I grew up making $6/hour working on a farm. I went to crappy public schools in a rural part of Appalachia. Then I went to a university with a 99% acceptance rate. I was proud to be in college at all. I didn’t know how far behind the curve I was. After I graduated, my starting salary as an accountant was $48,000. I rented an apartment on the wrong side of town for $485/month, and never felt richer…
It all seemed so easy when he started. Warren Buffett graduated from Columbia in 1951. He had $19,700 to his name. Over the next five years, he would compound his net worth at a rate of 55% annually . He bought things like Western Insurance at 1x earnings . He bought Greif Brothers Cooperage at 2.5x earnings . When he launched his investment partnership in 1956, he had today’s equivalent of $1.3…