30 Super Interesting Facts About Warren Buffett (& Top 10 stocks that Warren Buffett has in his portfolio)

1. He bought his first stock when he was 11 years old. While most 11-year-old boys were playing baseball and reading comic books, Buffett bought six shares of Cities Service Preferred (now known as CITGO) for $38 a piece.
2. He made $53,000 by the age of 16. He had various business ventures and investments, such as selling gum, delivering newspapers, selling used golf balls and collector stamps and buffing cars.
3. He was rejected by Harvard Business School. He applied after graduating from the University of Nebraska in three years, but he was turned down during a brief interview. He later attended Columbia Business School where he learned from his idols Benjamin Graham and David Dodd.
4. He eats like a 6-year-old. He loves Coca-Cola and ice cream, and he once said that he checked the actuarial tables and found that the lowest death rate is among 6-year-olds.
5. He lives in the same house he bought in 1958. He paid $31,500 for a five-bedroom house in Omaha, Nebraska, and he still resides there today. He has no intention of moving to a bigger or fancier place.
6. He drives his own car and has a simple license plate. He does not have a chauffeur or a security guard, and he drives a modest Cadillac XTS that he bought in 2014. His license plate reads “THRIFTY”.
7. He does not carry a cell phone or have a computer on his desk. He prefers to communicate through letters and phone calls, and he does not use email or social media. He once said that he is “one-quarter of an inch away from being illiterate” when it comes to technology.
8. He spends 80 percent of his day reading. He reads five newspapers every morning, along with books, reports, magazines and other sources of information. He estimates that he reads about 500 pages a day.
9. He plays online bridge with Bill Gates and other friends. He is an avid bridge player and he often plays online with his friend and fellow billionaire Bill Gates. He once said that bridge is “such a sensational game that I wouldn’t mind being in jail if I had three cellmates who were decent players”.
10. He plays the ukulele and sings for fun. He has performed on several occasions, such as at his annual shareholder meetings, charity events and even on television shows like The Late Show with David Letterman. He likes to sing songs like “Red River Valley” and “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”.
11. He has donated more than $41 billion to charity so far. He is one of the most generous philanthropists in the world, having pledged to give away 99 percent of his wealth to various causes. He has donated more than $41 billion to date, mostly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
12. He has a simple investing philosophy: buy low, sell high. He follows the principles of value investing, which he learned from his mentor Benjamin Graham. He looks for undervalued companies with strong fundamentals and competitive advantages, and he holds them for the long term.
13. He does not invest in things he does not understand. He avoids businesses that are too complex or outside his circle of competence. He once said that he missed out on investing in Google and Amazon because he did not grasp their potential early enough.
14. He drinks five cans of Coke a day. He is a loyal customer and shareholder of Coca-Cola, owning about 10 percent of the company’s stock. He drinks about five cans of Coke every day, sometimes Cherry Coke or Diet Coke.
15. He has a sweet tooth and loves junk food. He eats McDonald’s for breakfast almost every day, choosing either a sausage McMuffin with egg and cheese ($3.17), a bacon egg and cheese biscuit ($3.71) or two sausage patties ($2.61) depending on his mood. He also loves See’s Candies, Dairy Queen and Utz potato sticks.
16. He does not like to spend money on himself or his family. He is known for his frugal lifestyle and his disdain for luxury goods. He does not own a yacht, a private jet or a second home. He once said that he has everything he needs in life and that “I can’t buy anything that I want very much”.
17. He pays less taxes than his secretary. He has famously pointed out the unfairness of the tax system that allows him to pay a lower effective tax rate than his secretary, who earns much less than him. He supports higher taxes for the wealthy and has advocated for the “Buffett Rule”, a proposal to ensure that millionaires pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.
18. He has three children but none of them will inherit his fortune. He believes that leaving too much money to his children would be a disservice to them and to society. He plans to give each of them a small amount of money and the rest to charity. He once said that “a very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing”.
19. He loves Chinese culture and is popular in China. He has visited China several times and has expressed his admiration for its people, culture and economy. He is widely respected and followed by Chinese investors, who see him as a role model and a source of wisdom. He even appeared on a Cherry Coke can in China as part of a marketing campaign.
20. He has a close friendship with Bill Gates. He met Gates in 1991 and they hit it off immediately, despite their different backgrounds and personalities. They share many interests, such as bridge, books and philanthropy, and they often travel together and exchange ideas. Buffett considers Gates as his best friend and has entrusted him with most of his fortune.
21. He started his first business at age six. He bought six-packs of Coca-Cola for 25 cents and sold each bottle for a nickel, making a five-cent profit per pack. He also sold chewing gum, magazines and golf balls door-to-door in his neighborhood.
22. He filed his first tax return at age 13. He claimed a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route. He also invested $1,200 of his savings in 40 acres of farmland at age 14.
23. He broke the Guinness World Record for the most expensive lunch. In 2019, he auctioned off a lunch with him for charity, raising $4.6 million from an anonymous bidder. The previous record was $3.5 million, also set by Buffett in 2016. The proceeds go to the Glide Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps homeless people in San Francisco.
24. He has a fear of public speaking. He was terrified of speaking in front of people when he was young, and he avoided taking any courses that required oral presentations in college. He overcame his fear by taking a Dale Carnegie course on public speaking, which he credits as one of the best investments he ever made.
25. He does not write contracts with his business partners. He prefers to seal deals with a handshake or a verbal agreement, based on trust and reputation. He once said that “you can’t make a good deal with a bad person” and that “a simple handshake is worth more than a long-term contract”.
26. He bought his first business at age 19. He partnered with a friend to buy a used pinball machine for $25 and placed it in a barber shop. They soon bought more machines and expanded their business to other locations. They sold the business a year later for $1,200.
27. He has a bridge named after him in his hometown. The Warren Buffett Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Missouri River in Omaha, Nebraska. It was named after him in 2008 to honor his contributions to the city and the state.
28. He has written several best-selling books on investing and business. He is the author or co-author of several books, such as The Intelligent Investor, Security Analysis, The Essays of Warren Buffett, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life and Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything. His books have sold millions of copies and have been translated into many languages.
29. He challenged Donald Trump to release his tax returns. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Buffett publicly challenged Trump to release his tax returns, saying that he would do the same if Trump did. He also criticized Trump for his business failures and his claims of being a self-made billionaire.
30. He has a cameo appearance in The Office. He played himself in the final episode of the popular sitcom The Office, where he interviewed for the position of regional manager at Dunder Mifflin. He showed his frugal side by asking for a free soda and using a flip phone.

Warren Buffet’s Net Worth

Warren Buffett’s net worth is 117.77 billion USD as of Jun 14, 2023. He is the fifth-richest person in the world and one of the most successful investors of all time. He is also a generous philanthropist who has pledged to give away 99% of his wealth to charitable causes.