4 Pieces of Money Advice From Warren Buffett’s 2025 Shareholder Letter
Written by
Nicole Spector
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Molly Sullivan
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On Feb. 22, Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the most successful investors of all time, released his annual letter to shareholders. In the letter, he praised his successor, Greg Abel, likening him to his late business partner and fellow investment visionary Charlie Munger.
As he often does, Buffett, who is legally required to publish these letters, included some nuggets of wisdom. Here are four standout pieces of money advice.
Even the Greats Mess Up — But They Own Their Mistakes
Right off the top, Buffett acknowledged mistakes that Berkshire Hathaway — a company valued at more than $1.1 trillion — made over the past 12 months. He takes these seriously and addresses them through action.
“The cardinal sin is delaying the correction of mistakes, or what Charlie Munger called ‘thumb-sucking,'” Buffett wrote. “Problems, he would tell me, cannot be wished away. They require action, however uncomfortable that may be.”
You Don’t Need a Fancy Degree To Be a Brilliant Businessperson
Too often, both employees and hiring managers get hung up on academic institutions listed on résumés. People may undersell and underrate themselves if they don’t attend a premier Ivy League school. Buffett doesn’t fall for this charade of faux intellectualism.
On making executive selections, Buffett said, “I never look at where a candidate has gone to school. Never!”
On this note, it may not even matter whether someone obtains a full college education.
“Look at my friend Bill Gates, who decided that it was far more important to get underway in an exploding industry that would change the world than it was to stick around for a parchment that he could hang on the wall,” Buffett wrote.
“I was lucky enough to get an education at three fine universities. And I avidly believe in lifelong learning. I’ve observed, however, that a substantial portion of business talent is innate, with nature swamping nurture.”
Gains Are a Long-Term Game
Buffett is famous for preaching the benefits of investing for the long haul and staying true to holdings through rocky times. In the letter, he discussed recorded operating earnings of $47.4 billion in 2024 and said Berkshire Hathaway emphasizes this measure rather than GAAP-mandated earnings. The reasoning reflects his long-term philosophy.
“Our measure excludes capital gains or losses on the stocks and bonds we own, whether realized or unrealized,” Buffett wrote. “Over time, we think it highly likely that gains will prevail — why else would we buy these securities? Though the year-by-year numbers will swing wildly and unpredictably. Our horizon for such commitments is almost always far longer than a year. In many cases, our thinking involves decades. These long-termers are the purchases that sometimes make the cash register ring like church bells.”
The Responsibility of Paying Taxes Is a Good Thing
Here’s a Buffett pearl of wisdom that not many fellow billionaires would sign off on: Paying taxes is good. Buffett doesn’t say those exact words (he’s far more articulate), but that’s the gist when he details how much Berkshire Hathaway paid the IRS in 2024.
“Berkshire last year made four payments to the IRS that totaled $26.8 billion,” Buffett wrote. “That’s about 5% of what all of corporate America paid. (In addition, we paid sizable amounts for income taxes to foreign governments and 44 states.)”
Buffett is delighted by this. He recognizes that corporate tax dollars are necessary and go toward the public good.
“Thank you, Uncle Sam,” he wrote. “Someday, your nieces and nephews at Berkshire hope to send you even larger payments than we did in 2024. Spend it wisely. Take care of the many who get the short straws in life for no fault of their own. They deserve better.”
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