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Buffett Offers Online Career Advice

May 8, 2013
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // warren buffett with No Comments

Warren Buffett, billionaire investor, encourages young workers to seek out jobs of which they are passionate about. This is career advice that he offered to youngsters online this Tuesday when he spoke about a number of topics.

Every year, Mr. Buffett takes time out of his busy schedule and he meets with students from roughly 40 colleges. He does this to answer questions about business and life. This Tuesday he did so in an online forum, and he had the opportunity to offer his advice to a much wider audience.

Buffett often chooses to compare the things he does as CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway to painting a canvas with a masterpiece. He also regularly tells us that it doesn’t feel like he works because he loves what he does.

“I love painting on my canvas, and you’re lucky in life if you can find your passion,” said Buffett.

The 82-year-old Oracle of Omaha was fortunate that he figured out what he wanted to do early on in his life when he read books that he found lying around at his dad’s securities brokerage. Now his daily routine consists of finding the best deals for Berkshire Hathaway by reading five or six hours a day, speaking with his friends and playing online bridge.

Buffett tells us that he does not often do things that he doesn’t enjoy, and he’s been able to hand off almost all of the day-to-day tasks of running his company that has 285,000 employees, and other people take care of this for him.

“I have delegated like nobody has ever delegated with a company of this size,” said Buffett.

Berkshire Hathaway actually owns more than 80 subsidiaries, and they include furniture stores, jewelry stores, clothing stores and railroads. They are also in the insurance and utility business, which makes up about more than half of the income that Berkshire Hathaway enjoys. Plus, the company has large investments in businesses such as Wells Fargo, IBM, American Express and Coca-Cola.

Berkshire’s Class A shares, which actually make up the majority of Warren Buffett’s fortune, are still currently the most expensive stock in the United States of America. At Tuesday’s closing, the stock finished the day at $164,690 per share.

Money is not the only way you should measure the success of Warren Buffett. Did you know that he continues to live in the home in Omaha that he bought in 1958? Buffett’s lifestyle could allow him to live on $100,000 a year very easily, with the exception of the private jet that he really enjoys.

Last weekend alone, Warren Buffett spent over five hours answering questions for more than 30,000 people at the annual shareholder meeting held by Berkshire Hathaway. He even entertains groups of shareholders at events and steak dinners during the weekend.

This Tuesday Buffett spent around an hour responding to questions sent to the Levo League website. They help young professionals find job opportunities and mentors early in their career.

“It’s really important in life to have the right heroes,” said Buffett.

Buffett also mentioned that being able to study at Columbia University under Benjamin Graham, and working for Graham’s investment firm for two years, helped solidify his understanding of Graham’s investment techniques that Buffett used to create his huge fortune. Buffett also mentions that his first wife and his father’s influence also played a major role in his success because they taught him about life.

Buffett encourages the younger generation to try and work for and associate with those that they admire.

“If you’re working for somebody that makes your stomach turn, maybe you have to keep doing it for a while to eat, but don’t settle for it,” said Buffett.

Berkshire’s “Subpar” Year And Other Goodies

Mar 4, 2013
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // warren buffett with No Comments

Warren Buffett, the most famous investor in America, really holds himself to a much higher standard than most. That’s why he describes the business year of 2012 as “subpar” even though Berkshire Hathaway made a total of $24.1 billion for its shareholders. Buffett pointed out that only for the ninth time in Berkshire Hathaway’s 48 years, their book value of 14.4% was actually less than the S&P’s gain of 16%. This is basically how Buffett kicks off his annual letter, which he released on Friday, March 1. If you are interested in investing, then this document is a must read for you and anyone else interested in this field. It’s filled with plenty of Warren Buffett’s homespun, wry style.

Putting aside the “subpar” performance of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s other major regret was the “inability” to achieve a major accomplishment during 2012. “I pursued a couple of elephants, but came up empty handed,” wrote Buffett. He did find his mojo again during the early part of 2013, being part of a blockbuster 23.3 billion-dollar acquisition of H.J. Heinz Co., the ketchup giant. Berkshire Hathaway is putting up $12 billion to purchase half of the company, along with another group of investors led by Brazilian businessman Jorge Paulo, who is buying the other half of the company.

Buffett wrote that now that this deal is done, it’s time for more big game hunting. “Charlie and I have again donned our safari outfits and resumed our search for elephants.” (Charlie Munger is long-time partner to Warren Buffett and friend of many years.)

Without question, the Buffett annual letter to shareholders is quite educational in regards to his philosophy of value investing, which he learned from Benjamin Graham, his mentor and author of The Intelligent Investor, a classic business tome.

Buffett’s investing philosophy is quite simple: Invest in easy to understand companies, for the long-term, with managers who love their business, and the businesses are currently undervalued. Always disregard all flavor of the month trends.

Buffett personally loves to invest in large, extremely reliable American businesses. This explains why the four biggest Berkshire Hathaway investments are in Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, IBM and American Express. He increased Berkshire Hathaway’s ownership stake in all of these companies during 2012. The Omaha, Nebraska-based investment firm now owns 8.9% of Coca-Cola, 6% of IBM, 13.7% of American Express and 8.7% of Wells Fargo. “Berkshire’s ownership interest in all four companies is likely to increase in the future,” wrote Buffett. “Mae West had it right: ‘Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.’”

Let’s now take a look at some of the major highlights of the Berkshire Hathaway annual letter:

Guessing about Succession: The question asked most frequently in American capitalism is this: Who is going to finally replace the 82-year-old Warren Buffett? Buffett has made it quite clear that his duties are going to be divided among an investment manager – who is responsible for the allocation of Berkshire’s money – and a CEO, ultimately in charge of running the entire $170 billion empire that is Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffett confirmed last year that Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, two relatively unknown hedge fund managers, will be replacing him on the investment side. Buffett was very pleased with their performance during 2012.

Weschler and Combs “have proved to be smart, models of integrity, helpful to Berkshire in many ways beyond portfolio management, and a perfect fit,” wrote Buffett. “We hit the jackpot with these two. In 2012 each outperformed the S&P 500 by double-digit margins.” Buffett then added mischievously, in a very tiny font: “They left me in the dust as well.” As a result of this excellent performance, Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway have decided to increase their investment funds to around $5 billion. “Todd and Ted are young and will be around to manage Berkshire’s massive portfolio long after Charlie and I have left the scene. You can rest easy when they take over,” wrote Buffett.

On the side of management, Warren Buffett didn’t provide any clues, but he did heavily praise Ajit Jain, a longtime favorite of Buffett who manages the reinsurance group of Berkshire Hathaway worth in the multi-billions. He is widely looked upon as one of the top candidates to take over the CEO position at Berkshire. “From a standing start in 1985, Ajit has created an insurance business with float of $35 billion and a significant cumulative underwriting profit, a feat that no other insurance CEO has come close to matching,” wrote Buffett. “He has thus added a great many billions of dollars to the value of Berkshire. If you meet Ajit at the annual meeting, bow deeply.”

Newspapers: We all know that Buffett loves newspapers, “and if the economics make sense, [Berkshire] will buy them even when they fall far short of the size threshold we would require for purchase of, say, a widget company.” Over the last 15 months, Berkshire Hathaway has acquired 28 daily newspapers and paid $344 million for the privilege, he wrote, even with his long-standing prediction that “the circulation, advertising and profits of the newspaper industry overall are certain to decline.”

Here’s Warren Buffett’s logic: “News, to put it simply, is what people don’t know that they want to know,” wrote Buffett. “And people will seek their news – what’s important to them – from whatever sources provide the best combination of immediacy, ease of access, reliability, comprehensiveness and low cost.” Buffett will readily admit that the Internet has been a disruption on the traditional newspaper business model, causing a drastic decline in revenues and readership. But there’s one particular area in this industry where Buffett sees an opportunity:

Newspapers continue to reign supreme, however, in the delivery of local news. If you want to know what’s going on in your town – whether the news is about the mayor or taxes or high school football – there is no substitute for a local newspaper that is doing its job. A reader’s eyes may glaze over after they take in a couple of paragraphs about Canadian tariffs or political developments in Pakistan; a story about the reader himself or his neighbors will be read to the end. Wherever there is a pervasive sense of community, a paper that serves the special informational needs of that community will remain indispensable to a significant portion of its residents. [...]

Charlie and I believe that papers delivering comprehensive and reliable information to tightly-bound communities and having a sensible Internet strategy will remain viable for a long time. We do not believe that success will come from cutting either the news content or frequency of publication. Indeed, skimpy news coverage will almost certainly lead to skimpy readership. And the less-than-daily publication that is now being tried in some large towns or cities – while it may improve profits in the short term – seems certain to diminish the papers’ relevance over time. Our goal is to keep our papers loaded with content of interest to our readers and to be paid appropriately by those who find us useful, whether the product they view is in their hands or on the Internet.

Uncertainty: In one of the more surprising parts of the annual Berkshire letter, Warren Buffett called out a few of his fellow US CEOs who have “cried ‘uncertainty’ when faced with capital allocation decisions (despite many of their businesses having enjoyed record levels of both earnings and cash).” Buffett is an optimist for America, who wrote that he is not in agreement with their concerns. “If you are a CEO who has some large, profitable project you are shelving because of short-term worries, call Berkshire. Let us unburden you,” wrote Buffett.

American business will do fine over time. And stocks will do well just as certainly, since their fate is tied to business performance. Periodic setbacks will occur, yes, but investors and managers are in a game that is heavily stacked in their favor. (The Dow Jones Industrials advanced from 66 to 11,497 in the 20th Century, a staggering 17,320% increase that materialized despite four costly wars, a Great Depression and many recessions. And don’t forget that shareholders received substantial dividends throughout the century as well.)

Since the basic game is so favorable, Charlie and I believe it’s a terrible mistake to try to dance in and out of it based upon the turn of tarot cards, the predictions of “experts,” or the ebb and flow of business activity. The risks of being out of the game are huge compared to the risks of being in it. My own history provides a dramatic example: I made my first stock purchase in the spring of 1942 when the U.S. was suffering major losses throughout the Pacific war zone. Each day’s headlines told of more setbacks. Even so, there was no talk about uncertainty; every American I knew believed we would prevail.

The country’s success since that perilous time boggles the mind: On an inflation-adjusted basis, GDP per capita more than quadrupled between 1941 and 2012. Throughout that period, every tomorrow has been uncertain. America’s destiny, however, has always been clear: ever-increasing abundance.

Omaha, Nebraska, Next Stop: The Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting is known as the Woodstock of capitalism – and for very good reason. Each year, tens of thousands of the Berkshire Hathaway faithful make a pilgrimage to the annual meeting of the company, which takes place in Omaha, Nebraska on May 4 this year. It is quite the spectacle: imagine for a moment a Grateful Dead concert populated by hard-core, and in certain cases, the very wealthy, true believers in capitalism. Everyone is always in a great mood. Among this year’s highlights are:

  • Berkshire Hathaway’s second annual international newspaper tossing challenge. “Last year I successfully fought off all challengers,” wrote Buffett. “But now Berkshire has acquired a large number of newspapers and with them came much tossing talent (or so the thrower’s claim). Come see whether their talent matches their talk.”
  • The “Berkshire 5K” race will start at CenturyLink Center, the arena that holds 19,000 seats and is also the location of the annual meeting. “We will have plenty of categories for competition, including one for the media,” wrote Buffett. “Regretfully, I will forgo running; someone has to man the starting gun.”
  • On Sunday, May 5, they hold the Borsheims Fine Jewelry gala. (Berkshire has owned Borsheims, the Omaha-based company, since 1989.) “Around 1 PM on Sunday, I will begin clerking at Borsheims,” wrote Buffett. “Last year my sales totaled 1.5 million. This year I won’t quit until I hit the $2 million. Because I need to leave well before sundown, I will be desperate to do business. Come take advantage of me. Ask for my ‘Crazy Warren’ price.”

The annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting is always a very memorable experience. Buffett can seem like he’s ageless at times, but unfortunately, that just isn’t the case. So if you happen to be a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder in the area of Omaha during the first weekend of May, you never know who you’re going to run into at Piccolo’s or Gorat’s. “These restaurants are my favorites, and I will eat at both of them on Sunday evening,” wrote Buffett. If you decide to go to Piccolo’s, “order a giant root beer float for dessert,” advises Buffett. “Only sissies get the small one. (I once saw Bill Gates polish off two of the giant variety after a full course dinner; that’s when I knew he would make a great director.)”

Should You Sell These Two Stocks Like Warren Buffett?

Feb 27, 2013
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // investing // warren buffett with No Comments

So many investors look at Warren Buffett as the all-time greatest long-term investor in history. When you have a net worth of more than $60 billion, there’s no question that he is certainly a successful investor by any and all means.

Buffett is a value investor, and he follows the teachings of his mentor Benjamin Graham and Phil Fisher. He only purchases stocks that have a strong long-term future, and they also must produce high returns and maintain a capital structure that is conservative.

His methods for picking stocks have been extremely successful, and Berkshire Hathaway, his investment firm, is one of the costliest stocks on Wall Street for very good reasons. As of September 2011, shares were about $100,000 each. But since then, they have skyrocketed to over $150,000 as of today. That is a 50% return on your investment in just a year and a half, if you didn’t do the math on your own.

As an investor, it would certainly be smart to follow the lead of a gentleman like Warren Buffett as far as investment philosophy and stock picking are concerned. If you study Warren Buffett’s quarterly 13 F filings, you can find out exactly what he is buying and selling during the prior quarter.

But this is unfortunately old news by the time the 13 F filings are published. So you’re not going to get as good a price on the stocks of Warren Buffett purchases at the time that he either buys or sells. It may turn out better for you. It may not. But buying at the right time and selling at the right time is what truly makes the difference when it comes to profiting in this business. I’d also like to mention that just because Warren Buffett buys or sells a stock, it doesn’t reflect the true value of a company one way or another.

So you can use the 13 F filings as a way to guide yourself, but don’t look at them as an all-encompassing authority. As an example, if you recognize that Buffett is either buying or selling a certain company, make a note of it and look deeper into the company yourself. Determine if you feel that it is either the time to buy or sell.

When going over Warren Buffett’s latest 13 F filing, there were two particular companies that really stood out because he sold off shares during the third quarter of 2012. Both of these companies have performed solidly during this time. This should prove to you that just because a professional like Warren Buffett is selling the stock, does not mean that the company is no longer worthy to buy or hold.

Let’s take a much closer look at the two companies that Warren Buffett sold recently, even though their fundamentals are very solid…

Johnson & Johnson

Up until very recently, Johnson & Johnson was actually one of Warren Buffett’s largest holdings. But during 2011, Johnson & Johnson acquired Sythes, a Swiss medical device maker in a one third cash, two thirds stock deal. Buffett was not a big fan of this purchase, because it diluted the value of the shares of Johnson & Johnson.

But Buffett didn’t immediately overreact. He waited for the opportune time, and during the third quarter of 2012, he sold off 95% of his Johnson & Johnson holding. His stake in the company went from over 10 million shares for less than 500,000. The company is actually now one of Warren Buffett’s smallest holdings overall.

What has the stock done since then? Well, the shares have actually soared much higher since then. They were $68 per share in November of 2012, and as of today they are currently worth $76 a share. So it’s fairly obvious that the Warren Buffett selloff didn’t have any negative effect in the stock at all. The investors who purchased Warren Buffett’s shares have made around a 12% return on their investment in such a short period of time.

Let’s not forget that Johnson & Johnson has a 50 year track record of paying dividends, and the $3 billion they have in cash shows us that it will be very easy for them to maintain their dividend payments.

Procter & Gamble

During October of 2012, Buffett spoke out and mentioned that he was concerned about Procter & Gamble’s valuation. At the time, he cut back his holding by around 7 million shares throughout the third quarter of 2012. But he still owns about 53 million shares of the company, so he is obviously not bearish on this stock completely.

If you bought Procter & Gamble during November of 2012, you are making about 15% on your shares presently worth 77 dollars.

The more interesting story revolving around this company is that famed activist short seller Bill Ackman has purchased over 4 million shares of Procter & Gamble during the third quarter of 2012. His stake has now increased by more than 34 million shares, which he owns through Pershing Square Capital Management, his hedge fund.

Bill Ackman has been pressuring this company to increase their profitability, and throughout the fourth quarter of 2012, the company’s year-over-year earnings have risen 12% to $1.22 per share. Additionally, Procter & Gamble has increased their 2013 earnings guidance from $3.97 per share to $4.07 per share. This is between a 3% to 6% increase from the 2012 earnings.

Please consider that following the lead of a professional investor will not guarantee you any success. You must do your due diligence while choosing investments. It doesn’t matter which investor is buying or selling it.

If you plan on taking action on an investment, it’s not a bad idea to follow the moves of a professional investor like Warren Buffett. As a matter of fact, it’s a good way to start making your stock picks. Just be sure to pay attention to what the professionals are buying, but you have to do your own research to figure out if this investment makes sense for you. You do not necessarily know Warren Buffett’s investment strategy, and it may not fit in with your own wants and needs.

How To Be Like Warren Buffett (Part 1)

Jan 17, 2013
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // stocks // warren buffett with No Comments

Value investor Benjamin Graham once wrote that investing is most intelligent when it is the most businesslike. Just like many of the other ideas from this investing genius, this brilliant thought is very profound because of its simplicity.

We’re going to try to figure out exactly what he meant. Imagine you got a phone call from a chief executive officer who is a casual acquaintance, and he offers to sell you his company stock at what appears to be a very low price. What would you say to this person?

Your natural reaction would most likely be: Why are you selling the stock? Why would you offer me such a good deal?

Some other questions you might have are: what does your company do? What products do you sell? How does your business make money? Why do customers choose you over some of your competitors? Who are your main competitors, and what is their behavior? Why do you not have more competitors?

If the company operates overseas, you’ll want to know more about the countries in which it competes. What could potentially happen if things go wrong in these countries? Also, you’ll need to know how much the company depends on its suppliers? What could happen to the businesses the taste of the customers change? Are the management running the company very trustworthy?

If the answers to the questions meet your satisfaction, then you’ll want to start looking into the numbers. As an example: what is the average cash profit generated by the company each year? How much can they make in a good year? How much will they make it a bad year? How do you explain the discrepancy between the two?

You’ll also want to know how the company fares during different economic environments. If the economy is going through deflation, will the company be able to hold onto its prices? Can the company prices rise along with inflation?

Now you’re going to have to try and justify the purchase price. How long is it going to take before you’ll be able to recoup your investment? If the business fails, what can the company liquidate, and how much of that money will you personally get back? If the business grows steadily, how much of the money must get put back into the venture, and what will the rates of return be? Will the return be better than other potential investments and uses for your money?

Unsaid questions

What’s really interesting are the questions that have been asked, like:

What is the current stock price of the company? Where was the stock price one year ago? Where will the stock price go next month – is the run already over?

When looked at on the stock chart, does it form a bearish diamond and drop through support levels? What will be the next quarter’s EPS, and will you come in higher or lower when compared to the Street consensus? Does the stocks P/E or PEG ratio compare well with its peers, or the market on the whole?

What is the stocks daily liquidity? How many analysts are considering it a buy as a recommendation, how many have it as a sell and how many have it as a hold? What is the stocks beta? To the shares of zag while other shares zig?

You certainly would’ve asked these questions since you are thinking about this as a business man or business woman. The ultimate decision you wanted to come to is whether or not the business is worthy of buying at the price currently being offered to you. If it isn’t, then you have to politely thank the CEO and hold onto your money. The company just wasn’t cheap enough for you to purchase.

Tomorrow, when we publish part two of this article, we will look at some important information that you’ll find the most disciplined of investors regularly keep in mind.

We’ll see you soon…

Warren Buffett Is More Than Just A Value Investor

Sep 21, 2012
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // investing // stocks // warren buffett with No Comments

The name Warren Buffett has basically been synonymous with value investing for many years now. He was a disciple of the value investor extraordinaire Benjamin Graham, who is also known as the “Father of Value Investing.” Because of this, Mister Buffett has become the most widely known investor, likely due to his ability to determine the true value of securities, and then purchase them for much less than what they are actually worth. This is a core concept of value investing. Buffett has said that “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

Labeling Warren Buffett as strictly a “value investor” is definitely an oversimplification of what the man does. The truth is that his overall investing strategy has quite a few different factors involved.

Actually, in a recent paper, three individuals from AQR Capital Management recognized that the main driving force of Warren Buffett’s major success over the last few decades has not been value. “The standard academic factors that capture the market, size, value and momentum premia cannot explain Buffett’s performance so it has to date been a mystery,” write Lasse H Pedersen, David Kabiller and Andrea Frazzini.

Early in their study, they said that they “find the secret to Buffett’s success is his preference for cheap, safe, high-quality stocks combined with his consistent use of leverage to magnify returns while surviving the inevitable large absolute and relative drawdowns this entails.”

The group estimates that Warren Buffett applies about 1.6 to 1 leverage, and it is financed in part by the insurance float attained by Berkshire Hathaway. This group of individuals also recognized that Berkshire Hathaway’s public holdings between the years 1980 through 2011 averaged a beta of 0.77. This means that the stocks they purchased were quite a bit less volatile than the overall broader market.

It really isn’t all that surprising that Warren Buffett’s main catalyst to success was picking the safer stocks of high-quality companies. There is a Buffett style investment strategy that’s completely based on the way that Warren Buffett built his business. This strategy puts its major emphasis on quality companies, and this is even more important than specific value metrics. And these quality stocks also have a tendency to be a lot less volatile.

The overall Buffett style investing strategy requires that every company evaluated for purchase must have their earnings-per-share increase each year for at least a decade or more. Plus their annual earnings must provide them with the ability to pay off the entirety of their debt within a five-year span. The average ROI of each company must be 15% or more over the last decade as well. Every one of these signs are there to help you judge whether or not a business is of the highest quality.

It doesn’t really matter if you call it high-quality investing, value investing, high quality low beta investing or just low beta investing, the track record of Warren Buffett shows you in and of itself that this is an incredible approach that is definitely worth pursuing. So I recommend you do exactly that.

Did Buffett’s Mentor Lead An Unorthodox Life?

Aug 2, 2012
by Kelly Scott in billionaires // investing // stocks // warren buffett with No Comments

To get right to the point, the early mentor of investor extraordinaire Warren Buffett had a very straight to the point ethic in business, but he also had a very strange and unorthodox personal life. This was learned by reading the new book by investment analyst Joe Carlen titled “The Einstein of Money” (Prometheus Books, 368 pages, $25).

The now famous author of “The Intelligent Investor,” Benjamin Graham is the individual who truly shaped the investment philosophy of Warren Buffett. His book has also been a bestseller in the business category since it was originally published in the year 1949. Buffett went to Columbia University so he could specifically enroll and study under Graham. He also had the opportunity to work for him in New York City during the 1950s.

Benjamin Graham had two sons that passed away relatively early in their lives. His first son, named Newton, died of meningitis of the spine at the age of eight. His second son, named Newton II, served in the U.S. Army in France during the year 1954, where he committed suicide. Once Graham found out that his son was dead, he immediately uprooted himself at the age of 60 and went to France to take care of the arrangements of his son’s passing. While he was there, he met Newton IIs lover at the time, named Marie Louise Amigues.

“Malou” Amigues is a citizen of France who also happened to be about 20 years older than Benjamin Graham’s son. She immediately became Ben Graham’s primary companion and lover, and this was all happening while he was still married at the time, according to Carlen in his brand-new book.

The third wife of Graham, Estelle, lived apart from Ben for the last 10 years of his life. He actually passed on from this world at Amigues’ home during the year 1976 while they were in France. In the book, Carlen mentions that Graham was regularly and routinely unfaithful to all of his wives, and he also added:

“Graham’s failings in one particular area of an otherwise honorable personal life are all the more startling in light of his exemplary, almost saintly, track record in ethical matters where money was concerned.”

To give you a little bit of perspective on Buffett’s relationship with Graham, “Ben couldn’t have been nicer to me,” are the exact words that Buffett told Carlen during an interview. One example that immediately comes to mind is this – Graham actually paid for Buffett to take dance lessons when he learned that Susan Thompson Buffett, Warren’s wife, enjoyed to go dancing.

The Grahams, both Ben and Estelle, decided to take the young Buffett couple under their wings, as a matter of speaking, and the Buffett family also visited them in California after Ben and his wife retired to the state.

Buffett and Graham are actually 35 years apart in age, and they come from very different backgrounds as well. Graham is actually the great-grandson of the chief Rabbi of Warsaw, Poland. Buffett is a Midwestern Protestant that was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska.

But Carlen also noted that there were similarities between the two individuals. Both of these gentlemen had very successful entrepreneurs in their family lines, and the fathers of both gentlemen had very strong religious convictions as well. Both individuals have been blessed to have a superior intellect, very good memories and a love for mathematics plus a gift for numbers.

To continue on with the similarities, both were very poor at one point in their lives, which was important to both gentlemen because it helped reinforce the need to succeed financially, as well as grow their appreciation for real world value, according to Carlen in “The Einstein of Money.”

Buffett also confirmed a story for Carlen which he heard in the 1980s while he was talking to a cab driver in Omaha. There was an Omaha auto dealer who was offering very large discounts on cars that happened to get damaged in a hailstorm. Warren Buffett was already a billionaire at this time, but since he is a bargain shopper he actually bought one. His daughter Susan bought one of these hail-dimpled cars on behalf of her father.

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