> In high school, he invested in a business owned by his father and bought a 40-acre farm worked by a tenant farmer.
> Buffett’s net worth dropped earlier this week when he donated $2.9 billion in Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) stock to charity
Such a generous man and an entrepreneur. We need more like him.
I disagree. We need less people like him (I mean people wealthier than some countries). Let the government manage social services. Some people depend on charities, that themselves depend only on the good will of those people, and I don't think that's wise.
Even for much much smaller amounts, donations (of various kinds) of appreciated assets can use tax law to considerable advantage.
Donate your lowest cost basis stock and write off at current market value. Donate stock directly to avoid taxes incurred by selling. Lowest cost basis because that removes the largest unrealized capital gains from your personal portfolio. Maybe do so over some number of days to cost average if you are donating oodles like Buffet.
it's also kinda cute the idea that shares are stored like computer files. But it's not a stupid question at all. Their existence is regulated by a complicated regulatory complex.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depository_Trust_%26_Clearing_...
He is nothing like Musk. If Buffet never existed, Geico and Coca Cola would have been mismanaged into the ground and these markets would have never been sparked to become global industries.
And how did he make expensive insurance?
The expensive insurance thing is a hard thing to prove, it’s definitely an opinion rather than a fact. What I saw was the huge success Geico had with their advertising programs, and then every other insurance company deciding to run expensive ad campaigns. The costs of that marketing is paid for directly by the consumer, we’re paying to watch all these dumb characters and cavemen try to sell us car and home insurance, when it used to be a quiet thing you did at the bank.