A sign hangs over the door from the anteroom: “Invest like a champion today!”īuffett himself comes to collect his interviewers from the lobby, in a baggy pinstripe suit, sensible shoes and a red tie. Every desk is covered with family photos, greeting cards and tchotchkes. Its drop ceilings, narrow hallways and tired carpets would suit the administration of a community college better than a $700bn financial empire. The Buffett persona is reflected in Berkshire’s office, which occupies a single floor in an unexceptional office tower in Omaha that bears another company’s name. They try and make my life good, I try and make their life good.” And why do I get up every day and jump out of bed and I’m excited at 88? It’s because I love what I do and love the people I do it with. “I can’t buy time, I can’t buy love but I can do anything else with money, pretty much. The third-richest man in the world, with an estimated worth of $86bn, says he stays at the helm of Berkshire because he wants to keep doing what he has loved since buying his first shares, in an Oklahoma oil company, at age 11. Occupying a single floor in an unexceptional tower, they reflect Buffett’s aw-shucks, Midwest-wholesome image: he still works at the same desk his father, a stockbroker, used 75 years ago © Bryan Schutmaat If he is an investing genius, Buffett is a public relations genius, too - cultivating an aw-shucks, Midwest-wholesome image of a man who has triumphed in the long game by practising a simpler, purer version of capitalism.īuffett in Berkshire's offices in Omaha. But it is hard not to wonder if Buffett, even at 88, is underplaying his ambitions. The statement was made without qualification. Ahead of Berkshire’s annual meeting, Buffett sat down in his office for a rare newspaper interview with the FT, lasting nearly three hours.Īt the outset, he was asked which would be the better investment to put in a child’s account - a share in Berkshire, or a share in the S&P? He did not hesitate: “I think the financial result would be very close to the same.” More striking still is what Buffett says about this. A dollar invested in Berkshire 10 years ago is worth about $2.40 the same dollar in an S&P 500 tracker fund is worth $3.20. It is striking, then, that over the past decade Buffett has fallen behind. The degree to which Buffett has outwitted successive generations of Wall Street rivals almost defies comprehension. Over the past 54 years, shares in his company, Berkshire Hathaway, have outpaced the S&P 500 - a broad index of American stocks - by almost 2.5 million percentage points. Ten per cent is a big difference in performance 100 per cent, an oceanic one.Īnd then there is Warren Buffett. In the stock market, small margins separate success from failure. Today, he is the third-richest man in the world and arguably America’s most famous and trusted capitalist © Bryan Schutmaat Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the company he set 54 years ago. We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Warren Buffett news every morning.
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