dpWarren Buffett says luck has been a key factor in the success that’s made him one of the wealthiest people in the world, and it’s inspired the billionaire investor to give away most of that wealth.
“The perspective I have is that, out of 8 billion people, I may be one of the 10 luckiest in the world,” Buffett said in an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick that aired Wednesday on “Squawk Box.”
Buffett has often credited his success, in part, to the good fortune he’s experienced throughout his life, particularly at the start. The Berkshire Hathaway chairman — whose net worth is estimated at $147 billion by Bloomberg, as of Wednesday afternoon — said at Berkshire’s 1997 shareholders meeting that he’d won the “ovarian lottery” simply by being born in America and having relatively good health, both matters of chance.
“I have been lucky and healthy to get to 95 … and, fortunately, I got exposed, partly accidentally, to what I liked to do very early on,” Buffett told Quick, referring to his father’s ownership of a stock brokerage that gave him early investing lessons. “That was just an accident. If my father had been a plumber, I would not have had the same advantage I had. So I was incredibly lucky.”
Reflecting on the role circumstance played in his own success has also shaped his belief that philanthropy is a moral obligation of the wealthy, even those who are unconvinced that they also benefitted from lucky breaks along the way, he said. Buffett first pledged to give away 99% of his wealth within his lifetime in 2010, and has made annual donations over the past two decades of Berkshire shares to the Gates Foundation that were worth nearly $48 billion at the time they were gifted, and would hold a current value of around $159 billion, CNBC calculated on Tuesday.
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Buffett now plans to “dispose” of all of his Berkshire shares by December 31, 2034, he announced in a press release on Tuesday, which would require a pace of giving away at least $17 billion annually to four family foundations after donating $7 billion total in 2025. He confirmed on Wednesday that future gifts will exclude the Gates Foundation, with charitable funds instead going to a group of family foundations run by his three children.
“As life has gone along, I have seen how unbelievably unlucky some people have been,” Buffett told Quick, adding: “The accidents of birth are just so extreme. And, I’ve seen people that use those accidents to justify positions that are just ridiculous, in my view. And, that’s the reason for encouraging philanthropy.”
When it comes to putting the remainder of his vast fortune to the best possible use, Buffett said that his three children — who currently range in age from 68 to 72 — must all agree unanimously on how to disburse any funds, and that he has confidence in their stewardship. Their foundations focus on addressing a range of issues including early childhood education, food security, and health and economic programs for women and children.
The money, Buffett said, “is theirs, and it’s their responsibility to get it done well.”
Billionaires like Buffett sometimes face backlash to their style of philanthropy, with critics saying they primarily use high-profile charitable gifts to earn tax breaks and bolster their reputations. But ultimately, Buffett said he believes that substantial acts of philanthropy can inspire other wealthy people to donate more, while benefiting people who haven’t been as lucky as him.
“If you do things that appeal to [people’s] better instincts, they respond sometimes,” he told Quick, adding: “The ultimate goal is to make life better for the people who get short straws, and there’s a lot more people who get short straws than we’ll ever be able to take care of.”
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