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Warren Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to parents Howard & Leila. His father was a U.S. Representative, also owning a stock brokerage company, and his mother was a housewife. Warren was the second of three children, but the only son in the family.
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During a business trip with his father to New York City, Howard Buffett took his ten year old son to visit the New York Stock Exchange. Interviews with Warren Buffett later in life would reveal that this is where his interest in the business world started, and never changed.
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At the young age of 11, Warren bought six shares of Cities Service Preferred. He kept three shares for himself, and gave three to his sister.
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At the young age of 14, Buffett began installing pinball machines in local barber shops with a friend from school. Saving over $1200, Buffett took his cut and bought 40 acres of farmland. Dividing up the farmland, Buffett then began to rent it out to a few farmers, creating his first steady income.
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Buffett graduated from Woodrow Wilson Highschool in Washington, D.C. at age 16. Buffett had saved over $5000 from the pinball installation company he and a friend started, and renting out the 40 acres of farmland he still owned.
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At only 21 years of age, Buffett obtains a Master's degree in economics from the Columbia Business School. Studying under the infamous Benjamin Graham, he earned the only A+ that Graham had ever given a student.
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Buffett established his first investment partnership. Running the partnership out of his bedroom, his investments made over 30% compounded annually between 1956 to 1969. During this time in history, somewhere between 7% and 11% was considered to be a decent gain, Buffett was growing in popularity.
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Buffett is running seven partnerships in 1961; Buffett Associates, Buffett Fund, Dacee, Emdee, Glenoff, Mo-Buff, and Underwood.
During the month of April, he made his first million dollar investment, choosing to invest in a windmill manufacturing company. -
This new partnership is the largest partnership for Berkshire Hathaway in company history.
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Warren Buffett decides to purchase a large portion of the investment company named Berkshire Hathaway, the company he was previously partnered with.
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Watching the American Express fraud scandal that was plastered all over the news, Buffett knew that American Express shares had fallen to $35. While everyone was panicking and selling the stock, Buffett began to buy shares in huge amounts, hoping for a bounce following the scandal.
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Buffett's father dies.
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Warren Buffett decides to buy the company outright.
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The American Express shares, that Buffett and his investors bought during fraud scandal recently, are selling for more than double the purchasing price.
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Warren Buffett is now personally worth more than $10 million. Buffett briefly contemplates leaving the investing world to pursue other careers.
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American Express soars over $180 per share. This ends up providing Buffett and his partnership with a $20 million profit, on a $13 million initial investment.
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Buffett liquidated his partnership and transferred their assets to his partners.
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Warren Buffett becomes, self-decided, the chairman of the Berkshire Hathaway company. Owning 29% of the shares himself. At this point he begins writing annual letters to his shareholders, which later become the infamous Buffett letters. He still, to this day, writes these reports and sends them out every year.
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Berkshire Hathaway begins to start purchasing ABC stocks.
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Starting the year selling Berkshire Hathaway shares at $775, Buffett ends the year selling them for $1,310. Buffett's net worth reaches $620 million, finally landing him a spot on Forbes' top 400 highest networth individuals list.
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Buffett buys 80% of Furniture Mart for $50 million. Claimed to be one of his best investments ever.
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At the end of the financial year, Berkshire Hathaway has a stock portfolio worth just over $1.3 billion.
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Berkshire Hathaway is now worth over $3,000 per share.
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After a horrific October for the stock market, Berkshire Hathaway has lost 25% of its value. Stock prices for the company drop from $4,230 per share to $3,170. Because of Buffett's huge percentage of ownership in this company, he personally loses $342 million within the last two weeks of October.
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Although starting out slowly, Buffett decides to heavily invest within the famous beverage company. Eventually Buffett comes to personally own 7% of the company, an investment estimated around $1.02 billion. This turned out to be one of his favorite investments, and one that he still owns to this day.
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Warren Buffett becomes a billionare when Berkshire Hathaway begins selling class A shares. On this date, Berkshire Hathaway closed at $7,175 per share.
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Buffett creates $11 billion worth of forward contracts, which is a promise to buy a certain asset at a certain time, for delivery of the US dollar against foreign currencies.
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Buffett revealed that he would donate just over 80% of his fortune to various charities via annual gifts of stock, starting in July of 2006. This huge charitable gesture would end up donating over $37 billion, of his $44 billion fortune. Warren Buffett chose five foundations to donate this massive fortune to, the largest contribution going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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In his annual letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett announced that he was now looking for eligible candidates to take over his investment business.
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After only four years, Buffett's $11 billion in forward contracts brings in a profit of over $2 billion.
