The billionaire Warren Buffett is known as one of the wealthiest investors in the world, with a net worth increasing day by day. Interestingly, 99% of his massive fortune was accumulated after he turned fifty, according to Business Insider reports.
This doesn’t mean that Buffett, now 88 years old, was lagging behind. He began his journey towards wealth at a young age, slowly building his fortune over the years through careful investments and hard work.
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Warren Buffett wealth Over the Years
Buffett was born in 1930, during the Great Depression. His business acumen showed early on when, at the age of eleven, he was already buying shares in city services for $38 each. As a teenager, he filed his first tax return, made newspaper headlines, and owned shares in multiple companies. By the time he graduated from high school, Buffett owned a 40-acre farm in Omaha, Nebraska.
The legend Warren Buffett once said during his youth that he predicted becoming a millionaire by the age of thirty. If he failed, he would jump off the tallest building in Omaha. Let’s delve into Warren Buffett’s net worth and average income according to the US Bureau of Statistics throughout his life stages.
Warren Buffett Wealth in His Twenties: Achieving His First $100,000
After college, Buffett worked for his father’s stock brokerage firm, where he already had a personal fortune of $20,000 by age 21. At 24, he was offered a job by his mentor, Benjamin Graham, with an annual salary of $12,000, which was three times the average annual income for an ordinary family in 1954. By the time he graduated from high school, Buffett owned a 40-acre farm in Omaha, Nebraska.
Warren Buffett Wealth in His Thirties: Reaching Millionaire Status
By the time he turned thirty, his wealth was approximately $1 million. In 1960, the average family income in the United States was $5,600 per year. Comparatively, Buffett’s wealth dwarfed the efforts of full-time workers who earned $5,400 at most.
By age 35, Buffett’s companies grew to $26 million. He bought declining stocks from Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, and by 1968, his companies were worth $104 million. By age 39, his net capital was $25 million.
Warren Buffett Wealth in His Forties: Financial Troubles and Bounces Back
At 34, Buffett’s net worth was approximately $34 million. Some of this capital was used to purchase Berkshire Hathaway for $25 million that year. In the mid-1970s, Berkshire faced tough times, and by 1974, its stock price dropped, reducing Buffett’s total value to $19 million after reaching $44 million.
Someone like Buffett couldn’t leave this aside. He financially recovered, and by the end of the decade, his wealth increased to $67 million at age 47. By the end of 1970, the average family income in the United States was approximately $16,530.
Warren Buffett in His Fifties: Billionaire Status
Buffett’s net capital reached around $376 million in 1982 and increased to $620 million in 1983. In 1986, at the age of 56, Buffett became a billionaire. At that time, a modest employee earned $50,000 annually at Berkshire Hathaway.
Meanwhile, the average family in 1986 earned about $24,900. As Buffett approached his late fifties, his fortune was about $3.8 billion.
Warren Buffett Wealth in His Sixties: Massive Wealth Growth
In a letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in 1990, Buffett wrote that he believed the company’s net worth would decline during that decade, especially in the latter half of 1990. However, by late that year, the company managed to close at $362 million. By the time he reached his sixties, Buffett’s personal fortune had grown to $16.5 billion at the age of 66. At that time, the average family income was about $42,000.
Warren Buffett Wealth in His Seventies: Philanthropy and Further Growth
Within six years, from the age of 66 to 72, Buffett’s net worth more than doubled, reaching around $35.7 billion by the time he was 72. In 2006, he issued donation letters announcing that he would donate 85% of his wealth to five institutions over time. The average family income in 2000 was about $42,148.
Warren Buffett Wealth in His Eighties: The Sky’s the Limit
In mid-August 2015, his net worth was approximately $67 billion, making him one of the richest billionaires in the world behind Bill Gates and others. At the age of 84, Warren Buffett didn’t stop growing. Despite his immense wealth, he earned a modest $100,000 annually from Berkshire Hathaway, while the average family income was around $51,939.
Currently, Warren Buffett ranks third as the richest person on Earth with a fortune of around $84 billion.
Warren Buffett Wealth 90s: Still Going Strong
Despite having an eye-popping net worth of $114.5 billion as of July 7th, 2023, Buffett has fallen down a few rungs and is now just the sixth wealthiest person on the planet at age 92 — still, not too shabby.
He has yet to show signs of slowing down — his total charitable giving has now topped $50 billion, and he’s still at the helm as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.