Investment Lessons from Warren Buffett
Why has Warren Buffett developed a huge throng of devotees? Well, sure, he’s amassed a fortune of nearly $60 billion, making him one of the wealthiest people on earth. But that’s not the only reason professionals and amateurs interested in financial management follow the Berkshire Hathaway CEO so avidly. There’s a clarity and sturdy logic to Buffett’s philosophy that makes it attractive to fund managers and small-scale investors alike.
Retirees, in particular, would do well to take a few pages from Buffett’s playbook. Here are six that have extra significance for those entering their post-workday years.
1. Think Long-Term
A few years ago, an Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll found that more than one in four adults expect to live to at least 90, including nearly half of those who said they were currently 65 or older. And census data suggests that by mid-century, ninetysomethings will make up 2% of the total U.S. population, up from 0.7% in 2010. So it’s important to make your money last.
One of the best ways to do that is to keep a percentage of your portfolio in the stock market.
Yes, that may seem to fly against conventional wisdom: Seniors are often advice to allocate their assets away from capital appreciation and towards income-producing vehicles.
The key, according to Buffett, is to stay in the market but focus on stable companies that look like a good play over the long haul. His admiration for a certain soft drink maker is a perfect example. Back in 1988, he purchased more than $1 billion of Coca-Cola stock, calculating that its strong brand would safeguard the business from competitors.
Buffett turned out to be right. Coke’s stock price grew roughly 16-fold over the next 27 years.
2. Do Your Homework
Not all of Buffett’s investments have looked like home runs right after he made them. But more times than not, his decisions proved to be the right ones over time. A big reason: the iconic investor does his research before making a big decision. Often, that gives him the confidence to go down some less-than-obvious paths.
Berkshire’s gamble on Burlington Northern Santa Fe in 2009 was a case in point. On the heels of a major recession, purchasing a major railway operator seemed dicey, to say the least. But the company’s fundamentals suggested otherwise.
Buffett’s move now looks prescient. The carrier’s revenue rose to $23.2 billion in 2014, up from $18 billion in 2008, before Buffett bought it. Research has its rewards.
3. Keep Emotion in Check
Mom-and-pop investors often make decisions based on gut reactions. When the market turns south, they start selling off stocks. When it’s up, they buy more. It's natural, but not a smart investment strategy, since they often end up losing money on the sales, and spending too much on the purchases.
Buffett advocates doing the exact opposite. “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful," as he once wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece. Follow that advice and you’ll end up buying low and selling high, which is precisely how you maximize profits.
This is especially important for people in retirement. The occasional downturn is unavoidable. If you panic and start selling, you’re not giving the market time to rebound. Historically, it always does. (And don't forget, if you're in your 60s now, you may well have a good 20 years or so to ride out market fluctuations.)
4. Invest in Ideas
According to Buffett, having a genius CEO at the helm doesn’t necessarily make a company worthwhile. Instead, what he focuses on are businesses with an unshakable competitive advantage.
He once told investors to select companies so wonderful that even an idiot could run them. If you don't think that applies to a particular organization, you might want to think twice before buying shares in it.
5. Try Passive Investing
Buffett has built his fortune by beating the market with his stock picks. But he realizes that most individuals don’t have that ability. So in recent years, he’s been a big advocate of index funds, whose portfolios simply mimic a certain benchmark like the S&P 500.
In a letter to Berkshire investors, he once wrote: “The goal of the non-professional should not be to pick winners – neither he nor his “helpers” can do that – but should rather be to own a cross-section of businesses that in aggregate are bound to do well.” For some specific ideas, see 3 Passive Index Funds That Are Top Bets for Retirement in 2016 (VCIT, HYG).
The advantage of index funds is that, without an active fund manager, they keep expense ratios and other costs low (since they have low turnover, they also generate lower long-term capital gains, making them also relatively tax-efficient). In fact, Buffett has instructed the trustee of his estate to leave his wife mostly index funds when he eventually passes away.
6. Find a Good Value
At heart, Buffett has always been a value investor, buying up stocks that he thinks are underpriced. He only purchases shares that have a significant “margin of safety” – that is, they’re selling well below what they’re truly worth. If he thinks a stock is worth $20 a share, he might wait until it’s going for $17.
The key, then, is having patience. Know what you’re willing to pay for a stock – or a slice of an index fund, for that matter. If the market is commanding more, resist the urge to dive in.
When you have a margin of safety with your investments, you’re not only maximizing potential gains, but minimizing potential losses. For someone who’s already living out their retirement, that’s more important than ever.
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