How Warren Buffett’s Fund Manager Turned $70K Into $264M: ‘In A Perfect World, Nobody Would Know About This’
LegendaryinvestorWarren Buffett is widely considered one of thegreatest investors of all time. It turns out Berkshire'sinvesting approach can be learned and repeated, evidenced by the mind-blowing returns one of his portfolio managers hasgenerated.
According to a Business Insider report,citing a Washington Post interview from late 2021, Ted Weschler, an investment manager atBerkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B), grew his retirement account from $70,000 to $264 millionin less than30 years with a simple approach.
What To Know:The massive fortune was first uncovered in June 2021 when ProPublica got ahold of Weschler's tax returns. The Berkshire Hathaway portfolio manager then shared some details about how he managed to amass the wealth with reporterAllan Sloan.
"In a perfect world, nobody would know about this account," Weschler reportedly told Sloan in an email.
"But now that the number is out there, Im hopeful that some good can come of it by serving as a motivation for new workforce entrants to start saving and investing early."
Weschler definitely got an early start, and anyonehoping to replicate the feat needs to do the same.
The report indicates that Weschler startedanIRA in 1984 at the age of 22 and by the time he was 27, he had grown his account to$70,384by maxing out his contributions and doubling down via employer match.
He quit his job as a financial analyst and began his journey inprivate equity. Despite getting off to a rocky start with investments inContinental Healthand Intelogic, his new roleultimately led him to become a hedge fund manager by the turn of the century.
Related Link:You'll Never Believe the "Dumbest" Stock Warren Buffett Ever Bought
Speaking with Sloan, the portfolio manager noted that all losses are simply "unmonetized lessons."
Weschler reportedly generated compound annual returns of 22% for more than a decade before he joined Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in 2012.
He noted that he used to focus on companies that he believed were inmuch better standingthan the market was pricing in.Weschler also said he spenta lot of his timestudying companies and industries in order to find important pieces of informationthemarket was missing.
For those who don't have the time, he recommendedfocusing on index funds like theVanguard S&P 500 ETF VOO . They can be very powerful tools for investors who can'tclosely follow individual investments, he said.
But his main advice is to keep allof your money in equities and to tune out anyonewho tellsyou to do something different.
"Start early, maximize the ?[employer]match, invest 100% in equities, and ignore all the other noise," Weschler said.
The Berkshire manager told the Washington Post he made all of his moneyby investing inpublicly available securities, suggesting anyone can do it with the right approach.
Buffett too was a beneficiary of anearlystart. The billionaire investorhas been piling money into equitiessince he was 11.If you don't have the early start advantage in front of you, onecan alwaysback the guys who arearguably the best to ever do it bybuying shares of Berkshire Hathaway. The fund has historicallyoutperformed the S&P 500.
Check This Out:Former Hedge Fund Manager Lists 3 Reasons Berkshire Hathaway Has 'Everything We Look For In A Stock'
BRK.B Price Action: Berkshire Hathaway has averaged an11.39% annual return over the last 10 years. It's up more than 215% since Weschler joined the firm in 2012.