Saturday, December 1, 2007

Warren Buffett and his Early Years

As a youngster Warren was fascinated by numbers...His grandfather owned a grocery store and his father was a stockbroker...At age six Warren was buying six packs of Coke for 25 cents a carton and selling them for a nickel a piece, making a nickel per six pack...At age eight Warren was reading information from his father's business about the stock market...

Three years later he was working and marking the black board where his dad worked...Warren became infatuated with stocks and the stock market...Warren's numbers and math skill's continued to improve at a young age...He bought his first stock at age eleven...He bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred at $38 per share...The stock dropped to $27 and then went up to $40...Warren sold at $40...Cities Service then went to $200...A lesson about equities that Warren would remember to this day...Always the reader, one of Warren's favorite book, in his youth, was One Thousand Ways to Make a Thousand Dollars...In 1942 Warren's dad, Howard is elected to Congress...In 1943 Warren's family moves to Fredericksburg, Virginia and later to Washington D.C...Warren attended Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington D. C...

Warren's mother Leila had emotional moments...Warren would try to ignore his mother when she had those situations, but they seem not to impact his talent and love for numbers...Warren would continue as a paperboy, work multiple routes and develop a love for newspapers...Warren who liked Coke would switch to Pepsi, because Pepsi was twelve ounces and Coke had six ounce bottles, but the price was the same...Twice as much soda, for the same price...Warren's frugality has begun...

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