Warren Buffett crossed the threshold into billionaire status in 1985, at the age 54. At the time, there were only 12 other billionaires on the planet (in 2025 there are nearly 2,800). Buffett, now worth $158 billion, made his fortune on his own. He got to work building wealth as a kid and hasn’t taken a pause since. At 94 years old, Buffett is still the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
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Buffett has been dubbed the Oracle of Omaha because he has an often uncanny insight into what the stock market is going to do. Nobody really understands it and Buffett never brags about it, but one thing he does do is share his wisdom for building wealth. And he doesn’t use fancy money jargon that can exclude the average investor. He tells it like it is, for better or worse. Let’s consider four of Buffett’s top tips for getting richer.
Investing can be intimidating when you’re just starting out. Honestly, it can be intimidating when you’ve been doing it for years, too! You may feel this enormous pressure to be “smart” — smart in a way you may not even be able to comprehend. You know, Buffett-level-smart. But don’t bother fretting over any of that. Be more concerned with your attitude and outlook.
“The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect,” Buffett said. “You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd.”
In other, more cliché words, keep calm and carry on and don’t get caught in the doomed loop of obsessing over what other people are doing.
You can make investing simple and still make a ton of money off it. Just embrace dollar-cost averaging.
“If you like spending six to eight hours per week working on investments, do it,” Buffett said. “If you don’t, then dollar-cost average into index funds.”
With this practice you don’t buy individual stocks — which is a risky move, even if you do spend six to eight hours per week working on investments. Instead, you invest in the S&P 500, an index that tracks the performance of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S. Buffett has said that owning the S&P 500 is the “best thing to do.”
Another Buffett nugget of wisdom: “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”
