Warren Buffett, one of the richest and most philanthropic people in the world, is the CEO and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway. So how did he become a billionaire? Here is his story:
Warren Buffett was born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska, to Howard and Leila Buffet. One of the three children of Howard and Leila, Warren Buffett's father was a four-term U.S. senator. Warren, the second eldest child in the family, has two sisters. Independent of his siblings, Warren has shown from an early age an incredible talent for money and business. Those who knew him since his childhood talk about his superior ability in mental calculations.
The first representatives of the Scandinavian family in the USA were to deal with the groceries business. At the age of six, Buffett bought six packs of Coca-Cola from his grandfather's market for twenty-five cents, and was able to sell it at a profit of 5 cents each. He was busy making money while his peers were playing hopscotch or pentacles in the street. Already five years later, he had taken his first step into the world of finance.
How Does?
He spent time in that library while most children played on the street, holding elbows with some of Wall Street's most powerful players. He started reading investment books at the age of 7, and by the age of 12 he had read all the books on investment and stock market in the Omaha Library. At the age of 10, he was attending dinners with Wall Street's top stockbrokers. During a visit to New York with his father, he had lunch with At Mol, a member of the New York Stock Exchange.
At the age of 11, he bought three shares of Cities Services Preferred for $38 each for himself and his older sister, Doris. Shares fell to $27, but remained calm until they hit $40. He immediately sold the shares as soon as he saw $40, but that was a big mistake he would soon regret. Because after that, the same share values went up to $ 200! This experience taught him one of the most fundamental rules of investing, his first business lesson: buy and hold. When it comes to investment, patience was a virtue!
After completing his college education at the University of Nebraska, he moved to New York to study at the Columbia School of Business. It was the famous Wall Street book "The Smart Investor" that prompted Buffett to move to New York. An avid reader, Buffett first picked up this book at the age of 19, and the concept of "value investing" changed his life.
He enrolled at Columbia University just to take lessons from the book's author, Ben Graham. Although Buffett was the only student to get an A+ in Graham's classes, Graham refused to hire Buffett a job at his company. He even told her to avoid pursuing a career on Wall Street. This being the case, Buffett, who completed his master's degree in 1951, returned to Nebraska and began working at his father's brokerage firm, Buffett-Falk & Co. He continued to work here for three years.
In 1952, he married Buffett Susan Thompson, who worked for his father's firm. The couple had three children: Susan, Howard, and Peter. Immediately after their wedding, the young couple's problems began. They lived in a tiny three-room apartment that they rented for $65 per month. In 1957, Buffett bought a five-bedroom house in Omaha for $31,000. He still lives in the same house.
Warren and Susan's relationship was quite problematic. Although they remained married until Susan's death in 2004, they did not live together for half of their marriage. Miss Buffett left her husband when she was 45. Although she remained married to Warren, she moved to live in San Francisco. The two never broke off communication, they often talked on the phone and went on vacation together from time to time. It was Susan who set Warren up with actress Astrid Menks. After Susan died, Astrid and Warren married.
Graham eventually changed his mind about Buffett and offered him the job in 1954. So Buffett moved to New York with his family.
By the end of the 1950s, Warren had formed 7 different partnership companies. He became a millionaire in 1962 with the money he earned from partnerships. In 1962, Buffet decided to combine all his partnerships under one roof and invested in the textile company Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire Hathaway began buying shares in the early 1960s, and eventually he took full control of the firm. In 1964 the share price was only $80, but today the company has the highest share price. As of August 20, 2021, the price of one share of the company is $430,400.
The eighties were the breaking point for Buffett.
Buffett was making money while some were showing off in hairstyles, leggings, and neon outfits. In 1982, Buffett's net worth was $376 million. In 1983, it increased to 620 million dollars. In 1986, at the age of 56, he became a billionaire despite his modest salary of $50,000 from Buffett Berkshire Hathaway. In 1988, he owned 7 percent of Coca-Cola's shares. It has been one of his best investments.
Buffett became the richest person in the world in 2008.
In 2008, he was named the richest person in the world by Forbes with a fortune of 62 billion dollars and put Bill Gates, who had not lost the top for 13 years, to the second place. The following year, Bill Gates went back to number one and Buffett dropped to second place.