Warren Buffett Explains Why He Still Loves Investing

Added: 2026-05-29

[00:00:00]Mr. Buffett, it's an honor to welcome you back to Washington D.C. Many people may not know this, but this is a return home of sorts for Mr. Buffett. He attended high school just a few miles away at Woodrow Wilson High while his father was a member of Congress.

[00:00:15]Renowned and respected for his business and investment acumen at the company that he has led since 1965, Mr. Buffett is also well known for his deep commitment to philanthropy and social enterprise. He co-founded along with Bill and Melinda Gates the Giving Pledge, an effort to encourage the wealthiest Americans to donate at least 50% of their net worth to philanthropy.

[00:00:42]About 5 years ago, he pledged 99% of his Berkshire Hathaway shares to charity.

[00:00:48]And last year, the shares he donated went to foundations that work to fight poverty, elevate the status of women and girls around the world, and support early childhood education among many other causes. This led to his being ranked number one in 2012's Philanthropy 50, a list of the nation's top philanthropists compiled by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

[00:01:12]He's also given generously over the years to help support the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses much of its efforts on global health and global development. So, Mr. Buffett, on behalf of our entire university community, it's an honor to welcome you to Georgetown. We're so pleased you could join us this evening.

[00:01:30]And it's now my my privilege to present to you all for our conversation this evening, Mr. Warren Buffett and Mr. Brian Moynihan.

[00:01:38]>> Good evening, Georgetown. It's a pleasure to be here.

[00:01:41]Uh for those of you who were here last year, you know that we had uh Bono come talk to you about what he did.

[00:01:47]And uh Anne Finucane helped us arrange that through all the hard work she does for our company.

[00:01:52]And so, this year, as I was thinking about with Anne who we should bring in, I actually talked to Bono. And he said, "Well, if you want to bring a real rock star, bring Warren Buffett in."

[00:02:02]Because here's a guy who has done more for philanthropy than I can ever do and and etc. So, last year we brought you a rock star, this year we brought you a real rock star.

[00:02:20]So, what we're going to do is I'm going to ask Warren a series of questions over 25 30 minutes and then we'll take your questions in the in the crowd and and let the students have a chance to ask Warren about his experiences. And I'm going to start a little bit where the president left off, which is this is your hometown. This is a part of your hometown. So, what are your best memories about being around Georgetown and uh Well, I delivered papers at Georgetown Hospital uh 66 years ago.

[00:02:43]And uh uh I like I developed this affinity because [clears throat] in the hospital uh people tipped. Uh my regular my regular customers, the one that knew me, never never tipped. But, they but I would go to the hospital and one of the things they would do uh they would give me cash tips, but they also would tell me if they were a woman that had given birth to a baby that was we'll say 8 lb 11 oz, they would whisper that number to me. And the numbers racket was very big in in Washington at time. And they felt they were giving me this terribly valuable information, the exact time in which the baby was born or something. And I was supposed to bet on that number in the in the in the numbers racket that day. So, I I have a lot of memories of uh >> [laughter] >> of uh of Georgetown. And uh uh I was here during World War II, which was really a fascinating time to be in in in Washington. And uh uh my dad being in Congress, you know, it was it was really a a window on an extraordinary time in in America. And of course, at that time, we were probably more united than at any time in my lifetime about a common goal.

[00:03:52]I mean, it uh that was the time when people like Bobby Feller and all the athletes today the war broke out went down and then enlisted and and people really did voluntarily in a very high percentage play by the rules in terms of gasoline rationing and sugar rationing and meat rationing and all of that and we all bought savings bonds at at at school and help out the troops. So, it was it was quite a period.

[00:04:17]>> So, somewhere along there you started investing and that changed the nature and I've read stories that you started investing at 13 or whether they're true or not but somewhere around that and then It was 11. What what created the fascination with investing?

[00:04:31]It took me 5 years. I had to save $120.

[00:04:33]It took me 5 years to get $120 to buy a stock three shares of City Service Preferred when I was 11. I I just my dad originally was in the investment business. He really wasn't very interested in it. But I would go down on Saturday morning and and he had these books there in the office and I've read all those and then I went to the Omaha Public Library and I I read every book on investments in the Omaha Public Library by the time I was by the time we moved to Washington. And then when we got here I had the Library of Congress.

[00:05:02]>> [laughter] >> Did you get through all those? Oh, I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I It it's an activity you know, if you're you're a baseball player or something you know, your legs may go or something but my legs have long gone but it doesn't make any difference in what I do. So, it's uh I have I I literally have as much I always have had fun working but I have as much fun now as I've ever had in my life. I mean, it's I work with people I love doing what I love and it just doesn't get any better than that. Well, the quote is that you tap tap dance to work every day.

[00:05:38]>> dance to work. And so, what what makes you do that?

[00:05:40]>> Don't don't ask me to demonstrate but >> [laughter] >> It's incidentally it was nice to get that round of applause at the start but I've learned that crowds now applaud at the start because I'm 83 and they're not sure I'll be around at the end of the talk [laughter] anyway.

[00:05:55]I've I've shared enough dinners with you to know that you have more energy than anybody I I know.