21 Life Changing Warren Buffett Quotes | Investing Wisdom & Wealth |

Warren Buffett is the greatest investing legend of all time & a wealthy billionaire.

He is the epitome of a classic Value investor. Valuing Companies not stocks, with an extremely disciplined approach to his trades. His strategy focuses on risk minimisation & long term investing gains.

This has paid of substantially with an annualised compounded portfolio return of approximately 20% since 1964, for his investing conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway.

Overall returns from 1964 to 2021 = 2,855% (approximately).

Fun Fact: If you invested $1000 in 1964 into Berkshire, that would be worth an incredible $28,855. Close to a 29X Return!

Buffett studied at Columbia University under Benjamin Graham (The father of value investing) who authored the bible of investing, the Intelligent investor & Security Analysis.

In this post i’m going to dive into Warren Buffett’s top 21 Quotes these don’t just summarise his investing rules but also offer some incredibly insightful for wisdom for living a happier life! 

21.” The best Investment you can make is in yourself

the more you LEARN, the more you EARN”

This is a classic quote on being a “continuous learning machine” as Warren Buffett often states, those who keep learning keep thriving in life. 

20.” Better to buy a Wonderful Company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price”

Warren Buffett started his investment career studying the “deep value” investing principles of Benjamin Graham,

taking a “Net-Net” approach to investing. This is where you aim to buy companies below there net asset value.

The issue was many of these companies were only trading so low, as they were bad companies and many were even close to bankruptcy. 

This is often referred to as the “cigar Butt investing” Strategy. The issue was many companies trading at such low valuations only had “One Last puff” in them.

However, when Buffett’s good friend & business partner at Berkshire Charlie Munger encouraged him to buy “Wonderful companies at fair prices”. Buffett realised it is ok to pay a little more for a great company with high returns on capital, a strong brand etc. Examples include Apple which is now Berkshire Hathaway’s largest position by market value. 

19. “Hang out with people better than you and you will drift in that direction”

You are the average of the 5 people you associate with daily, if these are great people in terms of their habits, conversations etc.

Then this will impact you positively. However, if these people are negative or energy drains then this will affect you negatively.

18.  “Stock Market is a Voting Machine in the Short term and a weighing machine in the Long term”

Warren Buffett is quoting the father of value investing Benjamin Graham. 

In the short run the stock is a voting machine (Governed by fear/greed) in the long run it is a weighing machine based upon fundamentals. As they say the cream always rises to the top!

Many other Legendary investors have adopted this principle such as the growth stock investor Nick Sleep who earned greater than 20% returns annually!

17. “Someone is sitting in the shade today because a tree was planted a long time ago”

The essence of Warren Buffett’s investing philosophy is to be a Long term investor, think about planted seeds for the future. 

16. “Price is what you pay, value is what you get”

We live in a society where people know the price of everything but the value of nothing! 

Knowing the value of a stock, a business, a product or service is key to being a successful investor.

Want to learn how to value a stock?

I recommend checking out our Investing strategy course which gives you access to advanced valuation models and much more! We only open the community to a limited number of members each month to keep the quality high so click the link now to find out more. Investing strategy course.

15. “Invest with a Margin of Safety”

What is a Margin of Safety?

A “Margin of Safety” is an engineering term which often means adding extra to compensate for error.

For example when great bridges were built in Ancient Roman the architect & workers were made to stand under the bridge before it opened to show they had faith in the strength! This means they made sure they added a margin of safety and kept the quality high.

In investing the idea is the value a companies stock then buy below that “fair value”, Buffett is very disciplined and patient in this area and looks for at least a 20% margin of safety!

For example, if a stock was valued using our advanced valuation model  at $20 per share, then 20% lower would be $16 per share or less, this would be Buffett’s buy point. 

14. “Rule 1 of investing, Never lose money”

Buffett’s famous rules of investing, Rule 1, Never lose money, Rule 2. Don’t forget rule one.

The idea of this is to assess risk first when aim to mitigate the downside risk, then let the upside take care of itself.

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13. “Risk comes from not knowing what your doing”

“Risk comes from not knowing what your doing” this comes down to Warren Buffett’s core rules of investing inside your “circle of competence” .

This is an area you deeply understand. Then when a specific stock crashes, other people look at it as risky while you know that it isn’t risky.

12. “Be Fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful”

“Be Fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful” this is another way of saying 

observe the masses and the do opposite. This is the essence of a contrarian investing strategy where you have to bet against the consensus but also be right.

This also encourages you to buy during a stock market crash when people are fearful (but stocks are cheaper!) and sell during speculation/greed when things are actually the most risky. 

11. “The Stock Market Transfers money from the impatient to the patient”

“The Stock Market Transfers money from the impatient to the patient” Buffett is extremely patient and disciplined. 

He can wait many years for the right trade which is in his “sweet spot”. He often uses a baseball analogy to explain this, imagine your playing baseball but there are no called strikes then 

you can stand there and watch pitch after pitch go by until you find one in your sweet spot! 

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10. “You can’t make a good deal with a bad person”

“You can’t make a good deal with a bad person” back to Buffett’s incredible life advice,

when forming a team or a relationship be aware of the persons moral compass. This can be crucial long term. 

9. “Look for 3 things in a person, intelligence, energy and integrity”

“Look for 3 things in a person, intelligence, energy and integrity, if they don’t have the last one, the first two will kill you!”

Again Buffett talks about the traits he looks for when hiring or for relationships, partnerships etc. 

Warren Buffett’s Top 3 Investing Rules:

8. “Do what you love, tap dance to work”

Buffett often talks about finding something you enjoy doing and are passionate about then do it every day. 

In ancient Hinduism Dharma is one’s natural qualities & behaviour. 

To identify your dharma think about the times you were in “flow state” when you doing an activity which went fast, was challenging, but not too hard.

For example, for me I found my Dharma is being a “guide” this is similar to being a “teacher” I enjoy helping offers and educating people.

This is must be why I started our stock investing course & VIP Group!

7. “What we learn from history, is people don’t learn from history”

“History doesn’t repeat but it does rhyme” despite people being aware of speculation and bubbles in the past from the dot com bubble in the late 90’s to the financial crisis of 2008, they still occur again and again! 

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6. “We don’t have to be smarter than the rest, just more disciplined”

Warren Buffett has often stated multiple times that he is not the smartest, he states:

“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with the 130 IQ.”  

However, Buffett has shown extreme rationality & discipline at Berkshire Hathaway . Buffett will often wait many years to invest before buying when others are selling.

5. ” Investing is laying out money now to get more back in the future”

This is the principle goal of investing. As the old quote goes ” a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush“. The goal is to identify if birds are really in the bush in the future and how much are you willing to pay to risk the bird in your hand.

This is why we discount cash flows back from the future using a discount rate (which is our safe opportunity cost), usually the 10 year treasury bill rate.

4. “If you buy things you don’t need soon you will have to sell things you need”

Warren Buffett doesn’t just give investing wisdom but also financial advice and tips for saving money. Often in life we can be influenced by others and the media to “buy things we don’t need” . The danger occurs when we have to “sell things we need”. Some people do actually go broke trying to look rich! 

3. “I don’t need fancy clothes or cars, I do what makes me happy”

Warren Buffett lives an extremely humble lifestyle! He still lives in the same house in Omaha, Nebraska that he bought in 1958 for $31,500 (approximately $285,000  in todays money). 

He heads McDonalds for his breakfast which he aims to keep under $3.17! One time he was traveling with fellow billionaire and former worlds richest man bill gates and offered to buy him lunch at McDonalds. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out discount coupons! 

2. “Invest into your circle of Competence”

You Circle of Competence is the area you define as what you understand well. For example, Buffett often states he doesn’t invest into technology.

Identifying your circle of competence requires you to be humble and extremely self aware. 

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1. Make money while you sleep

“If you don’t find a way to make money work for you, while you sleep you will work until you die” This is a real great motivator to learn how to invest!

Do you need help on your journey to financial freedom? 

If you want to learn how to invest like the greatest investors of all time such as Warren Buffett, then check out our ultimate investing strategy course.

You also get access to our entire Stock research platform and our thriving VIP Membership group. Where you will be supported by like minded investors at all levels from complete beginner to advanced. 

Membership is only open for a limited time only every month as we try to keep the quality high. As a special treat if you use the promo code “m2iinstagram10” you get $10 discount!  

Warren Buffett 21 Quotes for Wisdom/Wealth |Gallery|