Every Invester around the world has heard of Warren Buffett and the wealth he has amassed over the course of his life. One of the richest men in the world that started from humble beginnings. By the time he was 11 years old, he was buying stock. When he was a teenager, he filed his first tax return, delivered newspapers and owned multiple pinball machines placed in various businesses. When he graduated, he already owned a stake in a forty-acre farm.
Slow and steady wins the race as they say, and that is how Warren Buffet approaches investments. He says “If you don’t feel comfortable owning a stock for 10 years, you shouldn’t own it for 10 minutes.” He made 99.7% of his money after the age of 52. In 1978, the median U.S. household income was about $21,000. Buffett’s wealth was 4,500 times more than that. In 1982, Forbes printed the first list of the 400 richest Americans. Buffett has been on the list every single year it has existed. For his first appearance, he was listed with a net worth of $250 million. Three years later, he quadrupled that number. And in 1989, he was worth $3.6 billion — more than tripling his $1 billion in just four years! How did he increase his wealth by so much and so fast? In the broadest of explanations, he invested wisely in real assets that produced a positive cash flow for him each month and he remained “broke” — meaning he kept his expenses as a lower rate so he had money left over to keep investing.
In this day and age most everyone is trying to get rich fast and that comes with a big risk. So be patient and invest smart… and maybe one day we’ll be writing about you.
