World's Richest Man Has Augusta's Highest Handicap

That's partly because he gets more satisfaction out of playing golf near his home in Omaha than in the pampered privacy of Augusta, Georgia.

As the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Warren Buffett could easily afford to hire Tiger Woods to be both his teacher and his caddy. The shares of his non-dividend paying company sell for around $60,000 a share these days . . . down from the jaw-dropping all-time high of $147,000 a share of a year ago.

Aside from seeing his companies and stocks producing products and earning money Buffett enjoys sitting down and talking with business students and young entrepreneurs, dispensing insight and memorable quotations.

Here is an excerpt from one such recent session. Students from Emory and five other U.S. business schools were invited to visit Mr. Buffett for a Q&A session. As reported by Dang Le, one curious student asked: "Why do you live the way that you do?"

Warren Buffett:
"Do you mean, why am I frugal? You can't buy health and you can't buy love. I'm a member of every golf club that I want to be a member of. I'm the highest handicap member of Augusta National. I'd rather play golf here (in Omaha, Nebraska) with people I like than at the fanciest golf course in the world.

"I can do anything that I want, and I do. I buy everything I want to have. I'm not interested in cars and my goal is not to make people envious.

"Don't confuse the cost of living with the standard of living. Bella Eidenberg was a Polish Jew who was at Auschwitz and some of her family didn't make it. Twenty years ago she said she was slow to make friends, and that the real question in her mind was always, "Would they hide me?" If you have a lot of people that would hide you, you've had a very successful life. That can't be bought. I know people that have billions of dollars and their children would say, 'he's in the attic.'

"I estimate that I live on $100,000 per year, except for my plane which costs me about $1 to $1.5 million. I like the plane, it improves my life. My computer and my airplane changed my life in a big way and I'm not sure, if I had to choose, which one I'd give up.

"Anything beyond $50 Million doesn't improve my life. If I took out $3 billion of Berkshire stock, I could have paid 30,000 people $100,000 per year to paint my portrait every day. I could have paid 50,000 people $60,000 per year to dress in loin cloths and haul rocks to create the Buffett tomb. That's not me.

"I believe in giving my kids enough so they can do anything, but not so much that they can do nothing."

On a lighter note, Buffett mixed his humour with his insight:

"Did you hear they called off the Wall Street Christmas Pageant this year? They had trouble finding three wise men...and a virgin. There are many opportunities right now. The markets are very inefficient at times, and this is one of those times.

"Insurance is an interesting business. You know, we underwrote a two-year life insurance policy on Mike Tyson. I wanted an exclusion against women shooting him, but they wouldn't let me.

"Ted Williams, who wrote the "Science of Hitting," broke the strike zone into 92 ball shaped sections. He knew, if hit in his sweet spot, he'd hit 430, a little further out, and he'd hit 350. You have to know your sweet spot. The beautiful thing about investing is that it's a "No called strike game" where unlike baseball the only strikes in investing are when you swing. I don't have to swing."