BENGALURU: When she decided to part ways with musician Peter Buffett, son of billionaire Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, Mary Buffett was inundated with offers from publishers, who wanted to associate with her for a tell-all book on Buffett senior. But resisting that, she decided to write a book for women in her position. “I was 40, divorced with twin girls and was in panic,” she admitted, while addressing a group of women of Millennium Mams’ who closely follow the principles of Warren Buffett while making their investments.
Out of that came her first book, Buffettology, co-written with David Clark in 1997, which went on to become a best-seller. “It was inspired by sheer fear,” said the entrepreneur, and political and environmental activist, whose latest book is 7 Secrets to Investing Like Warren Buffett.Buffett, who is also a singer, recalled her early days of marriage when her then father-in-law would give his family $10,000 in cash. “As soon as we came home, we would spend it. Noticing this, he switched ways. He started giving us an envelope which contained shares of the same value, and told us that we could either keep them or sell them,” she said.
She decided to keep them and noticed that the value was rising. “So every time I was gifted some shares, I went ahead and bought more of the same ones, because I knew they were going to go up,” she said. “In fact, I still have some of those shares,” she revealed.
On one occasion, her twin girls had gone to visit their grandpa, and upon their return, Buffett was quite surprised to find them reading a business newspaper as eight year olds. They suggested purchasing shares of a popular grain and foodstuff company, which Buffett went ahead and bought for them. “Later when the company was bought over, the girls made a fantastic profit,” she said, her one piece of advice being saving before paying bills.
“Patience, discipline and evaluating a company through and through is what has taken Warren where he is. He wants to know everything about everyone, and takes tips from those conversations,” she said, adding, “There will never be another Warren Buffett.” To the women audience who wanted to understand the tricks and trades of investment, Buffett said women make better investors, being able to handle a lot more, multi-task and take decisions. “Warren Buffett’s wife was his backbone,” she said.