Why Warren Buffet Gives Away His Best Financial Advice for Free

“Buffett could easily have decided that the numbers speak for themselves — especially when they’re enunciating as loudly and clearly as his do. Buffett took over Berkshire Hathaway in April 1965, when the shares cost $18. By the time of his 50th-anniversary letter to shareholders, in 2015, the shares were trading for $223,000, an annual gain of about 21%. No other investor matches that record over that period of time. In the world of hedge funds, secrecy about investment methods is de rigueur: if the sauce weren’t secret, you wouldn’t be having to pay 2% per year, and 20% of the profit on top, for your serving of it. Buffett, by contrast, doesn’t miss an opportunity to explain his ideas.”

How Should We Read Investor Letters

How Warren Buffet Wants His Money to Be Managed When He Dies

The world’s most famous investor reveals his explicit instructions for the money he’s bequeathing in a trust for his wife:

“Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund. (I suggest Vanguard’s.) I believe the trust’s long-term results from this policy will be superior to those attained by most investors—whether pension funds, institutions or individuals—who employ high-fee managers.”

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Warren Buffet’s Advice to Get Rich

For all his investing lessons, Mr. Buffett also suggested a very simple strategy for people who do not want to parse balance sheets. When he dies, Mr. Buffett’s cash will be put into a trust for his wife, Astrid Menks. Mr. Buffett said he had advised the trustee to put 10% of that cash into short-term government bonds and 90% into an S&P 500 index fund.

“I believe the trust’s long-term results from this policy will be superior to those attained by most investors — whether pension funds, institutions or individuals — who employ high-fee managers,” he said.

—The Times