The story of Warren Buffett's growth, life, marriage and investments

He will be 94 years old on August 30. Still likes to eat cheeseburger and cherry coca cola. Cutie played contract bridge. Big fan of 'Breaking Bad' web series. Lived in the same house for 65 years. Transactions are done in cash. And what he earns, he gives away almost all of it.

Talking about Warren Buffett, the best investor in the world. He is a man who has no enemies. The name is only like and respect. Former US President Barack Obama said in 2011, wearing the Presidential Gold Medal around his neck, "Warren Buffett is not only one of the richest people, but also one of the most respected and loved people." He is affectionately called the "Wizard of Omaha".

Warren Buffett, now the world's sixth richest man, is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Others say that Buffett is a better manager than he is an investor. Where Buffett invests and how he runs his business is considered exemplary. In fact, he is legendary as an investor and first class as a manager. Buffett's wealth is now 133 billion dollars or 13 thousand 3 billion dollars. About 15 lakh crores in Bangladeshi currency. Do you know how much is the budget of Bangladesh in the current financial year? 7 lakh 61 thousand 785 crore taka.

Another big identity of Warren Buffett is that he is now one of the biggest philanthropists in the world. In 2006, he declared 99 percent of his wealth to charity. And so far donated about 56 billion or 5 thousand 6 billion dollars.

How to grow

Warren Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska, USA, on August 30, 1930. Howard and Leila Buffett are the second of the couple's three children. The Howards were married in 1925. Elder sister Doris was born in 1928 and younger sister Bertie was three years younger than Warren Buffett.

Father Howard Buffett was a stock market investor. He had a stock brokerage. When I was a child, I used to see my father returning home at night with a stack of papers. One day he asked his mother, what does his father actually do? Mother said, investor. That's when he decided, he too has to become an investor. At the age of six or seven, he wrote his name in the school notebook as 'Warren Buffett: Future Investor'. That's what Buffett has become.

Seeing his son's unquenchable interest in becoming an investor, father Howard Buffett suggested, "If you want to become a big investor, learn to think of a business of your own, increase the value of your assets." Buffett remembered this when he grew up. Basically, it was his father who planted the seed of becoming an investor in Warren.

As a child, Warren told his childhood friend that he would be a millionaire by the age of 35. And for this purpose, he bought his first share at the age of 11. Later in an interview he said with a smile, 'I started late. I don't know why I wasted so much time.

Grandfather had a grocery store. Warren Buffett worked at his grandfather's store for $5 a week to increase his wealth at that age. When he was only six years old, he bought a 6-pack of Coca-Cola for 24 cents from his grandfather's store and sold it a little distance for a profit of 5 cents. After saving some money, at the age of 11, he bought 6 shares of Cities Service for $38. He gave three shares to his sister. But the first share business of his life disappointed him in the beginning. Within a few days, the share price fell to $27. But he waited. The price increased to 40 dollars and sold. He still believes it was his wrong decision. Because, within a few days, the price of that share increased to 200 dollars. He learned the biggest investment lesson from that incident. And that is persistence, which reflected throughout life.

Warren Buffett went door to door selling chewing gum, magazines, Coca Cola to increase his wealth as a child. The friends also installed a poker machine in front of the neighborhood saloon. At that time, the father also opened a bank account in Warren's name. Once a notice came from the bank that some dollars had been deposited in the name of Warren Buffett. As a result, income tax has to be paid now. He told his son to pay income tax. Because, since then, you have to learn to respect the law. Buffett was only 14 years old. Buffett bought a bicycle when the local income tax department refunded $35 due to his age. He used to ride that bicycle even during his university life.

Washington – Yatra

Warren Buffett was born in 1930. The entire decade of 1930 was the Great Depression. Millions of people were unemployed then. Extreme recession in investment. As an investor, Buffett Sr. concluded that the mess is actually at the policymaking level. Then he decided to influence the government at the policy-making stage. He stood for election. In 1943, he was elected to the US House of Representatives from the Nebraska Second District. He was in Congress till 1953 except once in between. As a result, he left Omaha and went to Washington with his father in 1943. Warren came to Washington with his father with $120 in hand. But by the time he left Washington, his investment had grown to $10,000.

Buffett's schooling ended at the age of 17, in 1947. He had no intention of going to college. But his father wanted Buffett to study at Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was there for two years. Once returned to Omaha. Buffett wanted to attend Harvard Business School. But he was not taken. This is considered to be the worst rejection of Harvard admission to date.

copy like him So there is no need to look for another friend. Since then they have done everything together in the following years. Learned a lot.

Manger was essentially a jurist. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he moved to California with his family. He lost an eye during an operation. Despite being in other professions, the two were in regular contact. Buffett later persuaded him to leave his legal profession to join him. Manger joined Berkshire Hathaway in 1978 as vice chairman.

Manger had considerable influence over Buffett's decision-making. For example, at one time Buffett had strong objections to investing in technology companies. Because he could not predict where technology would go. Manger convinced him to invest in a technology company. After that Berkshire invested in Apple company. Apple's profits are a big reason for Berkshire's success today. Charlie Munger died on November 28, 2023 at the age of 99.

Behind the Berkshire Formation

Warren Buffett is now the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Hangar. He bought this sinking company on May 10, 1965. Kenner's story is also very interesting. Initially it was a textile factory. It was founded in 1839 by Oliver Chase. It was then called the Valley Falls Company. In 1929 the Valley Falls Company merged with the Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Company. Its name is Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates. In 1955, the company merged again with the Hathaway Manufacturing Company. Although initially good, later the business started to deteriorate. It was then run by another American businessman named Sea Barry Stanton.

Warren Buffett first started buying Berkshire Hathaway shares in 1962. He found that its share price was low compared to market conditions. However, the expectations with which Warren bought the shares were not fulfilled. The condition of the institution continued to deteriorate. In 1964, Seabury Stanton verbally offered Warren to buy the shares for $11.50, a buyback. Warren agreed. But in the end Stanton sent the buyback document, the share price was written at $11.375. He was very angry. As a result, instead of selling shares, he decided to buy more shares of Berkshire. The intention was to punish Stanton by taking control of the company. At last he did. Buffett fired Stanton with ownership authority.

Warren Buffett also ran it as a textile mill. In 1967, he expanded it. Slowly turned one into a holding company. He entered the aviation industry first. First bought an insurance company called National Indemnity Company. Later bought by Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO or Geico). Basically, the rise of Berkshire Hathaway is through this insurance company. In 1985, Warren ceased operations at the textile mill.

Still, Warren Buffett thinks investing in textiles like Berkshire Hathaway was his biggest mistake; Although he has made a profit of more than 200 billion dollars by investing here. In an interview, he said, the profit would have been higher if this investment had been made elsewhere.

Warren Buffett bought a small California-based chocolate company in 1972 for just $25 million. Buying that company, C's Candy, was Warren's favorite investment, which he calls a dream business.

Another milestone for Warren Buffett was 1983. That year, Berkshire Hathaway shares hit $1,000 for the first time. Buffett's favorite drink is Cherry Coca-Cola. In 1988, he bought shares in the Coca-Cola Company. Since then, Berkshire Hathaway has achieved one milestone after another to become one of the best companies in the world.

Friendship-2: Buffett and Bill Gates

This is another friendship story.

The day was July 5, 1991. Bill Gates, the world's richest man, met Warren Buffett for the first time on this day. But Bill Gates did not want to go to that dinner in Washington that day. He was forced to go at the request of his mother. One of Bill Gates' many writings about Warren Buffett is 'What I Learned from Warren Buffett'. Bill Gates described that night there.

Bill Gates wrote there, meeting a man who would only talk about shares - he didn't like it at all. The family eventually agreed to go, hearing that Washington Post owner-publisher Kathryn Graham would be at the event. Never talked to Catherine before. Catherine was a good friend of Warren's.

Bill Gates started talking with Warren there. Bill Gates wrote, "It was only a matter of courtesy to stay for a few hours." But the two were so engrossed that they spent the whole day talking. Not only that, Bill Gates promised, soon they will go to Nebraska to watch a football game.

That is the beginning of the friendship, even today it is indelible. Warren Buffett's biggest fan is Bill Gates.

New chapter of life

One day in early March 2009, Bill Gates came to Omaha. Warren Buffett and Gates dined together at a restaurant near the airport. That was the beginning of a new discussion. Then Bill Gates and Warren Buffett jointly wrote a letter on March 4, 2009 to another top rich man, David Rockefeller. The letter invited him to attend a dinner. The letter read, 'Dear David, we have had many discussions about the experience of philanthropic work. We thought, like twelve like-minded people It is very good if all people can sit together at the same discussion table. Our goal is to share different aspects of ourselves. Also discuss whether more can be done to support and encourage those who are not yet at the same stage. We both appreciate the collective spirit you and your family have brought to charity. That is why we want to approach you at the beginning to understand whether you would be interested in organizing this discussion.

David Rockefeller joined them after receiving the letter. Then on March 24, another letter signed by these three was sent to some other people in the United States. The much-anticipated dinner was then held on May 5 of that year, at Rockefeller University's President's House. Melinda Gates, then wife of Bill Gates, was active in this initiative from the beginning. Their goal was to bring together the richest people in the United States, who are willing to donate a large portion of their wealth to any good cause, to decide.

After that dinner, the matter of giving to public service or philanthropy made a new history. The world's largest fundraiser began since then. Their initial goal was to encourage 400 wealthy Americans to donate at least half of their wealth. After that, in 2010, a new initiative, a new program was officially announced. Its official name is 'The Giving Pledge'.

Not that millionaires didn't donate before. For example, since 2006, Warren Buffett has started donating his wealth to various philanthropic activities. Buffett has already been giving to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But the idea of a joint venture gave birth to The Giving Pledge. There are two conditions here. Assets must be over $1 billion, and donations must be at least 50 percent of those assets. However, Bill Gates has announced 95 percent of his wealth and Warren Buffett 99 percent of his wealth earlier.

how are you now

On April 17, 2012, Warren Buffett revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. But that was the first phase, so there was no danger. In 2018, Warren Buffett began the task of choosing a successor. On January 10 of that year, Gregory Abel and Ajit Jain joined Berkshire as vice chairs. Buffett said at the time that the initiative was part of the succession planning process. He is in very good health. He is not giving up the post of chief executive soon. Between the two, Abel oversees everything outside of Berkshire's insurance business, while Indian-born Ajit Jain oversees the insurance business.

Warren Buffett has three children. Due to the pledge to donate 99 percent of the income, children will inherit little. Buffett always says he will give his children enough money to do something. But don't give so much money that the children have nothing to do.

Buffett wants his children to take on life's challenges. His children took that challenge. First child Suzanne Ellis Buffett is herself a big philanthropist, having a foundation named after herself. This foundation works with public education, social justice and children. Howard Graham Buffett, the second child, is a businessman, politician and author. Younger son Peter Andrew Buffett is a musician, composer and author. He received a regional Emmy Award for music. He is also in the bestselling list as a writer.

Warren Buffett has left $2.1 billion worth of shares in Berkshire Hathaway to each child's foundation.

simple living

Warren Buffett is called the best investor of all time. Also, as a good person his reputation is everywhere. He lived a very simple life. Start the day at dawn. He slept for eight hours at half past seven in the morning. loves to read Only read for five to six hours a day. The reading list mainly includes economic journals, various company reports, financial statements and daily newspapers. He himself says that he tries to read at least 500 pages a day.

Buffett's work style is also different. Berkshire Hathaway has more than 65 subsidiaries. A separate chief executive or CEO is appointed for all the companies. They run the company. Buffett said the organization should be left in the hands of the CEO or manager. And his job is to find a qualified CEO or manager. He thinks that it is not possible for an unintelligent person to take visionary decisions despite having special human qualities. And comfortable people cannot be appointed as managers. Because, in adverse circumstances they broke down. There is a type of people, for whom profession is not only a means of earning but also personal pride. They have to take it.

The Berkshire Hangar Annual Meeting is held as a rule once a year. Everyone is looking at that meeting. Every year, Warren Buffett writes a letter on the occasion of this meeting. He has been writing letters every year since 1965. It is said that the greatest investment advice is hidden in Warren Buffett's annual letter. This letter is called the best investment literature.

Everyone still looks forward to Warren Buffett's investment advice. There are numerous books on his various advices. Thousands of his quotes on investment are available. Among these is one of his best advices for successors—they must shun three vices. Which he called, 'ABC of Business DKE'. Such as arrogance, bureaucracy and complacency.

Buffett said, a good manager is like a great football coach. They play and win the team even without going on the field. Leave the winning element in the team again, so that the team can win even without him. His best advice for investing is, what I wouldn't buy for myself, I wouldn't advise others to buy.

After the death of Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett is alone in Berkshire. So, what will he write in the letter this year, all eyes will be on that.