He’s worth $52 billion (Rs 213,200 crore) and the Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the world’s greatest investor and the third richest man. He declared plans to give away over $37 billion (Rs 151,700 crore) in charity, to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Here are some of his gems of advice for investors who look at the stock market to make a fortune, from various sources, his speeches and writings:
- ‘Never invest in a business you cannot understand.’
- ‘Always invest for the long term.’
- ‘It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to lose it.’ If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.’
- ‘Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.’
- ‘Remember that the stock market is manic-depressive.’
- ‘Stop trying to predict the direction of the stock market, the economy, interest rates, or elections.’
- ‘Buy a business, don’t rent stocks.’
- ‘I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.’
- ‘Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls-Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.’
- ‘Buy companies with strong histories of profitability and with a dominant business franchise.’
- ‘It is optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer.’
- ‘As far as you are concerned, the stock market does not exist. Ignore it.’
- ‘The ability to say ‘no’ is a tremendous advantage for an investor.’
- ‘Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they’re doing.’
- ‘In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run it is a weighing machine.’
- ‘There are three kinds of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can’t.’
Image: Buffett’s Wealth Life Spane
- ‘The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.’
- ‘Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.’
- ‘You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right.’
- ‘Risk can be greatly reduced by concentrating on only a few holdings.’
- ‘It is more important to say ‘no’ to an opportunity, than to say ‘yes.’
- ‘It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.’
- ‘It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.’
- ‘The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.’
- ‘I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.