Warren Edward Buffett (/ˈbʌfɪt/ BUFF-itt; born August 30, 1930)[2] is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is considered one of the most successful investors in the world[3][4] and has a net worth of over $100.6 billion as of April 2021,[1] making him the world's seventh-wealthiest person.[1]
Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He developed an interest in business and investing in his youth, eventually entering the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 before transferring to and graduating from the University of Nebraska at 19. He went on to graduate from Columbia Business School, where he molded his investment philosophy around the concept of value investing pioneered by Benjamin Graham. He attended New York Institute of Finance to focus his economics background and soon after began various business partnerships, including one with Graham. He created Buffett Partnership, Ltd in 1956 and his firm eventually acquired a textile manufacturing firm called Berkshire Hathaway, assuming its name to create a diversified holding company. In 1978, Charlie Munger joined Buffett as vice-chairman.[5][6]
Buffett has been the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway since 1970.[7] He has been referred to as the "Oracle" or "Sage" of Omaha by global media.[8][9] He is noted for his adherence to value investing, and his personal frugality despite his immense wealth.[10] Research published at the University of Oxford characterizes Buffett's investment methodology as falling within "founder centrism", defined by a deference to managers with a founder's mindset, an ethical disposition towards the shareholder collective, and an intense focus on exponential value creation. Essentially, Buffett's concentrated investments shelter managers from the short-term pressures of the market.[11]
Buffett is a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99 percent[12] of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He founded The Giving Pledge in 2009 with Bill Gates, whereby billionaires pledge to give away at least half of their fortunes.[13]
Buffett was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2009.[14]
Early life and education
Buffett was born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska, the second of three children and the only son of Leila (née Stahl) and Congressman Howard Buffett.[15] He began his education at Rose Hill Elementary School. In 1942, his father was elected to the first of four terms in the United States Congress, and after moving with his family to Washington, D.C., Warren finished elementary school, attended Alice Deal Junior High School and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1947, where his senior yearbook picture reads: "likes math; a future stockbroker."[16] After finishing high school and finding success with his side entrepreneurial and investment ventures, Buffett wanted to skip college to go directly into business but was overruled by his father.[17][18]
Buffett displayed an interest in business and investing at a young age. He was inspired by a book he borrowed from the Omaha public library at age seven, One Thousand Ways to Make $1000.[19] Much of Buffett's early childhood years were enlivened with entrepreneurial ventures. In one of his first business ventures, Buffett sold chewing gum, Coca-Cola bottles, and weekly magazines door to door. He worked in his grandfather's grocery store. While still in high school, he made money delivering newspapers, selling golf balls and stamps, and detailing cars, among other means. On his first income tax return in 1944, Buffett took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route.[20] In 1945, as a high school sophomore, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in the local barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in three different barber shops across Omaha. They sold the business later in the year for $1,200 to a war veteran.[21]
Buffett's interest in the stock market and investing dated to schoolboy days he spent in the customers' lounge of a regional stock brokerage near his father's own brokerage office. On a trip to New York City at age ten, he made a point to visit the New York Stock Exchange. At 11, he bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred for himself, and three for his sister Doris Buffett (who also became a philanthropist).[22][23][24] At 15, Warren made more than $175 monthly delivering Washington Post newspapers. In high school, he invested in a business owned by his father and bought a 40-acre farm worked by a tenant farmer. He bought the land when he was 14 years old with $1,200 of his savings. By the time he finished college, Buffett had accumulated $9,800 in savings (about $107,000 today).[21][25]
In 1947, Buffett entered the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He would have preferred to focus on his business ventures, but his father pressured him to enroll.[21] Warren studied there for two years and joined the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.[26] He then transferred to the University of Nebraska where at 19, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. After being rejected by Harvard Business School, Buffett enrolled at Columbia Business School of Columbia University upon learning that Benjamin Graham taught there. He earned a Master of Science in Economics from Columbia in 1951. After graduating, Buffett attended the New York Institute of Finance.[27]
Investment philosophy
Warren Buffett's writings include his annual reports and various articles. Buffett is recognized by communicators[92] as a great story-teller, as evidenced by his annual letters to shareholders. He has warned about the pernicious effects of inflation:[93]
In his article, "The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville", Buffett rebutted the academic efficient-market hypothesis, that beating the S&P 500 was "pure chance", by highlighting the results achieved by a number of students of the Graham and Dodd value investing school of thought. In addition to himself, Buffett named Walter J. Schloss, Tom Knapp, Ed Anderson (Tweedy, Browne LLC), William J. Ruane (Sequoia Fund), Charlie Munger (Buffett's partner at Berkshire), Rick Guerin (Pacific Partners Ltd.), and Stan Perlmeter (Perlmeter Investments).[94] In his November 1999 Fortune article, he warned of investors' unrealistic expectations:[95]
Index funds vis-Ã -vis active management
Buffett has been a supporter of index funds for people who are either not interested in managing their own money or don't have the time. Buffett is skeptical that active management can outperform the market in the long run, and has advised both individual and institutional investors to move their money to low-cost index funds that track broad, diversified stock market indices. Buffett said in one of his letters to shareholders that "when trillions of dollars are managed by Wall Streeters charging high fees, it will usually be the managers who reap outsized profits, not the clients."[96] In 2007, Buffett made a bet with numerous managers that a simple S&P 500 index fund will outperform hedge funds that charge exorbitant fees. By 2017, the index fund was outperforming every hedge fund that made the bet against Buffett.[96]
Personal life
In 1949, Buffett was infatuated with a young woman whose boyfriend had a ukulele. In an attempt to compete, he bought one of the instruments and has been playing it ever since. Though the attempt was unsuccessful, his music interest was a key part of his becoming a part of Susan Thompson's life and led to their marriage. Buffett often plays the instrument at stockholder meetings and other opportunities. His love of the instrument led to the commissioning of two custom Dairy Queen ukuleles by Dave Talsma, one of which was auctioned for charity.[97]
Buffett married Susan Buffett (born Thompson) in 1952. They had three children, Susie, Howard and Peter. The couple began living separately in 1977, although they remained married until Susan Buffett's death in July 2004. Their daughter, Susie, lives in Omaha, is a national board member of Girls, Inc., and does charitable work through the Susan A. Buffett Foundation.[98]
In 2006, on his 76th birthday, Buffett married his longtime companion, Astrid Menks, who was then 60 years old—she had lived with him since his wife's departure to San Francisco in 1977.[99][100] Susan had arranged for the two to meet before she left Omaha to pursue her singing career. All three were close and Christmas cards to friends were signed "Warren, Susie and Astrid".[101] Susan briefly discussed this relationship in an interview on the Charlie Rose Show shortly before her death, in a rare glimpse into Buffett's personal life.[102]
Buffett disowned his son Peter's adopted daughter, Nicole, in 2006 after she participated in the Jamie Johnson documentary The One Percent about the growing economic inequality between the wealthy and the average citizen in the United States. Although his first wife referred to Nicole as one of her "adored grandchildren",[103] Buffett wrote her a letter stating, "I have not emotionally or legally adopted you as a grandchild, nor have the rest of my family adopted you as a niece or a cousin."[104][105][106]
His 2006 annual salary was about $100,000, which is small compared to senior executive remuneration in comparable companies.[107] In 2008, he earned a total compensation of $175,000, which included a base salary of just $100,000.[108] He continued to live in the same house in the central Dundee neighborhood of Omaha that he bought in 1958 for $31,500, a fraction of today's value. He also owns a $4 million house in Laguna Beach, California.[109] In 1989, after spending nearly $6.7 million of Berkshire's funds on a private jet, Buffett named it "The Indefensible". This act was a break from his past condemnation of extravagant purchases by other CEOs and his history of using more public transportation.[110]
—Buffett on bridge[111]
Buffett is an avid bridge player, which he plays with fellow fan Gates[112]—he allegedly spends 12 hours a week playing the game.[113] In 2006, he sponsored a bridge match for the Buffett Cup. Modeled on the Ryder Cup in golf—held immediately before it in the same city—the teams are chosen by invitation, with a female team and five male teams provided by each country.[114]
He is a dedicated, lifelong follower of Nebraska football, and attends as many games as his schedule permits. He supported the hire of Bo Pelini, following the 2007 season, stating, "It was getting kind of desperate around here".[115] He watched the 2009 game against Oklahoma from the Nebraska sideline, after being named an honorary assistant coach.[116]
Buffett worked with Christopher Webber on an animated series called "Secret Millionaires Club" with chief Andy Heyward of DiC Entertainment. The series features Buffett and Munger and teaches children healthy financial habits.[117][118]
Buffett was raised as a Presbyterian, but has since described himself as agnostic.[119] In December 2006, it was reported that Buffett did not carry a mobile phone, did not have a computer at his desk, and drove his own automobile,[120] a Cadillac DTS.[121] In contrast to that, at the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder meeting, he stated he uses Google as his preferred search engine.[122] In 2013 he had an old Nokia flip phone and had sent one email in his entire life.[123] In February 2020, Buffett revealed in a CNBC interview that he had traded in his flip phone for an iPhone 11.[124] Buffett reads five newspapers every day, beginning with the Omaha World Herald, which his company acquired in 2011.
Buffett's speeches are known for mixing business discussions with humor. Each year, Buffett presides over Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting in the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska, an event drawing over 20,000 visitors from both the United States and abroad, giving it the nickname "Woodstock of Capitalism". Berkshire's annual reports and letters to shareholders, prepared by Buffett, frequently receive coverage by the financial media. Buffett's writings are known for containing quotations from sources as varied as the Bible and Mae West,[125] as well as advice in a folksy, Midwestern style and numerous jokes.
In April 2017, Buffett (an avid Coca-Cola drinker and shareholder in the company) agreed to have his likeness placed on Cherry Coke products in China. Buffett was not compensated for this advertisement.[126][127]
Health
On April 11, 2012, Buffett was diagnosed with stage I prostate cancer during a routine test.[128] He announced he would begin two months of daily radiation treatment from mid-July. In a letter to shareholders, Buffett said he felt "great – as if I were in my normal excellent health – and my energy level is 100 percent."[128] On September 15, 2012, Buffett announced that he had completed the full 44-day radiation treatment cycle, saying "it's a great day for me" and "I am so glad to say that's over."[129]
Wealth and philanthropy
In 2008, Buffett was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of approximately $62 billion.[130] In 2009, after donating billions of dollars to charity, he was ranked as the second richest man in the United States with a net worth of $37 billion[131][132] with only Bill Gates ranked higher than Buffett. His net worth had risen to $58.5 billion as of September 2013.[133]
In 1999, Buffett was named the top money manager of the Twentieth Century in a survey by the Carson Group, ahead of Peter Lynch and John Templeton.[134] In 2007, he was listed among Time's 100 Most Influential People in the world.[135] In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[136] Buffett, along with Bill Gates, was named the most influential global thinker in Foreign Policy's 2010 report.[137]
Buffett has written several times of his belief that, in a market economy, the rich earn outsized rewards for their talents.[138] His children will not inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. He once commented, "I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing".[139]
Buffett had long stated his intention to give away his fortune to charity, and in June 2006, he announced a new plan to give 83% of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).[140] He pledged about the equivalent of 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (worth approximately $30.7 billion as of June 23, 2006),[141] making it the largest charitable donation in history, and Buffett one of the leaders of philanthrocapitalism.[142] The foundation will receive 5% of the total each July, beginning in 2006. The pledge is conditional upon three requirements:
- Bill or Melinda Gates must be alive and active in BMGF
- BMGF must continue to qualify as a charity
- Each year BMGF must give away an amount equal to the prior year's Berkshire gift plus the additional 5% of net assets as required of all US foundations
Buffett joined the Gates Foundation's board, but did not plan to be actively involved in the foundation's investments.[143][144]
This represented a significant shift from Buffett's previous statements, to the effect that most of his fortune would pass to his Buffett Foundation.[145] The bulk of the estate of his wife, valued at $2.6 billion, went there when she died in 2004.[146] He also pledged $50 million to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, in Washington, where he began serving as an adviser in 2002.[147]
In 2006, he auctioned his 2001 Lincoln Town Car[148] on eBay to raise money for Girls, Inc.[149] In 2007, he auctioned a luncheon with himself that raised a final bid of $650,100 for the Glide Foundation.[150] Later auctions raised $2.1 million[151][152] $1.7 million[153] and $3.5 million. The winners traditionally dine with Buffett at New York's Smith and Wollensky steak house. The restaurant donates at least $10,000 to Glide each year to host the meal.[154]
In 2009, Ralph Nader wrote the book Only the Super Rich Can Save Us, a novel about "a movement of billionaires led by Warren Buffett and featuring, among others, Ted Turner, George Soros and Barry Diller, who use their fortunes to clean up America." On C-SPAN BookTV, Nader said Buffett invited him to breakfast after the book came out and was "quite intrigued by the book." He also told Nader of his plan to get "billionaires all over the world to donate 50% of their estate to charity or good works."[155] On December 9, 2010, Buffett, Bill Gates, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg signed a promise they called the "Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge", in which they promise to donate to charity at least half of their wealth, and invite other wealthy people to follow suit.[13][156] In 2018, after making almost $3.4 billion donations,[157] Buffett was ranked 3rd in the Forbes' List of Billionaire 2018.[158]
Warren Buffett continues to help fund and support his family's individual foundations which include Susan Buffett's Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Susan Alice Buffett's Sherwood Foundation, Howard Graham Buffett's Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and Peter Buffett's NoVo Foundation.[159][160] Warren Buffett was also supportive of his sister Doris Buffett's Letters Foundation and Learning By Giving Foundation.[161][162]
Political and public policy views
In addition to political contributions over the years, Buffett endorsed and made campaign contributions to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. On July 2, 2008, Buffett attended a $28,500 per plate fundraiser for Obama's campaign in Chicago.[163] Buffett intimated that John McCain's views on social justice were so far from his own that McCain would need a "lobotomy" for Buffett to change his endorsement.[164] During the second 2008 U.S. presidential debate, McCain and Obama, after being asked first by presidential debate mediator Tom Brokaw, both mentioned Buffett as a possible future Secretary of the Treasury.[165] Later, in the third and final presidential debate, Obama mentioned Buffett as a potential economic advisor.[166] Buffett was also a financial advisor to Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger during the 2003 California gubernatorial election.[167]
On December 16, 2015, Buffett endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for president.[168] On August 1, 2016, Buffett challenged Donald Trump to release his tax returns.[169][170] On October 10, 2016, after a reference to him in the second presidential debate, Buffett released his own tax return.[171][172] He said he had paid $1.85 million in federal income taxes in 2015 on an adjusted gross income of $11.6 million, meaning he had an effective federal income tax rate of around 16 percent. Buffett also said he had made more than $2.8 billion worth of donations last year.[172] In response to Trump saying he was unable to release his tax information due to being under audit, Buffett said, "I have been audited by the IRS multiple times and am currently being audited. I have no problem in releasing my tax information while under audit. Neither would Mr. Trump — at least he would have no legal problem."[172]
Buffett has said he would judge President Donald Trump by his results on national safety, economic growth and economic participation when deciding if he would vote for him in the 2020 presidential election.[173][174]
Health care
Buffett described the health care reform under President Barack Obama as insufficient to deal with the costs of health care in the US, though he supports its aim of expanding health insurance coverage.[175] Buffett compared health care costs to a tapeworm, saying that they compromise US economic competitiveness by increasing manufacturing costs.[175] Buffett thinks health care costs should head towards 13 to 14% of GDP.[176] Buffett said "If you want the very best, I mean if you want to spend a million dollars to prolong your life 3 months in a coma or something then the US is probably the best", but he also said that other countries spend much less and receive much more in health care value (visits, hospital beds, doctors and nurses per capita).[177]
Buffett faults the incentives in the United States medical industry, that payers reimburse doctors for procedures (fee-for-service) leading to unnecessary care (overutilization), instead of paying for results.[178] He cited Atul Gawande's 2009 article in the New Yorker[179] as a useful consideration of US health care, with its documentation of unwarranted variation in Medicare expenditures between McAllen, Texas and El Paso, Texas.[178] Buffett raised the problem of lobbying by the medical industry, saying that they are very focused on maintaining their income.[180]
Curbing population growth
Buffett has been reported to have concerns about unchecked population growth. In 2009, he met with several other billionaires to discuss healthcare, education and slowing population growth. Called "The Good Club" by an insider, the billionaires had given away $45 billion to philanthropic causes and included well known names such as Oprah Winfrey, Michael Bloomberg and David Rockefeller, Jr..[181] The meeting has drawn criticism from some right-wing alarmists, with some fringe elements believing the group to be a part of a secret sterilization society.[182]
Buffett is a long time supporter of family planning. The Buffett Foundation has given over $1.5 billion to abortion research to include $427 million to Planned Parenthood.[183]
Taxes
Buffett stated that he only paid 19 percent of his income for 2006 ($48.1 million) in total federal taxes (due to their source as dividends and capital gains), while his employees paid 33 percent of theirs, despite making much less money.[184] "How can this be fair?" Buffett asked, regarding how little he pays in taxes compared to his employees. "How can this be right?" He also added, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."[185][186] After Donald Trump accused him of taking "massive deductions," Buffett countered, "I have copies of all 72 of my returns and none uses a carryforward."[187]
Buffett favors the inheritance tax, saying that repealing it would be like "choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold-medal winners in the 2000 Olympics".[188] In 2007, Buffett testified before the Senate and urged them to preserve the estate tax so as to avoid a plutocracy.[189] Some critics argued that Buffett (through Berkshire Hathaway) has a personal interest in the continuation of the estate tax, since Berkshire Hathaway benefited from the estate tax in past business dealings and had developed and marketed insurance policies to protect policy holders against future estate tax payments.[190]
Buffett believes government should not be in the business of gambling, or legalizing casinos, calling it a tax on ignorance.[191]
Dollar and gold
The trade deficit induced Buffett to enter the foreign currency market for the first time in 2002. He substantially reduced his stake in 2005 as changing interest rates increased the costs of holding currency contracts. Buffett remained bearish on the dollar, stating that he was looking to acquire companies with substantial foreign revenues. Buffett has been critical of gold as an investment, with his critique being based primarily on its non-productive nature. In a 1998 address at Harvard, Buffett said:
It gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.
In 1977, about stocks, gold, farmland and inflation, he stated:
Stocks are probably still the best of all the poor alternatives in an era of inflation – at least they are if you buy in at appropriate prices.[192]
China
Buffett invested in PetroChina Company Limited and in a rare move, posted a commentary[193] on Berkshire Hathaway's website stating why he would not divest over its connection with the Sudanese civil war that caused Harvard to divest. He sold this stake soon afterwards, sparing him the billions of dollars he would have lost had he held on to the company in the midst of the steep drop in oil prices beginning in the summer of 2008.
In October 2008, Buffett invested $230 million for 10% of battery maker BYD Company (SEHK: 1211), which runs a subsidiary of electric automobile manufacturer BYD Auto. In less than one year, the investment reaped over 500% return.[194]
In May 2018, BYD's shares had a substantial fall with a total net investment loss of $9 billion. This was Buffett's worst investment in China.[195]
Tobacco
During the RJR Nabisco, Inc. hostile takeover fight in 1987, Buffett was quoted as telling John Gutfreund:[196]
Speaking at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s 1994 annual meeting, Buffett said investments in tobacco are:[197]
Coal
In 2007, Buffett's PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of his MidAmerican Energy Company, canceled six proposed coal-fired power plants. These included Utah's Intermountain Power Project Unit 3, Jim Bridger Unit 5, and four proposed plants previously included in PacifiCorp's Integrated Resource Plan. The cancellations came in the wake of pressure from regulators and citizen groups.[198]
Renewable energy
Native American tribes and salmon fishermen sought to win support from Buffett for a proposal to remove four hydroelectric dams from the Klamath River owned by PacifiCorp which is a Berkshire Hathaway company. David Sokol responded on Buffett's behalf, stating that the FERC would decide the question.[199][200]
Expensing of stock options
He has been a strong proponent of stock option expensing on corporate income statements. At the 2004 annual meeting, he lambasted a bill before the United States Congress that would consider only some company-issued stock options compensation as an expense, likening the bill to one that was almost passed by the Indiana House of Representatives to change the value of Pi from 3.14159 to 3.2 through legislative fiat.[201]
When a company gives something of value to its employees in return for their services, it is clearly a compensation expense. And if expenses don't belong in the earnings statement, where in the world do they belong?[202]
Technology
In May 2012, Buffett said he had avoided buying stock in new social media companies such as Facebook and Google because it is hard to estimate future value. He also stated that initial public offering (IPO) of stock are almost always bad investments. Investors should be looking to companies that will have good value in ten years.[203]
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies
In an interview with CNBC in January 2018, Buffett said that the recent craze over Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies won't end well, adding that "when it happens or how or anything else, I don't know." But he said he would not take a short position on bitcoin futures.[204]
In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending.
Film and television
Aside from countless television appearances on various news programs, Buffett has appeared in numerous films and TV programs, both documentary, and fiction. Some film and television cameos he has made include; Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, The Office (U.S.), All My Children, and Entourage.[205] He has been a guest 10 times on Charlie Rose, and was the subject of the HBO documentary feature Becoming Warren Buffett (2017) and the BBC production The World's Greatest Money Maker (2009).
Bibliography
Books about Buffett
In October 2008, USA Today reported at least 47 books were in print with Buffett's name in the title. The article quoted the CEO of Borders Books, George Jones, as saying that the only other living persons named in as many book titles were U.S. presidents, world political figures and the Dalai Lama.[206] Buffett said that his own personal favorite is a collection of his essays called The Essays of Warren Buffett,[207] which he described as "a coherent rearrangement of ideas from my annual report letters".[206]
Books or publications by Buffett:
- The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America, Warren Buffett and Lawrence A. Cunningham, The Cunningham Group; revised edition (April 11, 2001), ISBN 978-0-9664461-1-1
- The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Second Edition, Warren E. Buffett and Lawrence A. Cunningham, The Cunningham Group; 2nd edition (April 14, 2008), ISBN 978-0-9664461-2-8
Some best-selling, or otherwise notable, books about Buffett:
- Carol J. Loomis, Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012: A Fortune Magazine Book.
- Preston Pysh, Warren Buffett's Three Favorite Books.[208] (An interactive book that references Buffett's Books for online videos)[206]
- Roger Lowenstein, Buffett, Making of an American Capitalist
- Robert Hagstrom, The Warren Buffett Way.[206][209]
- Alice Schroeder, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life.[210] (Written with Buffett's cooperation.)[211]
- Mary Buffett and David Clark, Buffettology[212] and four subsequent books. (Combined sales of more than 1.5 million copies.)[206]
- Janet Lowe, Warren Buffett Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Greatest Investor.[213]
- John Train, The Midas Touch: The Strategies That Have Made Warren Buffett 'America's Preeminent Investor'.[214]
- Andrew Kilpatrick, Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett.[215] (The longest of the books about Buffett, with 330 chapters, 1,874 pages and 1,400 photos, weighing 10.2 pounds.)[206]
- Robert P. Miles (2004). Warren Buffett Wealth: Principles and Practical Methods Used by the World's Greatest Investor. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-46511-9.
- John P. Reese, "The Guru Investor: How to Beat the Market Using History's Best Investment Strategies".[216] (Includes step-by-step stock-picking method based on Buffett's approach)
- Tavakoli, Janet M. (January 6, 2009). Dear Mr. Buffett: What an Investor Learns 1,269 Miles from Wall Street. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-44273-9.
- Janjigian, Vahan (May 1, 2008). Even Buffett Isn't Perfect: What You Can--and Can't--Learn from the World's Greatest Investor. Penguin. ISBN 9781440631474.