The 1970s: Warren Buffett's Defining Decade

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…