Warren Buffett On His Way To Giving Away His Fortune -- February 18, 2019

Bless his heart. Warren Buffett has said he will "gift" or "give away" his "total fortune." I'm not sure if he provided a time frame. Jeff Bezos gets a lot of criticism for not giving his money away. So, let's see how Warren is doing, the man who has said he will give away most of his wealth.

The AP is reporting, but it's not getting much press, that Warren Buffett, bless his heart, "gifted $13.5 million in stock last summer." You can google the story. I can't post the link.

Another source says Warren Buffett's "net worth" is $85 billion.

So, let's put the $13.5 million in context.

1. $13.5 million / $85 billion = 0.0001588 or 0.02%.

2. Two hundredths of a percent. Which, for millennials, is less than a tenth of a percent. Which is less than a percent.

3. Apparently he gave that away "over several months," between August and October.

4. How long, at that rate will it take Buffett to give away $85 billion?

5. $13.5 billion/day x 365 days/year *20 years = $98.6 billion.  At the current rate, Warren Buffett would have to gift/give away the same amount ($13.5 billion) every day for the next 20 years to give away $98.6 billion.

6. But, yes, $98.6 billion is more than his net worth. Let's assume Warren Buffett is a really, really bad investor and only gets a return of 4% on his $85 billion, from MoneyChimp:

7.  Yes, I know that doesn't account for the $13.5 million he is giving away every quarter. Disregarding that, at 4%, compound interest (only once yearly -- and certainly he should get that compounded month -- see below) his $85 billion would grow to $186 billion.

8. Compounding it monthly would take it to $189 billion.

9. If Warren is as good an investor as folks think he is, he should easily get 8% this year on his $85 billion, or another $6.8 billion.

10. $13.5 million (which he donated this year) / $6.8 billion = 0.001985 or 0.2% of what his money will earn, passively. If he invests all that in municipal bonds, he won't even pay any income tax and if he donates it, I assume he gets a tax break.

Disclaimer: I often make simple arithmetic errors, and there are a lot of assumptions in the data above, as well as a lot of things we don't know. I was just playing around with the few numbers I was given.

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Speaking of Snow Jobs, Global Warming Continues To Slam The US

I had pretty much wanted to quit posting global warming stories -- it's no longer science, it's religion, and a cult at that. But it's impossible to ignore. In fact, it's so "bad," I will post a stand-alone note on global warming later.

For now: