If there is one piece of wisdom that Warren Buffett has shared that he believes is key to becoming a good investor it is “to read everything in sight.” It is how he got started, and it has continued throughout his life.
“I just read a lot. I probably took every book in the Omaha Public Library, every book they had on investing, or the stock market, basically,” Warren Buffett said at the 2005 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting. “. . . . I took all the books out. I read them. And finally, when I was 11, I bought three shares of stock and I didn’t know, I was fascinated by the subject. My dad got elected to Congress, so now the library became even bigger, and I took all the books I could out of there on markets. And I used a chart and do all that sort of thing. And then, finally, I read [Benjamin] Graham’s book when I was at the University of Nebraska, The Intelligent Investor, when I was 19, and that just changed my whole framework. But the advice I would give is to read everything in sight.”
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© 2022 David Mazor
Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.