare. 

There was an article profiling a Calgary teen girl who was finding the pre-dotcom crash stocks too expensive. From what I recall, the article at the time said she was just shy of $1 million but due to the lack of bargains, had a fair portion sitting in cash. I expect buying after the crash helped her nte worth to grow.

The deck is stacked against teens and young people because as a survey found that most young people think their limited funds make it not worth saving/investing.

Others seem to be do well without using the Buffett way.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/16/investing/penny-stock-trader-millionaire/index.html
http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2015/01/29/youngster-breaks-into-stock-exchange-investment.html


Certainly on this list, there are few that made big money using stocks ...
http://www.inc.com/john-boitnott/40-young-people-who-became-millionaires-before-they-were-20.html


Cheers


----------



## treva84 (Dec 9, 2014)

My Own Advisor said:


> I would second The Snowball. Great book and read. Old post:
> http://www.myownadvisor.ca/on-my-bookshelf-my-snowball-favourites-2/


Slightly off topic, but do you guys know of any books about / written by Charlie Munger?


----------



## Kropew (Nov 24, 2013)

treva84 said:


> Slightly off topic, but do you guys know of any books about / written by Charlie Munger?


Poor Charlie's Almanack is arguably the best one

https://www.poorcharliesalmanack.com/


----------



## Kropew (Nov 24, 2013)

james4beach said:


> Yes I realize all that but my belief is that the *critical period* of his personal wealth boom happened in 1950-1956. Even before Berkshire was created, he was already insanely rich at age 26. By that point he had other peoples money, Wall Street connections, M&A deals, and it's really not surprising he could rapidly increase his wealth further.
> 
> I'm much more impressed with how he increased his wealth in his early 20s _before_ he was a Wall Street guy. This is truly difficult.
> 
> How many people do we see posting here saying: "At age 20, I had $100 K saved up. By age 26, I had $1.5 million". I've never even heard a story here where someone has accomplished _half_ of that. That's exactly what he did, in today's dollars.


You could ask yourself: How many people start to care about their wealth at age of 14?


----------



## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

^^^ 

+1 ... at the end of the day, finance/investing skills are no different than the skills people build in their hobbies or that lead them into a career. Those that start early to master the basics have a huge advantage compared to the late or non-starters.

Investing now has the advantage of cheap commissions and low fee ETFs compared to when I was a teen. At that point, one was looking at $100 - $200 a trade - which makes the Calgary teen girl's performance all that more impressive to me.


When one thinks about it ... is there much difference between say Buffett who was involved early versus say the fourteen year old who learned out of interest from her RE mom then bought a foreclosed house (in her mom's name as she was still a minor) for $12K then cleaned it up to rent it for $8.4K a year. Like Buffett, her purchase $$$ had already been built up through other enterprises that were pulling in $500 a month.


Someone waiting to go to school then decide what to do then make contacts in business etc. is going to be well behind the early starter.


Impressive .. yes but the early start explains an significant advantage, IMO.


Cheers


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I think you guys are right about this. He just started very early, started thinking and saving money, and had access to the right circles and knowledge very early.

I would still argue that an important factor was being able to deploy capital during a time of low valuations (see the CAPE back then -- a bottom) and derive the benefit from a real bull market. _That part is luck_


----------



## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

I wouldn't say he was insanely rich but he had a nice nest egg. Almost his whole investing career he had the use of other peoples' money, from his first partnerships, Berkshire, insurance companies.

He describes his investing career, first buying straight Graham value plays like the New York Trap Rock company, little auto parts producers in Detroit, 'cigar butt' stocks that were on the verge of bankruptcy, obscure state insurance companies not listed on a stock exchange and so forth. When his account got too big for such junk he looked for undervalued stocks like Diner's Club that was in temporary trouble, or state government bonds that were selling at a discount. Eventually moving on to buying whole companies if they were cheap, and had a good cash flow. You read a list of his investment and they are the most boring securities in the world. Nobody can figure out how he made all that money even though he has explained it over and over.


----------



## tygrus (Mar 13, 2012)

A million dollars in the 1950s was insanely wealthy.


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

Berkshire is having trouble repeating past success, and I believe Buffett has said he wouldn't be able to duplicate his past success in today's world.

What is inevitable I think, is that at some point Berkshire will be forced to pay dividends or lose investor interest. When that happens is anyone's guess, but when it does the share price will shoot to the moon. 

It will be the granddaddy of all blue chip dividend stocks.


----------



## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

tygrus said:


> A million dollars in the 1950s was insanely wealthy.


Sure was ... and if you just tossed that Mil into the S&P500 until 2016 you'd have 436,794,288 ... before taxes of course.


----------



## treva84 (Dec 9, 2014)

Kropew said:


> Poor Charlie's Almanack is arguably the best one
> 
> https://www.poorcharliesalmanack.com/


Cheers! I'll check it out.


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

sags said:


> Berkshire is having trouble repeating past success, and I believe Buffett has said he wouldn't be able to duplicate his past success in today's world.


He's careful to not say it too explicitly, but it's because US markets has been overvalued since the 1990s. Buffett didn't get rich buying things at a CAPE of 26. (Consider that at the time he started, 1950, CAPE was 10). _Nobody_ gets rich buying things at a CAPE of 26.



> It will be the granddaddy of all blue chip dividend stocks.


He explained in great detail how, and why, you should make your own dividend with BRK by just selling shares as you need. There is no magic in dividends -- just sell shares. He advises people to do this, just as I do repeatedly in the forum.


----------



## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

Buffet has said that he can't duplicate the returns of his early years because he is managing $75 billion dollars. He says if he was managing $1 million he could make 50% a year. You can do that buying 50,000 shares of a $10 stock and selling it for $15. Find 3 or 4 deals like that in a year and you are there. But you can't do that with billions, it doesn't compute. That's why he buys whole companies, or stock in giant old line companies like Coca Cola and Burlington Northern.

If Berkshire were ever liquidated they would have to pay enormous taxes on their capital gains. Plus Buffet doesn't pay dividends. Anyone doesn't like the way he runs things, can sell their stock and hit the road. He is long past caring what his investors think about anything.


----------



## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

tygrus said:


> A million dollars in the 1950s was insanely wealthy.


He didn't have a million dollars in the 1950s. Maybe he had that much under management by 1959 but I don't think his personal wealth was that high. It was the late sixties that he had enough money to shut down his partnerships and retire if you want to call it that.


----------



## markus_zhang (Apr 10, 2016)

*Indeed*



Kropew said:


> You could ask yourself: How many people start to care about their wealth at age of 14?


I mean, I only got interest on the whole financial thing in 2007-2008, when the market tanked and caught my attention, and I was already 27 then. And again, few people are THAT interested in doing business in such EARLY age as Buffet. So I guess the best thing ordinary people can do is read extensively (about Buffet and else) and critically, try to figure out what can be applied and what cannot and find his/her own way to make money efficiently.

Back to the topic, I did a bit research on early Buffet last year and I believe he followed "The Intelligent Investor" closely. The thing is, it's difficult to find material about that era, the earliest ones I could find include partnership letters and early Berkshire investments such as Blue Chip Stamps. But before that, I could find none. Now I do have some leisure time so I'm going to resume searching.


----------



## markus_zhang (Apr 10, 2016)

Eclectic12 said:


> ^^^
> 
> +1 ... at the end of the day, finance/investing skills are no different than the skills people build in their hobbies or that lead them into a career. Those that start early to master the basics have a huge advantage compared to the late or non-starters.
> 
> ...


Yeah I believe it's in the family. Some people can do this in real early age, say before 10, when their "business sense" was awaken, while others' may EVER
sleep. It happens that making money is so essential and shiny in modern capitalist society that we now hail them as heros.


----------



## Pluto (Sep 12, 2013)

markus_zhang said:


> Back to the topic, I did a bit research on early Buffet last year and I believe he followed "The Intelligent Investor" closely. The thing is, it's difficult to find material about that era, the earliest ones I could find include partnership letters and early Berkshire investments such as Blue Chip Stamps. But before that, I could find none. Now I do have some leisure time so I'm going to resume searching.


Just a note to this: Buffett abandoned the "margin of safety" idea defined as buying below net asset value in the Intelligent Investor. Later he came to believe that it is better to have an excellent company at a fair price than a mediocre company at a bargain price.


----------



## treva84 (Dec 9, 2014)

Pluto said:


> Just a note to this: Buffett abandoned the "margin of safety" idea defined as buying below net asset value in the Intelligent Investor. Later he came to believe that it is better to have an excellent company at a fair price than a mediocre company at a bargain price.


Yeah right around the time him and Munger hooked up - I think it was Munger who changed his view point on this.


----------



## markus_zhang (Apr 10, 2016)

Pluto said:


> Just a note to this: Buffett abandoned the "margin of safety" idea defined as buying below net asset value in the Intelligent Investor. Later he came to believe that it is better to have an excellent company at a fair price than a mediocre company at a bargain price.


Yeah I read about this some months ago, not quite sure where though. What am I trying to do is to read as much as possible about Buffet's ideas and investment and extract as much knowledge (that can be generally applied, not related only to his era) as possible.


----------



## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

markus_zhang said:


> Yeah I believe it's in the family. Some people can do this in real early age, say before 10, when their "business sense" was awaken ...


Family does help as it makes the basics available early ... but it is something that can be learned. I know few who genuinely have tried/failed but I know a lot more who have a long list of why they have never tried.

Part of the reason I find investing so fascinating as there isn't just one way to make money. Not being able to duplicate Buffett's ways does not preclude making money.


Cheers


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

treva84 said:


> Yeah right around the time him and Munger hooked up - I think it was Munger who changed his view point on this.


Again though I want to point out that Buffett became fabulously wealthy long before he met Munger. I still feel that the world focuses too much on his later adult life (Munger, Berkshire etc), whereas the real magic happened before all that.

In today's dollars his net worth was $1.5 million at age 26... long before he met Munger or started any of the really big M&A.


----------



## lonewolf (Jun 12, 2012)

Martin Armstrong of Princeton economics does not think very highly of Warren Buffet & the Goldman gang. According to Martin, Warren Buffet does not have the balls to play the game fairly Buffet & Goldman play when the game is fixed in their favour. The game @ some point will blow up on them.


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I agree that Buffett has turned a bit slimy in recent years (pains me to say it as BRK.B is my core holding). For instance during the bailout years, he clearly had insider knowledge about which entities the government would bail out. Absolutely not pure capitalism. With the privileged information, he could take bets on GE, GS, etc which provided high reward with low risk.


----------



## Arelius (Apr 14, 2016)

Not sure about Buffett, but in the 1990's you could have easily turned $100K into a million dollars on the stock market. Up until the Dot Com bubble bursting in 2000, whatever equity related investments you made was almost certain to make rapid gains. That is how a lot of baby-boomers and Gen X made the fortunes they have today. Unfortunately, you won't see the same level of bull market ever again.

If you're a millennial like me, the equities will grind slowly up over time in the 4% to 6% range instead of the 15% to 30% annually in the mid 1990's. Because of that, our generation is less likely to be as wealthy.


----------



## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

^^^^

Is it though?

My co-worker who though the tech boom was an easy way to make big dough within six months had given up as he was losing money. My techs were down but with things like insurance companies, I was up.


As for "equities will grind slowly after the 2000s" ... sorry to tell you but of something like fifteen stocks bought in Mar 2009, one I sold down 30%, one down 10% and the rest (ignoring the dividends ranging from 10% to 30%) were anywhere from 80% to 210%.

Then too ... more recently, buying during the Dec tax loss selling or during the Jan drop meant anywhere from 26% or 40% or 105% gains. Even if you stuck with something like BNS by buying in the usually lower period Dec tax loss selling would mean a 15% gain.

Yes, if you tell yourself you won't make similar gains then don't pay attention ... but for those paying attention or looking for other ways, the picture does not look anywhere near as grim.


Cheers


*PS*

Note that a key point is that where one is following the market/individual stocks - there are are far better than 4% growth opportunities from time to time.


----------



## Pluto (Sep 12, 2013)

james4beach said:


> Again though I want to point out that Buffett became fabulously wealthy long before he met Munger. I still feel that the world focuses too much on his later adult life (Munger, Berkshire etc), whereas the real magic happened before all that.
> 
> In today's dollars his net worth was $1.5 million at age 26... long before he met Munger or started any of the really big M&A.


I get it. You want to hit some grand slam home runs before you get too old and you want to know how he did it. 
don't know if you saw this:

http://www.oldschoolvalue.com/blog/investing-perspective/warren-buffett-career-timeline-investments/

He filed his first income tax at age 13 and deducted his bike as a work expense. LOL.


----------



## Oldroe (Sep 18, 2009)

You missed the greats run in market history and you question a market guru.

Go buy some diapers.


----------



## GreenAvenue (Dec 28, 2011)

Arelius said:


> If you're a millennial like me, the equities will grind slowly up over time in the 4% to 6% range instead of the 15% to 30% annually in the mid 1990's. Because of that, our generation is less likely to be as wealthy.


I don't think that Buffet ever was interested in money. He's in it for the game and sometimes you win and sometimes you loose. He played the game very well. As did many others. And still do today. What does 'wealth' even mean, is one million less than 2 million. Not to me. You put in the time and the effort, you'll see the returns.


----------



## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

GreenAvenue said:


> I don't think that Buffet ever was interested in money. He's in it for the game and sometimes you win and sometimes you loose. He played the game very well. As did many others. And still do today. What does 'wealth' even mean, is one million less than 2 million. Not to me. You put in the time and the effort, you'll see the returns.


Are you kidding. Buffet has been a stone cold miser his whole life. Read his early history as an entrepreneur from the age of 10 to 20. First one paper route, then two, then three, then four, hiring other kids to deliver the papers. Selling used golf balls. Running a chain of pinball machines, fixing them himself with odds and ends picked up in junkyards.

All this while his father was a US congressman! As if he needed the money for shoes and warm clothes (not). With him it was purely a matter of greed for money.

Many have commented on his stingy lifestyle, and not leaving any money to his children. His family sure doesn't get much out of his billions. There is much to be said for frugality but he takes it to an extreme.


----------



## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Rusty O'Toole said:


> ... All this while his father was a US congressman! As if he needed the money for shoes and warm clothes (not). With him it was purely a matter of greed for money.


So where one's parent's make good money - one shouldn't do what interests them?




Rusty O'Toole said:


> ... Many have commented on his stingy lifestyle, and not leaving any money to his children. His family sure doesn't get much out of his billions. There is much to be said for frugality but he takes it to an extreme.


OTOH, regardless of what others say or think, at minimum Peter Buffett is not bothered by it as he says that if he believed his father would financially bail him out every time he got into trouble, it would undermine any success he encountered.


Anderson Cooper who is in the same boat says ...


> "Who’s inherited a lot of money that has gone on to do things in their own life?” asked the CNN star, who earns $11 million a year. “From the time I was growing up, if I felt that there was some pot of gold waiting for me, I don’t know that I would have been so motivated.”



If it really is all that good to hand it over one's fortune to one's kids, it makes me wonder where the adage “Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations” comes from.


Cheers


----------



## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

Exactly my point. Buffet has always done what interests him and what fascinates him more than anything else in the world is accumulating money. That was his passion when he was 10 years old and it is still his passion at 90, long past the time when he had all the money he will ever need. He doesn't need it for himself and he isn't giving it to his family. He isn't giving it to anybody while he is alive, and when he is dead it goes to Bill Gates charitable foundation as if Bill Gates needs the money. The point there is to keep the government from taking it in taxes and keep control with his cold dead hands. It's all about piling up money and never spending it, which is the definition of a miser.


----------



## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

james4beach said:


> Yes I realize all that but my belief is that the *critical period* of his personal wealth boom happened in 1950-1956.


Yet point # 16 in this article claims


> 99 percent of Warren Buffett’s wealth was earned after his 50th birthday


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/goban...ever-knew-about-warren-buffett_b_6146760.html

Maybe their source is confused?


Cheers


----------



## Pluto (Sep 12, 2013)

I don't think Buffett is greedy and miserly. He just didn't want to spoil his kids. He is a good model in that respect. Too he offers a much better perspective compared to people who can't manage their money and then complain they can't get ahead. Buffett is a waste not, want not type of guy and what is wrong with that? After all there is a frugality thread in this forum. And due to his charity work a lot of people will benefit from his life time efficient use of capital.

I might add that a huge chunk of his job was to manage money for other people, namely, the share holders. Buffett enabled people who did not know how to invest to gain with their savings, and freed up their time for other things.


----------



## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Rusty O'Toole said:


> ... He isn't giving it to anybody while he is alive, and when he is dead it goes to Bill Gates charitable foundation as if Bill Gates needs the money. The point there is to keep the government from taking it in taxes and keep control with his cold dead hands. It's all about piling up money and never spending it, which is the definition of a miser.


I guess that's where I disagree ... the ones I think of as misers are where people discover on their death millions despite a lack of spending, even on themselves.

Buffett OTOH clearly is handing out money while he is alive. A few that I can recall include:
- the Gates foundation getting annual allotments of the ten million shares he promised since 2006, where the 2014 allotment worked out to being worth over $2.2 billion.
- his charitable foundation as well as his kids receive similar yearly allotments.
- his charitable donation used to cap their support of low income Omaha students to attend college at 100 but in 2007, the cap was lifted so that 770 received scholarships.

The articles for some reason like to total everything up where it sounds like one set gift. Digging into a bit, there's the original announced amount that is on a yearly schedule then at various points there are additional gifts that AFAICT, ramp up the annual allotments.

All of which also ignores the other, smaller stuff like providing ten shares per teen winner in a "Grow Your Own Business Challenge" contest.


One can quibble about the amounts ... but since 2006, the idea he is holding on to every penny is clearly not true.


Cheers


----------

