Warren Buffett, the seventh richest person in the world, celebrated his 94th birthday on Friday, August 30. What is his secret to longevity? It’s hard to believe, but Buffett is far from being an advocate of modern healthy eating. He enjoys Coca-Cola, candy, and a happy lifestyle.
This week, the Berkshire Hathaway company led by Buffett became the first non-tech company to surpass a market value of $1 trillion. Berkshire Class A stocks also surpassed $70,000 for the first time.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Buffett is considered one of the most successful investors in history. He first bought stocks at the age of 11 in Omaha, Nebraska, and now his net worth exceeds $148 billion.
Regarding Buffett’s ability to lead the company to new heights at such an advanced age, Howard Marks, co-founder and co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management and a friend of Buffett, told CNBC, “It’s a thoughtful strategy. For 70 years, he (Buffett) has maintained discipline, persevered, and demonstrated extraordinary insight.”
“Discipline and perseverance are essential, but not enough. Without extraordinary insight, he clearly would not have become one of the greatest investors in history,” Marks said.
One might assume that leading such a large conglomerate since 1970, Buffett would stick to a healthy diet to maintain vitality. Surprisingly, many believe Buffett’s dietary habits contradict health recommendations.
“I eat like a six-year-old,” Buffett said in an interview with Fortune magazine in 2015. He enjoys eating Utz potato chips and drinks five 12-ounce bottles of Coca-Cola every day.
“If I intake 2,700 calories a day, a quarter of that is Coca-Cola. I drink it every day,” he said.
In the 2017 HBO documentary “Becoming Warren Buffett,” he revealed that he goes to McDonald’s every day for a $3.17 breakfast, which includes either two sausage patties, a sausage, eggs, and cheese, or bacon, eggs, and cheese, of course paired with a Coke.
For lunch, Buffett often goes to Dairy Queen for chili cheese hot dogs and ice cream sundaes with cherry syrup and chopped nuts, and he indulges in See’s Candies snacks. Buffett is also known for consuming excessive salt, to the extent that former Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf compared him to a “snowstorm.”
Buffett almost daily consumes what modern society considers junk food. How does he maintain a sharp mind and good physical health to lead the company to success? Fortune magazine summarized several habits or answers upheld by Buffett.
Unlike many early rising CEOs, Buffett values sleep.
“I don’t want to begin my day at 4 a.m.,” he said in a 2017 interview with PBS NewsHour. “I like to sleep.”
“So I typically get eight hours of sleep each night,” he said.
Despite running a company with over seventy subsidiaries, Buffett ensures to allocate eight hours a week to play bridge with friends.
“I play bridge a lot,” Buffett told The Washington Post.
According to a significant 10-year study published in the British Medical Journal, playing bridge at least twice a week can help maintain sharp memory into old age.
“I hardly do anything I don’t like doing,” Buffett told attendees at the 2001 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. “I’m lucky… I can basically do what I like. I derive a lot of pleasure from it.”
Buffett spends five to six hours daily reading and thinking.
“I find thinking about business or investment problems interesting,” he said in the HBO documentary.
At the 2008 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, Buffett was asked about the secret to staying healthy. He popped a candy into his mouth and joked, “Well, you start with a balanced diet,” which drew laughter from the audience.
He continued, “If Charlie (Munger) and I can’t have good mindsets, who can? We have great partners, great managers, and great families. How can you be dissatisfied with so much happiness in life?”
At the age of 93, during a conversation with students at Georgia Institute of Technology, Buffett was asked to reflect on his greatest successes and failures.
Buffett said, “When you get to my age, the real measure of your life’s success is how many people truly love you.”
He added that he knows some people who have amassed a significant amount of wealth but are essentially bankrupt in terms of love. “I know people who have a lot of money… but the fact is, there’s nobody in the world who really loves them… that’s the ultimate test of how you lead your life.”
Buffett didn’t just identify the issue; he also provided a solution. “You can’t buy ‘love.’ The only way to get love is to make yourself lovable. The more you put out love, the more you get back.”