From giving stocks as gifts to investing in what you know, Buffett’s top techniques from the woman who studied them.
Entrepreneur and former singer Mary Buffett – who has three adult children – studied her father-in-law’s investment methods up close for 12 years while married to his youngest son, Peter, a musician and composer. She has written eight books about the Oracle of Omaha’s contrarian investment ways; the first, Buffettology, was published in 1997, co-written with David Clark.
On how people should invest, she advises:
“I tell my children to get in the habit of taking 10 to 15 per cent of every cheque they get and put it aside for investment. You don’t want to have more than 40 per cent of your portfolio in any particular stock. For those who don’t want to do the work, invest in an index fund like the S&P 500. It may not give a 20 per cent annual compound return but it will give between 8 and 10 per cent.”