Broke Smart

Money, psychology, no BS

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

Warren Buffett's children will eventually decide what happens to roughly $150 billion.

There is just one problem: they have to agree with each other.

When Becky Quick asked Susan, Howard and Peter Buffett if they wanted the responsibility, Susan's answer was immediate.

“Nope.”

She had already called her father to say she wanted to opt out.

Buffett's response was surprisingly simple.

“I don't blame you.”

Howard admitted that they all understood how enormous the responsibility would be.

They won't just be deciding where money goes. They'll have to agree on decisions involving Berkshire shares, voting power and billions of dollars of philanthropy.

Their father isn't giving them a detailed blueprint.

He's giving them the responsibility and trusting them to figure it out together.

Howard put it more simply when asked what he thought when Buffett first told them.

“I thought, well, we better get along.”

[Reid @reidgrows]

https://t.co/YF5JtEIvDR

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

Warren Buffett’s wife left him after more than 20 years of marriage, and his own daughter was afraid he might not be able to manage on his own.

Susan Buffett moved from Omaha to San Francisco in 1977, while Warren remained in Omaha. In the family interviews, their daughter described the separation as devastating and said she struggled to understand how her mother could leave because, in her words, “he can’t function by himself.”

Susan still cared deeply about Warren and worried about how he would cope. At one point, their daughter called a woman named Astrid Menks and asked her to go to Warren’s house, make him some soup, and look after him because she genuinely feared “he’s not gonna make it.”

Astrid went over, and eventually she moved in with Warren.

What happened next made the situation even more unusual. Susan never divorced Warren, remained his wife, and stayed emotionally close to him while Astrid became the woman living with him in Omaha.

Susan and Astrid eventually became close as well. Buffett’s children later explained that their mother was actually glad Astrid was there because she wanted someone to take care of Warren.

Susan remained married to Warren until her death in 2004. Two years later, Warren married Astrid.

The story is striking because the people describing it were not journalists looking back decades later. They were Buffett’s own children, talking about what happened inside their family and how badly their father was affected.

By then, Warren Buffett was already one of the most successful investors in America and had built a fortune most people could hardly imagine.

But the money could not solve this problem for him.

His daughter was worried about whether he could manage everyday life without the woman who had been beside him for more than two decades.

The full story is in the video below.

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

the new chairman of $1 trillion berkshire hathaway once paid his father 26% of his farm income whenever he weighed more than 182.5 pounds.

howard buffett wanted to become a farmer, but he didn't own the land, so warren bought a farm and leased it to him. the deal had a built-in incentive: if howard kept his weight below 182.5 pounds, the rent dropped to 22%.

it didn't work.

howard kept paying the higher rate, so the weight-based incentive became an expensive failure.

the farming didn't.

by 2011, howard was personally working 1,500 acres in illinois and had produced 87,000 bushels of corn, worth roughly $540,000 at the average U.S. price that season.

when lesley stahl asked warren why he didn't simply give his son the farm, his answer was straightforward:

“i don't think he's entitled to be given a farm just because his last name is buffett.”

warren helped his son get into farming, but he still made him pay for the land.

the result was a family arrangement that looked much more like a business transaction than an inheritance.

and the weight clause probably wasn't the part howard remembered most.

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

Warren Buffett’s wife left him after more than 20 years of marriage, and his own daughter was afraid he might not be able to manage on his own.

Susan Buffett moved from Omaha to San Francisco in 1977, while Warren remained in Omaha. In the family interviews, their daughter described the separation as devastating and said she struggled to understand how her mother could leave because, in her words, “he can’t function by himself.”

Susan still cared deeply about Warren and worried about how he would cope. At one point, their daughter called a woman named Astrid Menks and asked her to go to Warren’s house, make him some soup, and look after him because she genuinely feared “he’s not gonna make it.”

Astrid went over, and eventually she moved in with Warren.

What happened next made the situation even more unusual. Susan never divorced Warren, remained his wife, and stayed emotionally close to him while Astrid became the woman living with him in Omaha.

Susan and Astrid eventually became close as well. Buffett’s children later explained that their mother was actually glad Astrid was there because she wanted someone to take care of Warren.

Susan remained married to Warren until her death in 2004. Two years later, Warren married Astrid.

The story is striking because the people describing it were not journalists looking back decades later. They were Buffett’s own children, talking about what happened inside their family and how badly their father was affected.

By then, Warren Buffett was already one of the most successful investors in America and had built a fortune most people could hardly imagine.

But the money could not solve this problem for him.

His daughter was worried about whether he could manage everyday life without the woman who had been beside him for more than two decades.

The full story is in the video below.

[Reid @reidgrows]

https://t.co/YF5JtEIvDR

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

@reidgrows 🫶

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

the new chairman of $1 trillion berkshire hathaway once paid his father 26% of his farm income whenever he weighed more than 182.5 pounds.

howard buffett wanted to become a farmer, but he didn't own the land, so warren bought a farm and leased it to him. the deal had a built-in incentive: if howard kept his weight below 182.5 pounds, the rent dropped to 22%.

it didn't work.

howard kept paying the higher rate, so the weight-based incentive became an expensive failure.

the farming didn't.

by 2011, howard was personally working 1,500 acres in illinois and had produced 87,000 bushels of corn, worth roughly $540,000 at the average U.S. price that season.

when lesley stahl asked warren why he didn't simply give his son the farm, his answer was straightforward:

“i don't think he's entitled to be given a farm just because his last name is buffett.”

warren helped his son get into farming, but he still made him pay for the land.

the result was a family arrangement that looked much more like a business transaction than an inheritance.

and the weight clause probably wasn't the part howard remembered most.

[Reid @reidgrows]

https://t.co/YF5JtEIvDR

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

@builtinlevi I'm trying

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

@frogbetwillie 🙏

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

Peter Buffett inherited $90,000 in Berkshire Hathaway stock at 19.

His father was Warren Buffett.

He sold every share.

Instead of keeping the stock, Peter moved to San Francisco, rented a small apartment, bought recording equipment, and started building a life around music.

The decision was deliberate. He had watched what easy access to money could do, and he didn't want his father's fortune to become the thing that decided what he did with his own life.

Years later, those shares would have been worth more than $500 million.

Peter never described selling them as a mistake.

“I used my nest egg to buy something infinitely more valuable than money. I used it to buy time.”

The money could have bought him financial security for life.

Instead, he used it to give himself the freedom to find out what he actually wanted to do.

That is what makes the story uncomfortable.

The investment that looks obvious on a spreadsheet was not necessarily the investment Peter wanted to make with his life.

Sometimes the most valuable thing money can buy is the ability to decide how to spend your time.

[Reid @reidgrows]

https://t.co/YF5JtEIvDR

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

@aubrey93_v Buffett put it perfectly: “I used my nest egg to buy something infinitely more valuable than money. I used it to buy time.

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

@builtinlevi It is interesting to hear the sons talk about their father

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

@builtinlevi His views on gold are interesting; it has been a hard currency since the days of kings.

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

@reidgrows Wow. Most people who earn money spend it right away, yet a billionaire lives very simply

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

@reidgrows A rather interesting lecture

[Broke Smart @BrokeSmart]

RT @fuseonton: The USYK Collection is dropping on Fuse, inside Telegram.

Six stickers. Six moods. Six sides of @usykaa.

The whitelist…

[Sunusi Musa Isyaku wak @Sunusi3701]

@bitgetglobal @MaplestoryU #NXPClistBitget @HuzyTECH NXPC to the moon

[Sahara AI 🔆 @SaharaAI]

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[Sahara AI 🔆 @SaharaAI]

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