Warren Buffett
Investor · Berkshire Hathaway chairman
Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, which he ran as CEO for six decades before handing the job to Greg Abel at the start of 2026. His annual shareholder letters and the Omaha annual meeting are read and watched far beyond finance. The routine is as well known as the record: five or six hours a day of reading, an appointment book with almost nothing in it, bridge several times a week, several Cokes a day and a McDonald's breakfast on the drive to the office. He says happiness makes an enormous difference to longevity and would sooner eat what he likes than trade it for an extra year.
- Entries
- 21
- Does
- 9
- Recommends
- 12
- Discusses
- 0
Books
7 books in this stack
- BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Business Adventures
When Bill Gates asked him for his favorite business book at their first meeting in 1991, he named this one without hesitating and sent Gates his own copy. Gates has since called it the best business book he has ever read, and says he still has the copy.
Source: CNBC Make It: Warren Buffett and Bill Gates agree this 1969 classic is still the best business book of all timeView item: Business AdventuresOn record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 recommend it - BookRecommends$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Poor Charlie's Almanack
In the 2010 letter he plugged his partner's collected talks. It came with a joke. Shareholders should buy a copy and carry it around, he wrote, because it would make them look urbane and erudite.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway: 2010 Chairman's LetterView item: Poor Charlie's AlmanackOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Shoe Dog
The best book he read in 2016, according to that year's shareholder letter. In it he describes Phil Knight as a very wise, intelligent and competitive fellow. Also a gifted storyteller.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway: 2016 Chairman's LetterView item: Shoe DogOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Intelligent Investor
Buying Ben Graham's book was the best investment he ever made, he wrote in the 2013 letter, his two marriage licenses excepted. He cannot remember the price. Whatever he paid for that first copy, he says, would prove Graham's adage that price is what you pay and value is what you get.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway: 2013 Chairman's LetterView item: The Intelligent InvestorOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
A few investment managers are very good, he conceded in the 2014 letter, but in the short run it is hard to tell luck from talent. Rather than listen to their siren songs, he wrote, investors large and small should read Bogle's book instead.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway: 2014 Chairman's LetterView item: The Little Book of Common Sense InvestingOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Outsiders
An outstanding book about CEOs who excelled at capital allocation. That was his verdict in the 2012 letter. He singled out the chapter on Berkshire director Tom Murphy, whom he rates the best business manager he has ever met.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway: 2012 Chairman's LetterView item: The OutsidersOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Where Are the Customers' Yachts?
The funniest book ever written about investing, he wrote in the 2006 letter, and one that lightly delivers many truly important messages on the subject. It went on the discounted book table at that year's annual meeting alongside Poor Charlie's Almanack.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway: 2006 Chairman's LetterView item: Where Are the Customers' Yachts?On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
Protocols
7 entriesStructured routines and practices with a defined method.
No interest in getting to work at four in the morning. He told PBS NewsHour he likes to sleep and usually gets eight hours a night. CNBC adds, citing ValueWalk, that he gets up at 6:45, reads the paper at home and sometimes arrives after the market has opened.
Source: CNBC Make It: You don't have to get up super early to be successfulHe was terrified of speaking in public until he was 20. So he signed up for a Dale Carnegie course, stopped payment on the check, then went back and paid $100 in cash so he would have to show up. The certificate hangs in his office. His college diplomas do not, and he calls it the degree that mattered most to his later success.
Source: CNBC Make It: This $100 college course gave me the most important degree I haveInvestors do not need to be experts on every company or even many, he wrote in the 1996 letter; they need to evaluate the ones inside their circle of competence. How big the circle is matters little. Knowing where its boundary lies, he says, is vital.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway: 1996 Chairman's LetterConsistently buy a low-cost S&P 500 index fund and keep buying through thick and thin, especially thin, was his retirement advice to CNBC. The trick is not picking the right company but owning all the big ones cheaply, he says, and he warns that fees are the advisor's income coming out of your pocket. Other index funds almost always carry bigger fees, he adds.
Source: CNBC: Warren Buffett says index funds make the best retirement sense practically all the timeCredits his father with the idea: what is on your inner scorecard matters more than the outer one. Some people, he told students in 2005, spend their lives on what the world will think of a decision instead of what they think of it themselves, and he believes those who make peace with the inner scorecard live happier lives.
Source: CNBC Make It: Billionaire Warren Buffett has a simple test for making tough decisionsA lesson he likes to teach business students, according to Charlie Munger. Only twenty punches for a lifetime of investments. You would think much harder about each one and load up on the few you were sure of. At Florida in 1998 he added that perhaps three, five or seven of those twenty would make someone rich, and that nobody gets rich trying a new idea every day.
Source: CNBC Make It: Warren Buffett loves teaching this 20-slot rule at business schoolsIn the November 2025 letter that announced he was going quiet, he retold the story of Alfred Nobel reading his own mistaken obituary and changing his behavior, then advised readers not to count on a newsroom mix-up: decide what you want your obituary to say and live a life that deserves it. Get the right heroes and copy them, he added, starting with Tom Murphy.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway: November 2025 letter to shareholders
Habits
7 entriesRecurring behaviors recorded in public statements.
Five or six hours a day, he says in the HBO documentary Becoming Warren Buffett, followed by long stretches of just sitting and thinking about business problems, which he admits is sometimes unproductive. CNBC counts six newspapers a day. Todd Combs recalls him telling Columbia students to read 500 pages a day because knowledge compounds, and guessing that few of them would.
Source: CNBC Make It: Warren Buffett and Mark Cuban agree this one habit is key to successHis idea of a perfect day, he told Becky Quick in 2013, is being alone with no interruptions. Then he can read and think. Flipping through a nearly empty appointment book, he said the one thing his money buys that he really values is freedom. And freedom, he added, is the key to a happy life.
Source: CNBC: Billionaire Warren Buffett's Secret Ice Cream FixAt least four sessions a week of about two hours each, he told the Washington Post. He likes that no two hands are ever the same and calls it the best exercise there is for the brain, a game that still offers a new problem every seven minutes when you are in your nineties.
Source: CNBC Make It: Billionaire Warren Buffett spends 8 hours a week playing bridgeShowed Bill Gates and Charlie Rose a paper appointment book with almost nothing in it, three entries for a whole week in April, and agreed there was nothing on it. Time is the one thing he cannot buy, he said, so he is careful with it. Gates credits that calendar with teaching him that a packed schedule is not proof of seriousness.
Source: CNBC Make It: What Warren Buffett taught Bill Gates about managing time by sharing his blank calendarSays he found everything he likes to eat by the age of six and sees no reason to change, Coke and hot fudge sundaes included. Told that broccoli might buy him an extra year, he would rather lose the year. Happiness, he argues, makes an enormous difference to longevity, and he is happier drinking Coke. The company put his face on Cherry Coke cans when the drink launched in China.
Source: CNBC: Warren Buffett: I'd give up a year of my life to eat what I likeWhile shaving he tells his wife whether the day is a $2.61, $2.95 or $3.17 morning, and she leaves the exact change in a cup in the car for the drive-through. Two sausage patties with a Coke is the cheaper option. On the morning the HBO crew filmed him, he passed on the $3.17 bacon, egg and cheese biscuit because the market was down.
Source: CNBC Make It: Warren Buffett's breakfast never costs more than $3.17Starts every morning with a couple of newspapers and gets through five in a day, beginning with the Omaha World-Herald, he told Becky Quick in 2013. He also keeps a pile of books by his chair, mostly biographies, and says he never gets tired of reading.
Source: CNBC: Billionaire Warren Buffett's Secret Ice Cream Fix
In their own words
Checked word for word against the linked source
“I play a lot ... at least four sessions a week, about two hours a session … You can play a hand every six or seven minutes every day for the rest of your life, and you will never see the same hand … a game you can enjoy when you are in your 90s, and you are seeing a different intellectual challenge every seven minutes.”
CNBC Make It: Billionaire Warren Buffett spends 8 hours a week playing bridge (opens in a new tab) · 24 Oct 2017 On Bridge
“I have no desire to get to work at four in the morning … I get quite a bit of sleep. I like to sleep … So I will usually sleep eight hours a night.”
CNBC Make It: You don't have to get up super early to be successful (opens in a new tab) · 6 Jul 2017 “I still probably spend five or six hours a day reading … I like to sit and think. I spend a lot of time doing that and sometimes it is pretty unproductive, but I find it enjoyable to think about business or investment problems.”
CNBC Make It: Warren Buffett and Mark Cuban agree this one habit is key to success (opens in a new tab) · 15 Nov 2017 “I always tell people: I found everything I like to eat by the time I was six … I think happiness makes an enormous amount of difference ... in terms of longevity”
CNBC: Warren Buffett: I'd give up a year of my life to eat what I like (opens in a new tab) · 12 Apr 2023 “You don't have to be an expert on every company, or even many. You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.”
Berkshire Hathaway: 1996 Chairman's Letter (opens in a new tab) · 28 Feb 1997
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