In addition to being one of Wall Street’s most experienced and successful investors, Warren Buffett is a father who is concerned about teaching his children the value of the money he earns through his investments. There are several examples of these lessons in the newspaper archive.

The last of these was revealed by the millionaire’s former daughter-in-law, Mary Buffett, who has been married for 12 years to Peter Buffett, the youngest son of the “Oracle of Omaha”: gave $10,000 to each family member At Christmas.

A family tradition that doesn’t last long

The 94-year-old millionaire not only has a very personal investing style, but he also tries to pass it on to his children so they can one day manage their own wealth. He even did this when choosing Christmas gifts.

According to Mary Buffett in a 2019 interview with Think Advisor, Buffett continued a seemingly simple tradition for years: giving $10,000 in hundred-dollar bills to each of his family members. “We spent them as soon as we got home…wow!”, says the author and businesswoman. he recalled.

But this practice changed noticeably in the 1990s: “One Christmas, we received an envelope containing a letter from him. Instead of cash, he had given us $10,000 in shares of a company he had recently purchased: Coca-Cola,” he said. millionaire’s former bride.

In his letter, the millionaire told them: They can sell or keep them.They were free to do whatever they wanted with them. “Well, [estas acciones] They are worth more than $10,000. So I held them and they kept going up,” said Mary Buffett.

Apparently, this practice has become customary, and instead of cash, relatives of the Buffett clan received an envelope with a personal letter from the millionaire containing a package of shares worth $ 10,000. “From that year on, Buffett continued to give stocks to his family, including shares of the Wells Fargo bank. I knew they would grow, so I not only kept them, but we bought some more,” the author recalls.

This gesture not only demonstrated Buffett’s long-term wealth creation strategy, but also inspired his family. The importance of investing wisely money. This wasn’t the first lesson he gave his children about how quickly money can disappear.

The investor’s second son, Howard Buffett, made the confession on the North American ABC program ‘Good Morning America'[Cuando éramos niños] “As soon as he started giving us our weekly wages, he put a slot machine in the attic and when we got there he would get every penny back,” said Howard Buffett. “I didn’t get a dime in 10 years. “Those melons are on top of each other.”

Just like in his childhood, the investor traded money that could be spent quickly for stocks of companies with high profit potential. Beyond the lesson he teaches his children, this approach also aligns with his investment philosophy, which is based on buying companies with established “moats” and leaving the rest to time, multiplying the value of the initial investment.

As Mary explained, the decision to hold or sell the shares was left in the hands of the buyers, adding a message of trust, autonomy and responsibility to the decisions they made. In his case, holding on to the shares turned out to be a lucrative decision, as the shares not only appreciated in value but also strengthened his confidence in his former father-in-law’s investment strategy.

What would you give to a millionaire?

In her interview, the author and businesswoman admitted that one of the biggest challenges of having a father-in-law who is worth more than $145.3 billion is what to give him for Christmas.

According to Mary, “I didn’t ask for anything.” Material things didn’t seem to matter much to someone who had spent decades building one of the world’s largest fortunes, especially someone as thrifty as Buffett, who could live in the same house or drive the same car for decades.

“I didn’t know what to give him, so I prepared the profit balance of our music company to show him that we were making money. I just wanted to show him: ‘Look, we’re in good shape,'” the millionaire’s ex-girlfriend said.

Perhaps this is the greatest lesson the Oracle of Omaha left to his children in his Christmas shoes: Sometimes the most valuable thing is not what you give, but how you teach yourself to benefit from it. As a result of what they learned, their children assumed that they would no longer receive their father’s inheritance.

In an interview for Business Content In 2017, Susie Buffett, the tycoon’s eldest daughter, said: “I actually agree with his philosophy of not leaving too much money to your children. My father, by the way, has a bad reputation for that as well. Because I have a much more generous family than people think, and the things they gave us “I’m very grateful for that, but he certainly won’t leave us $50 billion, and he shouldn’t.”

On the other hand, what he will bequeath to them is a generous donation of a quarter of his fortune to ensure the survival of his foundations (and those of his late wife). use for charity.

in Xataka | If asked how much money can be donated to a child without reporting to the Treasury, the law clearly states this: none.

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