Is Warren Buffett married? Yes, he is. His wife’s name is Astrid Menks. The couple got married on August 30, 2006, which was the day when Buffett celebrated his 76th birthday. The pair were a long companion before getting married.
Astrid Menks isn’t the first wife of Buffett as he was previously married to Susan Buffett (née Thompson) on April 19, 1952, at Dundee Presbyterian Church. On July 30, 1953, the pair welcomed their first child as a daughter named Susan Alice Buffett. Susan was married to Allen Greenberg from 1983 to 1995.
Warren and Astrid welcomed their second child as a son named Howard Graham Buffett on December 16, 1954. Howard Graham is married to Devon G. Buffett and is a father of American professor Howard Warren Buffett (born on October 14, 1983). Their third child named Peter Andrew Buffett was born on May 4, 1958, who is currently married to Jennifer Buffett. He was previously married to Mary Buffett and now he is married to Jennifer Buffett.
Warren and his first wife Susan separated in 1977. Although they were living separately, they remained married until Susan Buffett’s death in July 2004. Scroll down to explore more interesting personal facts and biography of Buffett:
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Who is Warren Buffett?
Born as Warren Edward Buffett, he landed the planet on August 30, 1930, which makes his age be 90 years old as of 2020. By profession, he is an American investor best known for being the chairman and CEO of a multinational conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway. The whole world admires him for being one of the greatest investors in the world of all time.
He is a renowned philanthropist who has pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune for various philanthropist works. He has mainly contributed to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation founded by Bill Gates (born on October 28, 1955) and his wife Melinda Gates (born on August 15, 1964). With Bill Gates, he founded The Giving Pledge whereby billionaires wished to contribute half of their fortunes.
Early Life and Education
Buffett was born in 1930 and his place of birth is in Omaha, Nebraska, the United States of America. Talking about his family background, he was born to American parents named Howard Buffett (father) and Leila (née Stahl) Buffett (mother). He is the second and male child to his parents out of three. He was highly inspired by his father who was a businessman, investor and politician whereas his mother who was a descendant of the Stahl family from Estonia.
The names of his sisters are Doris Buffett Bryant and Roberta Buffett Bialek. Doris is also the founder of The Sunshine Lady Foundation, The Letters Foundation (with Warren Buffett) and The Learning By Giving Foundation.
Regarding his education and academic achievements, he went to Rose Hill Elementary School and later moved to Washington, D.C. with his family members when his father was elected to the first of four terms in the United States Congress in 1942. He attended Alice Deal Junior High School and completed his high school graduation in 1947 from Woodrow Wilson High School. He was involved in side-entrepreneurial and investment ventures. He desired to skip college and gave his entire focus to his business but was not allowed by his father.
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He was also highly inspired by a book called One Thousand Ways to Make $1000 which he borrowed at the age of seven from the Omaha public library. He has entrepreneurial desires from a young age and started selling chewing gums and Coca-Cola bottles. He even sold weekly magazines door to door for making money. He used to share his hands in his grandfather’s grocery store. He also earned money by selling golf balls and stamps, delivering newspapers and so on.
With his friend, he invested 25 dollars for acquiring a used pinball machine and within a few months, they owned machines in different barbershops. They sold the business for 1,000 USD to a war veteran. Because of his father’s brokerage office, he discovered an interest in the stock market and made the investment as a schoolboy. He visited the New York Stock Exchange at the age of ten when he was on a trip to New York City.
He purchased three shares of Cities Service Preferred for himself at the age of eleven. He made his investment also in a business run by his father during his high school and purchased a 40-acre farm. He saved 9,800 USD by the time he completed his finished college which is an impressive amount considering the time value of money.
He joined the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 where his father pressured him to continue his education although he wanted to focus on his business ventures. He later joined the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity after being enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania for two years. At the age of 19, he was transferred to the University of Nebraska from where he completed his graduation by earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.
He applied at Harvard Business School but was rejected after which he joined Columbia Business School of Columbia University. The reason for joining Columbia Business School was that Benjamin Graham used to teach there. In 1951, Buffett received his Master of Science degree in Economics. Following graduation, he was enrolled at the New York Institute of Finance. From Benjamin Graham, he learned to look at stocks as business and finding the advantage from the market’s fluctuations.
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Career and Professional Life
After completion of his master’s degree, he started working at Buffett-Falk & Co. where he served as an investment salesman from 1951 to 1954. After that, he started working as a securities analyst at Graham-Newman Corp. from 1954 to 1956. For thirteen years, he worked as a general partner at Buffett Partnership, Ltd. until 1969. Since 1970, he has been working for Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as chairman and CEO.
He started working as a stockbroker and started teaching the “Investment Principles” night class at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. An interesting fact is that most of his students were double the age of Buffet. As a side investment, he purchased a Sinclair Texaco gas station which turned to be unsuccessful. He was offered a job at Benjamin Graham’s partnership in 1954 where his starting salary amounted to 12,000 USD per year. He started Buffett Partnership Ltd. when Benjamin Graham took retirement and closed his partnership.
He started increasing the number of partnerships which reached six in 1959. The following year, he increased his partnership ventures to seven. He managed eleven doctors who could invest 10,000 USD. It was reported that more than one-third of his partnership’s assets were invested in the Sanborn Map Company in 1961. He found that the market price of Sanborn stock was 45 dollars although the company’s investment portfolio was worth 65 dollars per share. He acquired 23% of the company’s outstanding shares through which he could enter to the Board of Directors. He allied with some dissatisfied shareholders and finally made on the control of 44% of the company’s share. Within two years, he made a 50% return on his investment.
He turned as a millionaire in 1962 through his partnerships. He started merging his partnerships into one and later made his control over the textile manufacturing firm, Berkshire Hathaway. From its owner Seabury Stanton, he started purchasing the shares and later fired Seabury Stanton from the company. His partnership started making investment aggressively in 1965 during which the company had a working capital of 19 dollars per share. He took control over the board of the company and named a new president as Ken Chace in a board meeting.
He discovered that the textile business is not making a good business and then shifted the business into insurance sectors. Berkshire started purchasing stock in the Washington Post Company in 1973. He had a good relation with Katharine Graham. Berkshire acquired the Buffalo Evening News indirectly in 1977 for 32.5 million USD. Berkshire started acquiring stock in ABC. Capital Cities in 1979. The announced of making 3.5 billion USD investment in ABC on March 18, 1985, which turned into breaking news of that time.
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Berkshire Hathaway purchased 12% shares of Salomon Inc. in 1987 which made the largest shareholder and eventually Buffett turned as the director of the company. The former CEO of Salomon Brothers, John Gutfreund left the company which made Buffett turned as the Chairman of Salomon until the crisis passed. He started acquiring the shares of The Coca-Cola Company which made him own 7% of the company’s stock for 1.02 billion USD. The shares ae still hold by Berkshire which is considered as one of the most lucrative investments for the company.
One of the remarkable days in Buffett’s life is on May 29, 1990, when he turned as a billionaire when the Berkshire Hathaway began selling class A shares at $7,175 a share. He announced that he would give away 85% of his Berkshire holdings to various foundations in 2006. The largest contribution would be made for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
During the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2007-08, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway also had to suffer as there was 77% drop in earnings during 2008’s third-quarter report. Almost all the sectors were suffering during that financial crisis and later Buffett became the richest person in the world in 2008 by overtaking Bill Gates.
At that time, he had a net worth amounting to 62 billion USD (by Forbes) and 58 billion USD (by Yahoo). However, Bill gates regained his title as the richest man in the world back again in 2009. During 2008/2009, Buffett’s values dropped to 37 billion USD whereas Gates’ value dropped to 40 billion USD. The market price of Berkshire Hathaway reached 200,000 USD per share on August 14, 2014, during which the company’s capitalization reached 328 billion USD. On May 26, 2020, the market price of the company reached 270,330 USD per share.
Personal Life
Warren Buffett is married to his long-time companion Astrid Menks since August 30, 2006. From his first wife Susan Thompson Buffett, he is a father of three children including a daughter named Susan Alice Buffett and two sons named Howard Graham Buffett and Peter Andrew Buffett. His only grandson Howard Warren Buffett is a professor.
Talking more about his personal life, it was reported that he doesn’t carry a mobile phone in December 2006. At that time, he didn’t have a computer in his desk and used to self-drive his own automobile. He enjoys reading newspapers daily and needs five newspapers every day. He never misses the Omaha World Herald which was acquired by his company in 2011.
He prefers Google to use as his search engine which he revealed at the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholder meeting. He was found carrying an old Nokia flip phone in 2013. Now, he has traded in his flip phone for an iPhone 11 which he revealed in a CNBC interview in February 2020.
At the age of 19, he was infatuated with a girl whose boyfriend used to play the ukulele. This made Buffett purchase an instrument after which he started playing it. Although the woman couldn’t become his life-partner, he gained an interest in music because of her. He often plays the instrument in his free time and at stockholder meetings too. Many of the people have never known that he has worked in an animated series called “Secret Millionaires Club”. The series intent to teach healthy financial habits for children.
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Religious views
Buffett was raised as a Presbyterian by his family. However, he describes himself as an agnostic who believes that the existence of God is unknown. He likes to live a normal life and has no feeling of discrimination to people regarding their religious faith.
Body Measurements
American investor and business, Warren Buffett stands at a tall height of 5 feet and 10 inches. He weighs about 83 kilograms or 183 lbs which makes his BMI calculation as balanced. His distinctive nose and wearing rimmed glass spectacles are his major body distinctive features.
Regarding his health issues, he was diagnosed with stage I prostate cancer on April 11, 2012. It was diagnosed while he was having a routine test. For the treatment, he went for two months of daily radiation treatment starting from mid-July 2012. He revealed that he completed his full 44-day radiation treatment cycle and has gained complete recovery from that health issue.
Buffett is very conscious of his health and fitness for which he has a properly maintained routine and check-up. He prefers a healthy diet and loves keeping himself engaged in sports as far as possible. Like Bill Gates, he is also an avid bridge player and was reported to have been spending at least 12 hours a week by playing the game. He is also a lifelong follower of Nebraska football and whenever his schedule permits, he never misses the games.
His favorite foods are See’s peanut brittle, Hash browns, Dairy Queen sundaes, Veal parm, UTZ Potato Stix, T-bone steak and some McDonald’s products. He loves enjoying drinks like Coca-Cola and Root Beer Floats. As per some sources, he also enjoys having strawberry milkshake which is one of his favorites.
Salary and Net worth
Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett has an estimated net worth of 70.5 billion USD as of April 2020. Since 1970, he is the largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway which has been making him have a huge return. He was ranked as the richest man in the world by Forbes Magazine in 2008 during which he had an estimated net worth of 62 billion USD.
His ranking moved to the second position in the following year after donating billions of dollars to charity. In a survey organized by the Carson Group, he was declared as the top money manager of the Twentieth Century in 1999. He was also mentioned in the list of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the world in 2007. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President of the United States, Barack Obama. The Foreign Policy’s 2010 report mentioned him as the most influential global thinker along with Bill Gates.
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He has ensured that his kids wouldn’t get his wealth because it might make them feel like doing nothing. He could assist them financially so that they could do anything. It is said that his kids wouldn’t inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. He has wished to give his fortune to charity. He made a charitable donation in history by pledging 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In 2002, he turned as the adviser to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, in Washington where he pledged to donate 50 million USD. For raising money for Girls, Inc., he auctioned his 2001 Lincoln Town Car in 2006. For the Glide Foundation, he auctioned a luncheon with himself and the final bid was made at 650,100 USD. Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg signed a promise named “Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge” where they wished to donate at least 50% of their wealth for charity and also invited other richest people to follow suit.
Buffet’s family members are also involved in philanthropist works for which Warren has helped by funding to his family’s individual foundations like Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, NoVo Foundation, Letters Foundation and Learning By Giving Foundation.
He has already appeared in multiple news programs and in films too. He had a minor role in 2010 American drama film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps which is a sequel to Wall Street (1987). He was the subject of the HBO documentary feature Becoming Warren Buffett which was released on January 30, 2017. He has appeared in a television interview and talk show, Charlie Rose as a guest for 10 times.
There is a long list of books with Buffett’s name in the title. Buffett has also published his own authored books like The Essays of Warren Buffett. Some other popular books about Buffett are Tap Dancing to Work, Warren Buffett’s Three Favorite Books, Buffett, Making of an American Capitalist, The Warren Buffett Way, Warren Buffett Speaks, The Guru Investor, Dear Mr. Buffett and Even Buffett Isn’t Perfect:
Wiki and Facts
The biography of Warren Buffett is prepared by various wiki sites including IMDb and Wikipedia. His official Twitter account is available @warrenbuffett where he has amassed more than 1.6 million followers. He joined Twitter in April 2013 and hasn’t followed anybody yet. He is the source of inspiration for many people around the globe where his investment techniques are widely appreciated. He believes in hard work, dedication and contributing towards the humanity which he has gained from the economy.