Editorial Staff1. Buy a modest home
Buffett and his late first wife, Susan, bought their Omaha home in 1958 for $31,500. It’s not tiny — there are five bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms — but he didn’t replace it with a mega-mansion once the money started rolling in. (Let’s be honest, though — he also did buy a California vacation home, spending $150,000 for it in 1971.)
For Buffett, Omaha and the relatively modest house he chose back in the 1950s have always been home sweet home.
2. Don’t be afraid to use coupons in front of friends
Coupons save you money, so why not use them? Bill Gates marveled in a 2017 letter that he was once at a McDonald’s in Hong Kong with Buffett.
“You offered to pay, dug into your pocket, and pulled out … coupons!” Gates wrote, noting that his wife, Melinda, even took a photo of Buffett and his coupons. “It reminded us how much you value a good deal.”
3. Don’t smoke or drink
Both smoking and drinking require steady outlays of cash, and neither is healthy for you, which could mean increased medical bills down the road.
Buffett has never smoked or drunk alcohol, and he’s still with us at 90.
4. Look for sales and deals
“Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down,” Buffett wrote in Berkshire Hathaway’s 2008 letter to shareholders.
There’s no need for Buffett to ever jump on a marked-down item, yet he knows the value of a deal.
5. Don’t gamble
What’s that saying about gambling? “The house always wins.”
Buffett knows this, and he’s said that “gambling is a tax on ignorance.” He once bought a slot machine for his home and paid his kids their allowance in dimes, knowing they couldn’t resist the lure of the slots and he’d have their allowance all back that same day.
They learned what Buffett, and smart investors, already know — gambling doesn’t pay.
