New #1 richest person

[blackangst1]

I, for one, think this is great. This is guy not born into money, had an entrepreneurial spirit at the age of 15, when he and a friend bought a pinball machine and put it in a barber shop. 3 months later, they had 3 at 3 locations. He understands the value of a dollar, and believes in conservative investing. I have always lived by a quote of his I heard at a seminar 25 years ago: There are two ways to accumulate wealth. Alot of time and a little bit of money, or alot of money and a little bit of time. Most of us have more time than money.

My financial hero

Age: 77

Fortune: self made

Source: Berkshire Hathaway

Net Worth: $62.0 bil

Country Of Citizenship: United States

Residence: Omaha, Nebraska , United States, North America

Industry: Investments

Marital Status: widowed, remarried, 3 children

Education: University of Nebraska Lincoln, Bachelor of Arts / Science
Columbia University, Master of Science
America's most beloved investor is now the world's richest man. Soared past friend and bridge partner Bill Gates as shares of Berkshire Hathaway climbed 25% since the middle of last July. Son of Nebraska politician delivered newspapers as a boy. Filed first tax return at age 13, claiming $35 deduction for bicycle. Studied under value investing guru Benjamin Graham at Columbia. Took over textile firm Berkshire Hathaway 1965. Today holding company invested in insurance (Geico, General Re), jewelry (Borsheim's), utilities (MidAmerican Energy), food (Dairy Queen, See's Candies). Also has noncontrolling stakes in Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo. Insurance operations flourished in 2007. "That party is over. It's a certainty that insurance-industry profit margins, including ours, will fall significantly in 2008." The Oracle of Omaha issued a challenge to members of The Forbes 400 in October; said he would donate $1 million to charity if the collective group of richest Americans would admit they pay less taxes, as a percentage of income, than their secretaries. Had long promised to give away his fortune posthumously. Irrevocably earmarked the majority of his Berkshire shares to charity in 2006, mostly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gift was valued at $31 billion on day of announcement; donation will far exceed that sum so long as Berkshire shares continue to rise.

Philanthropy

From 2006:
"Brace yourself," Buffett warned with a grin. He then described a momentous change in his thinking. Within months, he said, he would begin to give away his Berkshire Hathaway fortune, then and now worth well over $40 billion.

Buffett has pledged to gradually give 85% of his Berkshire stock to five foundations. A dominant five-sixths of the shares will go to the world's largest philanthropic organization, the $30 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose principals are close friends of Buffett's (a connection that began in 1991, when a mutual friend introduced Buffett and Bill Gates).

The Gateses credit Buffett, says Bill, with having "inspired" their thinking about giving money back to society. Their foundation's activities, internationally famous, are focused on world health -- fighting such diseases as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis -- and on improving U.S. libraries and high schools.

This last foundation was for 40 years known simply as the Buffett Foundation and was recently renamed in honor of Buffett's late wife, Susie, who died in 2004, at 72, after a stroke. Her will bestows about $2.5 billion on the foundation, to which her husband's gifts will be added. The foundation has mainly focused on reproductive health, family planning, and pro-choice causes, and on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. Counting the gifts to all five foundations, Buffett will gradually but sharply reduce his holdings of Berkshire (Charts) stock. He now owns close to 31% of the company-worth nearly $44 billion in late June - and that proportion will ultimately be cut to around 5%. Sticking to his long-term intentions, Buffett says the residual 5%, worth about $6.8 billion today, will in time go for philanthropy also, perhaps in his lifetime and, if not, at his death.

Because the value of Buffett's gifts are tied to a future, unknowable price of Berkshire, there is no way to put a total dollar value on them. But the number of shares earmarked to be given have a huge value today: $37 billion.

That alone would be the largest philanthropic gift in history. And if Buffett is right in thinking that Berkshire's price will trend upward, the eventual amount given could far exceed that figure.

 

[M0R0NI]

If the Microsoft stock would not have dropped after the yahoo take over bid Bill Gates would probably still be #1. I think it is great to see a new #1 tho.

 

[jpeyton]

The rest of the Top 20 list in ATOT.

 

[Atreus21]

Thank God for decent people. Guys like this show me that wealth isn't a number. It's an attitude.

 

[Robor]

I don't know that much about him but from what little I've read and seen in interviews he seems like a good person who's very 'down to earth' despite his vast wealth.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: Atreus21
Thank God for decent people. Guys like this show me that wealth isn't a number. It's an attitude.

True, he's the anti-Rupert Murdoch, lol.

Go Warren go!

 

[ranmaniac]

He's nowhere near the Rothschild family fortune.

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: ranmaniac
He's nowhere near the Rothschild family fortune.

I dont know about that. In 2002 Forbes put the family's fortune at 1.5 billion. Thats waaaaaayyyy down on the list

 

[Midnight Rambler]

I don't know that much about him but from what little I've read and seen in interviews he seems like a good person who's very 'down to earth' despite his vast wealth.

Indeed, major kudos to WB (and Bill G.) for their philanthropy. If only more of the wealthy were like them, a la Andrew Carnegie.

=====

"Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, on November 25, 1835. The son of a weaver, he came with his family to the United States in 1848 and settled in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. At age thirteen, Carnegie went to work as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill. He then moved rapidly through a succession of jobs with Western Union and the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1865, he resigned to establish his own business enterprises and eventually organized the Carnegie Steel Company, which launched the steel industry in Pittsburgh. At age sixty-five, he sold the company to J. P. Morgan for $480 million and devoted the rest of his life to his philanthropic activities and writing, including his autobiography.

Many persons of wealth have contributed to charity, but Carnegie was perhaps the first to state publicly that the rich have a moral obligation to give away their fortunes. In 1889 he wrote The Gospel of Wealth, in which he asserted that all personal wealth beyond that required to supply the needs of one's family should be regarded as a trust fund to be administered for the benefit of the community.

Carnegie set about disposing of his fortune through innumerable personal gifts and through the establishment of various trusts. In his thirties, Carnegie had already begun to give away some of his fast-accumulating funds. His first large gifts were made to his native town. Later he created seven philanthropic and educational organizations in the United States, including Carnegie Corporation of New York, and several more in Europe.

One of Carnegie's lifelong interests was the establishment of free public libraries to make available to everyone a means of self-education. There were only a few public libraries in the world when, in 1881, Carnegie began to promote his idea. He and the Corporation subsequently spent over $56 million to build 2,509 libraries throughout the English-speaking world.

After termination of this program in 1917, the Corporation continued for about forty years an interest in the improvement of library services. Other major programs in the Corporation's early history included adult education and education in the fine arts.

During his lifetime, Carnegie gave away over $350 million. He died in Lenox, Massachusetts, on August 11, 1919

 

[TallBill]

Investing is just as good as giving it away. How do you think banks have money to give home, car, and business loans?

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Banks don't build libraries or schools or do anything else for the common benefit of society. Their actions are purely profit-driven.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: Midnight Rambler
Banks don't build libraries or schools or do anything else for the common benefit of society. Their actions are purely profit-driven.

Their drive for profit gives creates competition which helps loan shoppers even more.

 

[naddicott]

Originally posted by: TallBill
Investing is just as good as giving it away. How do you think banks have money to give home, car, and business loans?

If investing was "just as good", then WB would see no need to give away his money to charities. Considering his track record, he unquestionably knows more about what his investing options are than anyone who might read these forums.

In all likelihood, he's hoping his money will do something slightly more noble than helping someone with good credit buy a car.

There are certain markets, like aids drugs for the poor in Africa with anual incomes less than many Americans earn in a day, which no lender is ever going to get into for the sake of profit.

The desire for profit should theoretically motivate business to invest in educating a well educated workforce, but it is very rare for the private sector to put any meaningful investments into "the commons" - resources that can't be owned or at least temporarily withheld from competitors, say preschoolers for example. The work the Gates foundation does with early education, if successful, will improve the bottom line of every business who gets a smarter employee two decades down the road, but those businesses will never make that investment in a pre-schooler's education themselves out of a profit rationale. The stockholders would be hard to convince that the money spent was going to yield a timely return on investment.

 

[sandorski]

:thumbsup:

It's too bad that all the super wealthy don't do the same. If they did, there would be far less Class conflict.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: naddicott

Originally posted by: TallBill
Investing is just as good as giving it away. How do you think banks have money to give home, car, and business loans?

If investing was "just as good", then WB would see no need to give away his money to charities. Considering his track record, he unquestionably knows more about what his investing options are than anyone who might read these forums.

In all likelihood, he's hoping his money will do something slightly more noble than helping someone with good credit buy a car.

There are certain markets, like aids drugs for the poor in Africa with anual incomes less than many Americans earn in a day, which no lender is ever going to get into for the sake of profit.

The desire for profit should theoretically motivate business to invest in educating a well educated workforce, but it is very rare for the private sector to put any meaningful investments into "the commons" - resources that can't be owned or at least temporarily withheld from competitors, say preschoolers for example. The work the Gates foundation does with early education, if successful, will improve the bottom line of every business who gets a smarter employee two decades down the road, but those businesses will never make that investment in a pre-schooler's education themselves out of a profit rationale. The stockholders would be hard to convince that the money spent was going to yield a timely return on investment.

Oh, I'm not saying that helping the sick is a bad thing, but neither is someone who has billions. Unless they have it in cash sitting in a safe they still are helping people. He still has maybe $25-35 billion in assets not directed to go anywhere.

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: sandorski
:thumbsup:

It's too bad that all the super wealthy don't do the same. If they did, there would be far less Class conflict.

I think more do than you might think. Most middle class are so bitter about OTHER people having wealth they assume the ultra rich give for the tax break. Every article I've ever read suggests they want to give because they have it TO give. The tax benefits are a side benefit. If you look at all the "common man" types that will huge lotteries, ALOT go bankrupt within 7 years. And it certainly isnt because they gave too much. People TALK about giving money away, but IMHO most people dont. But most of the rich do.