Early Retirement Extreme

marko said:
I can assure you that "spreading his wealth" was the furthest thing from his mind. Again, "gift" was a four letter word to him and miserly to the point of cruelty to others. "His money" was "his money". Period!

I noted on some thread recently how he cut his housekeeper's pay after she told him she had lost her other job. Why? "Because I figured now, she had nowhere else to go".
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I don't think refusing to spend money on oneself is miserly - but his treatment of the housekeeper certainly fits the bill. I wonder if he had some type of mental condition?

To me, one of the "perks" of being rich, would be the ability to treat loyal employees very, very well. (I would enjoy that.)
 
Would you folks consider it Frugal if one only used a 2% WR instead of 3 or 4? We get caught up on the total dollars where really our focus should be what % of our retirement stash we are spending. It is silly to talk about spending $7k or $70k or twice that if the person has amassed a retirement fund of $7 million?
 
Retired Expat said:
Would you folks consider it Frugal if one only used a 2% WR instead of 3 or 4? We get caught up on the total dollars where really our focus should be what % of our retirement stash we are spending. It is silly to talk about spending $7k or $70k or twice that if the person has amassed a retirement fund of $7 million?
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I personally think frugal is someone who makes a modest wage and spends it wisely.

I don’t think frugal is someone like Warren Buffet withdrawing .1% of his retirement (which probably equals the total sum of everyone in this forum’s net worth)
 
RetiredAt49 said:
I personally think frugal is someone who makes a modest wage and spends it wisely.

I don’t think frugal is someone like Warren Buffet withdrawing .1% of his retirement (which probably equals the total sum of everyone in this forum’s net worth)
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Buffett's net worth is still around US$100B. One tenth of 1% of that amount is $100M.

I think the total net worth of all posters here is more than $100M. Significantly more.

Does Buffett spend $100M a year, not counting his donations? I don't think so, but I cannot really know.
 
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MarieIG said:
I don't think refusing to spend money on oneself is miserly - but his treatment of the housekeeper certainly fits the bill. I wonder if he had some type of mental condition?

To me, one of the "perks" of being rich, would be the ability to treat loyal employees very, very well. (I would enjoy that.)
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You'd have to know him to understand. An entirely different way of looking at things.
 
NW-Bound said:
Buffett's net worth is still around US$100B. One tenth of 1% of that amount is $100M.

I think the total net worth of all posters here is more than $100M. Significantly more.

Does Buffett spend $100M a year, not counting his donations? I don't think so, but I cannot really know.
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Ironically, Buffet is a good example of frugality. He spends very little, especially for his wealth. I don't know if he still does, but recently he was getting McDonalds on the way to work every day. His donations, on the other hand, are astronomical.
 
^^^^^^^

Several years back I saw a TV piece on WB. The interviewer (famous female interviewer as I recall) rode around in WB's large older US made car, stopped at his house (original price $35K IIRC) attended one of the BRK meetings where WB drank a Diet Coke. He could have been the template for the MND.
 
RetiredAt49 said:
I personally think frugal is someone who makes a modest wage and spends it wisely.

I don’t think frugal is someone like Warren Buffet withdrawing .1% of his retirement (which probably equals the total sum of everyone in this forum’s net worth)
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I agree but, again, it is relative. What I consider "modest" is not what another person would consider modest. I have seen people post about their modest earnings which are well over double my average income in the first 20 years of working. Then they talk about their frugal spending which is triple mine or more. So it's all relative.
 
arcyallen said:
Ironically, Buffet is a good example of frugality. He spends very little, especially for his wealth. I don't know if he still does, but recently he was getting McDonalds on the way to work every day. His donations, on the other hand, are astronomical.
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Don't forget he essentially bought his kids lifetime jobs by making them heads of various charitable foundations funded by donations of stock.

I wish my dear old Dad had had a few hundred million worth of stock to fund me running a foundation specifically focused on treating/curing the rarer form of dementia that struck my mom in her early 40s.

And as for the house...it's usually shot from in front of it to make it look modest.

Look at an aerial photo & you see what appears to be another entire two-story home glommed onto the back.
 
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ncbill said:
Don't forget he essentially bought his kids lifetime jobs by making them heads of various charitable foundations funded by donations of stock.

I wish my dear old Dad had had a few hundred million worth of stock to fund me running a foundation specifically focused on treating/curing the rarer form of dementia that struck my mom in her early 40s.

And as for the house...it's usually shot from in front of it to make it look modest.

Look at an aerial photo & you see what appears to be another entire two-story home glommed onto the back.
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He also has a private jet and a few years back sold a multi-million dollar home in Malibu. Who knows how many other homes he really has owned by LLCs or holding companies? The whole he lives like an average person in a starter home is just PR fiction.
 
Guys like Buffett have to be protected at all times given his success and visibility. There are too many nut cases out there that would love to be the guy who took him out just for kicks. Private jet, yes, security at all times, yes.
 
aja8888 said:
Guys like Buffett have to be protected at all times given his success and visibility. There are too many nut cases out there that would love to be the guy who took him out just for kicks. Private jet, yes, security at all times, yes.
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Yes. Just like Ronald Reagan and John Lennon who were shot by nutcases seeking publicity.
 
daylatedollarshort said:
He also has a private jet and a few years back sold a multi-million dollar home in Malibu. Who knows how many other homes he really has owned by LLCs or holding companies? The whole he lives like an average person in a starter home is just PR fiction.
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I have doubts just like you. I remember a reporter a while back that said he lived 100k-150k lifestyle other than the jets. It seems kind of hard to believe. Along with drinking coke ,eating candy during the meeting and McDonalds on the way to work. I think it is part of the show to get free ads for all these companies. I think somewhere in the background is a cook with all organic food for him. How many 90 years do you see at McDonalds? My guess is that other than annual meetings he sees very little Coke or See's Candy.
 
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FANOFJESUS said:
I have doubts just like you. I remember a reporter a while back that said he lived 100k-150k lifestyle other than the jets. It seems kind of hard to believe. Along with drinking coke ,eating candy during the meeting and McDonalds on the way to work. I think it is part of the show to get free ads for all these companies. I think somewhere in the background is a cook with all organic food for him. How many 90 years do you see at McDonalds? My guess is that other than annual meetings he sees very little Coke or See's Candy.
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The whole Coke bit gets him free advertising for Coke. Berkshire Hathaway owned $24B of Coke stock earlier in the year. BH also owns shares in See's candy.

If you look on Google images for an aerial view of his house, it has been added on in back to mansion size, just like ncbill posted.
 
OK, youse guys piqued my curiosity. I have seen pictures of the frontal view of his house, and it's a nice home, but nothing that is out of reach of a mere decamillionaire.

I did not think of going on Google to look at a satellite view. Just did that, and no, his home with the addition is still nothing spectacular. In fact, perhaps the extension was just enough room for his 24/7 security detail.

I found a blogger's description of Buffett's neighborhood here.

https://fifthperson.com/discovered-visited-warren-buffetts-home-omaha-nebraska/


Here's the aerial view: https://goo.gl/maps/Y7Xy7Dum5tU9DjvT7
 
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