What's Warren Buffet Really Like?

A friend and neighbor of mine at the Jersey Shore, James J. Maguire, worked on Wall Street for over 60 years, during which time he had a close business association with Warren Buffett.

If you know anything at all about money matters — and even if you don’t — you’ve likely heard of Buffett, who is known as the Oracle of Omaha for his unmatched financial and business prowess. Jim Maguire, something of a Wall Street legend himself, died this past summer at age 86. He was worth knowing. A CNBC report on his death called him “one of the great titans of the New York Stock Exchange floor.”

The highlight of Jim’s illustrious career included a long professional and personal relationship with Buffett, who is considered “America’s Greatest Investor” and has a net worth of $76 billion.

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Maguire, a stock specialist, was the main trader for Buffett’s investment holding company, Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett often referred to Maguire as the “World's Greatest Specialist” — even to my daughter Lauren, who got to meet the “Oracle” in “Omaha” as part of a Fordham University women’s group visit in 2015.

From a business association that began in 1988, Maguire said, “a lasting friendship was born” and the two men spoke monthly. Maguire explained that Buffett was a “very regular guy” and “was very witty, loyal, not at all pompous and is generally undemanding, although I wouldn’t want to be on the other end of a bargaining table with him.”

Since Buffett started Berkshire Hathaway (originally a Massachusetts textile firm) in 1965, it has had a compounded annual increase of about 20 percent. A $1,000 investment in Buffett’s company in 1965 would be worth about $10 million today. Buying in today is no small proposition, however; a single class “A” share of the stock sells for over $274,000; the class “B” shares are about $183. The company, valued today at about $409 billion, has large holdings in Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft-Heinz, IBM, Geico, Anheuser-Busch and American Express.

With his incredible track record of success, a veterinarian just might want to know Buffett’s investment advice to his own wife. Well, it’s just one paragraph. In his 2013 letter to shareholders, Buffett wrote: “My advice to the trustee [for my wife] could not be more simple: Put 10 percent of the money in short-term government bonds and 90 percent in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund.” And Buffett prefers “the low-cost Vanguard funds.”

And for veterinarians just starting out, Buffett’s 2015 book, "How to Start Your Very First Business", in which he notes that “practicing good habits over a lifetime can have huge beneficial consequences, not just for business, but for a person’s happiness and even how their families develop,” offers these five gems about life and money:

• “Failure isn’t falling down, it’s staying down.”
• “You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.”
• “The more you learn, the more you earn.”
• “There are an unlimited number of good things to be done in the world.”
• “Don’t save what is left after spending, spend what is left after saving.”

Greg Kelly is a long-time health care writer and editor. He has written for the Physician’s Money Digest^TM, Dentist’s Money Digest^TM and Veterinarian’s Money Digest^TM websites. He lives at the Jersey Shore and welcomes comments at gregkelly@monmouthbeachlife.com.