Warren Edward Buffett is one of the most successful investors in the world. He is currently the third wealthiest person in the world as of 2010. Buffett is noted for his adherence to the value investing philosophy and for his personal frugality. Buffett is also a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 85 percent of his fortune to charity. In his boy hood, for a while he worked in his grandfather's grocery store too. While still in high school, he carried out several successful money-making ideas: delivering newspapers, selling cocoa-cola, golf balls and stamps, and detailing cars among them. Filing his first income tax return in 1944, Buffett took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route. In 1945, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pin ball machine, which they placed in the local barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in different barber shops.
On a trip to New York, at the age of ten he made a point to visit the New York Stock Exchange. And about this same time he purchased shares of Cities Service for himself and his sister. By the time he finished college, Buffett had accumulated more than $90,000 in savings.
Warren Buffet once said, “I knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.” He still lives in the same small three bedroom house in mid-town Omaha that he bought after his marriage 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house compound still hasn’t a protection wall or even a fence. He drives his own car everywhere and moves without security people around him. He never travels by private jet, though he owns the world’s biggest private jet company. He writes to his CEO’s only once in a year, instead of calling them at regular intervals. The two rules he has given the CEO s are 1) Do not lose any of your shareholder’s money; 2) Do not forget Rule No. 1. He said that he does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is making pop corns and watching TV. Most interestingly he does not carry a cell phone. He has no computer on his desk.
Once Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, scheduled a meeting with him for half an hour. He thought that there could be nothing in common between them. The meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill gates returned a devotee of Warren Buffet. Read his six advices for the new generation:
• Money does not create the man but it is the man who created money.
• Live your life as simple as you are.
• Don’t do what others say, just listen to them, but do what you feel good.
• Don’t go for brand name; just wear those things in which you feel comfortable.
• Don’t waste your money on unnecessary things.
• After all it is your life, then why gives chance to others to rule your life.”
