From Warren Buffet
Warren Buffett’s Advice to Your Kids
Once a year, more than 10,000 shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) descend upon Omaha, Neb., to listen to its managers, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, answer questions for more than five hours. Buffett, arguably the world’s greatest investor, is known for his willingness to teach others. Here, paraphrased, are some of his answers to questions asked by or for youngsters.
On how to cultivate and keep friends:
What do you admire in others? Adopt as many of those qualities as you can and you’ll attract others to you. Whatever repulses you in others will repulse others if you have it. Cultivate habits that attract people when you’re young.
On how to succeed in investing:
Stay within your circle of competence. If you have doubts if something is within it, it’s not. It’s better to stay well within your circle of competence than wander around its edges. You can have a small circle of competence and do well — that’s OK. My own is small.
On preparing for retirement:
Think of any car — a genie offers you any car in the world. The catch is that it’s the only car you’ll ever get. What do you do? You read the manual 10 times, you change the oil twice as often as you need to, you take fastidious care so that it remains the car of your dreams forever.
You get only one mind and body — the same ones you’ll have at 40, 60, etc. Take care of them and maximize their potential. It will be too late to take care of your body and mind (and car!) later on. You can maintain them, but it’s hard or impossible to undo big mistakes or negligence later on. You don’t want to end up with a wreck on your hands.
Your main asset is yourself. Treat yourself as a valuable asset. I often explain to students that I’d be willing to pay today for a percentage of the future earnings of good students. They’re valuable assets already, worth something right now.
You can learn a lot from Buffett’s engaging and educational letters to shareholders. Read them online at the Berkshire Hathaway website.
