Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett was a philanthropist before he was a billionaire. Even before the famed investor was worth current estimates of $147 billion, the Oracle of Omaha planned to give away any money he accrued. Buffett said that in his 20s, when he met and later married his late wife, Susie, the pair never had grand plans to be wealthy and would donate whatever amounts they could afford. Speaking to CNBC, the 95-year-old said: “Susie and I didn’t really have any money, but we did know that we intended to live fine and we intended to have a family. But we did not have aspirations of having six houses, or a 500-foot yacht, or anything of that sort.”“Even then, we talked about what we would do philanthropically.”
The premise of Buffett and his wife’s endeavors was that the investor believed he would accrue interest faster than society in general, and Susie would “give it away better than 99.9% of the people that were giving it away.”
Buffett said his first wife, who died in 2004 following a stroke, liked to become personally involved when gifting, whereas Buffett preferred a “wholesale approach.” “We had a plan, but we didn’t have any money,” Buffett recalls.
Following Susie’s death, Buffett has held true to their plans. He formed the Giving Pledge in 2010 alongside Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and his ex-wife, philanthropist and businesswoman Melinda French Gates. The Giving Pledge aims to encourage high-net-worth individuals to engage in philanthropy earlier and to publicly pledge to use their wealth for the good of society.
