Warren Buffett on His Happiness: ‘I Can Do Anything I Want ... I Can Buy Anything I Want’

‘I am doing what I love to do with people I love’

EXCERPT:

WOODRUFF: “You said it wouldn’t make you happy to have a hundred, 200 homes and yachts and so forth. What does make Warren Buffett happy?”
BUFFETT: “I just have a lot of fun doing my job. I mean, I can do anything I want, basically, as long as it doesn’t involve athletic ability, or something like that.” (Laughter)
BUFFETT: “But if it’s something I can buy, I can buy anything, basically. I have been on 400-foot yachts, and I have — I have lived the life a little bit with people that have 10 homes and everything. And I live in the same house I bought in 1958. And if I could spend $100 million on a house that would make me a lot happier, I would do it. But, for me, that’s the happiest House In the world. And it’s because it’s got memories, and people come back, and all that sort of thing. So, I am doing what I love to do with people I love. And it doesn’t get any better than that, Judy. And — but I should be. I mean, why in the hell — why should I be working at 86 at something that I don’t like or with people I don’t like?”
WOODRUFF: “And I see you’re drinking a Cherry Coke.”
BUFFETT: “Right.”
WOODRUFF: “How do you stay healthy?”
BUFFETT: “Well, I think I stay healthy partly by being happy, actually. I think that — I think it really helps if your stomach isn’t grinding all the time, and you’re doing things you don’t want to do, or you’re working with people that — you know? So I have gone very light on the diet advice. I eat like a normal 6-year-old, but if you look at the mortality statistics, I mean, 6-year-olds don’t die very often.” (Laughter)

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