But before he leaves, he recounted his life and success, while sharing his wishes for the organization and philanthropic giving. Buffett is placing his trust in his successor Greg Abel, who will lead the $1.2 trillion empire.

Read the letter:

Today, Warren E. Buffett converted 1,800 A shares into 2,700,000 B shares in order to give these B shares to four family foundations: 1,500,000 shares to The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 400,000 shares to each of The Sherwood Foundation, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation. These donations have been delivered today.

Mr. Buffett’s comments to his fellow shareholders follow:

To My Fellow Shareholders:

I will no longer be writing Berkshire’s annual report or talking endlessly at the annual
meeting. As the British would say, I’m “going quiet.”

Sort of.

Greg Abel will become the boss at yearend. He is a great manager, a tireless worker and an honest communicator. Wish him an extended tenure.

I will continue talking to you and my children about Berkshire via my annual Thanksgiving message. Berkshire’s individual shareholders are a very special group who are unusually generous in sharing their gains with others less fortunate. I enjoy the chance to keep in touch with you. Indulge me this year as I first reminisce a bit. After that, I will discuss the plans for distribution of my Berkshire shares. Finally, I will offer a few business and personal observations.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I’m grateful and surprised by my luck in being alive at 95. When I was young, this outcome did not look like a good bet. Early on, I nearly died. It was 1938 and Omaha hospitals were then thought of by its citizens as either Catholic or Protestant, a classification that seemed natural at the time.

Our family doctor, Harley Hotz, was a friendly Catholic who made house calls toting a black
bag. Dr. Hotz called me Skipper and never charged much for his visits. When I experienced a bad
bellyache in 1938, Dr. Hotz came by and, after probing a bit, told me I would be OK in the morning. He then went home, had dinner and played a little bridge. Dr. Hotz couldn’t, however, get my somewhat peculiar symptoms out of his mind and later that night he dispatched me to St. Catherine’s Hospital for an emergency appendectomy. During the next three weeks, I felt like I was in a nunnery, and began enjoying my new “podium.” I liked to talk – yes, even then – and the nuns embraced me. To top things off, Miss Madsen, my third-grade teacher, told my 30 classmates to each write me a letter. I probably threw away the letters from the boys but read and reread those from the girls; hospitalization had its rewards.

The highlight of my recovery – which actually was dicey for much of the first week – was a
gift from my wonderful Aunt Edie. She brought me a very professional-looking fingerprinting set,
and I promptly fingerprinted all of my attending nuns. (I was probably the first Protestant kid they
had seen at St. Catherine’s and they didn’t know what to expect.)

My theory – totally nutty, of course – was that someday a nun would go bad and the FBI would find that they had neglected to fingerprint nuns. The FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, had become revered by Americans in the 1930s, and I envisioned Mr. Hoover, himself, coming to Omaha to inspect my invaluable collection. I further fantasized that J. Edgar and I would quickly identify and apprehend the wayward nun. National fame seemed certain.

Obviously, my fantasy never materialized. But, ironically, some years later it became clear that I should have fingerprinted J. Edgar himself as he became disgraced for misusing his post. Well, that was Omaha in the 1930s, when a sled, a bicycle, a baseball glove and an electric train were coveted by me and my friends. Let’s look at a few other kids from that era, who grew up very nearby and greatly influenced my life but of whom I was for long unaware.

I’ll begin with Charlie Munger, my best pal for 64 years. In the 1930s, Charlie lived a block
away from the house I have owned and occupied since 1958.

Early on, I missed befriending Charlie by a whisker. Charlie, 6 ⅔ years older than I, worked in the summer of 1940 at my grandfather’s grocery store, earning $2 for a 10-hour day. (Thrift runs deep in Buffett blood.) The following year I did similar work at the store, but I never met Charlie until 1959 when he was 35 and I was 28.

After serving in World War II, Charlie graduated from Harvard Law and then moved permanently to California. Charlie, however, forever talked of his early years in Omaha as formative. For more than 60 years, Charlie had a huge impact on me and could not have been a better teacher and protective “big brother.” We had differences but never had an argument. “I told you so” was not in his vocabulary.

In 1958, I bought my first and only home. Of course, it was in Omaha, located about two miles from where I grew up (loosely defined), less than two blocks from my in-laws, about six blocks from the Buffett grocery store and a 6-7-minute drive from the office building where I have worked for 64 years.

Let’s move on to another Omahan, Stan Lipsey. Stan sold the Omaha Sun Newspapers (weeklies) to Berkshire in 1968 and a decade later moved to Buffalo at my request. The Buffalo Evening News, owned by a Berkshire affiliate, was then locked in a battle to the death with its morning competitor who published Buffalo’s only Sunday paper. And we were losing. Stan eventually built our new Sunday product, and for some years our paper – formerly hemorrhaging cash – earned over 100% annually (pre-tax) on our $33 million investment. This was important money to Berkshire in the early 1980s.

Stan grew up about five blocks from my home. One of Stan’s neighbors was Walter Scott, Jr. Walter, you will remember, brought MidAmerican Energy to Berkshire in 1999. He was also a valued Berkshire director until his death in 2021 and a very close friend. Walter was Nebraska’s philanthropic leader for decades and both Omaha and the state carries his imprint. Walter attended Benson High School, which I was scheduled to attend as well – until my dad surprised everyone in 1942 by beating a four-term incumbent in a Congressional race. Life is full of surprises.

Wait, there’s more.

In 1959, Don Keough and his young family lived in a home located directly across the street from my house and about 100 yards away from where the Munger family had lived. Don was then a coffee salesman but was destined to become president of Coca-Cola as well as a devoted director of Berkshire.

When I met Don, he was earning $12,000 a year while he and his wife Mickie were raising five children, all destined for Catholic schools (with tuition requirements). Our families became fast friends. Don came from a farm in northwest Iowa and graduated from Omaha’s Creighton University. Early on, he married Mickie, an Omaha girl. After joining Coke, Don went on to become legendary around the globe.

In 1985, when Don was president of Coke, the company launched its ill-fated New Coke. Don made a famous speech in which he apologized to the public and reinstated “Old” Coke. This change of heart took place after Don explained that Coke incoming mail addressed to “Supreme Idiot” was promptly delivered to his desk. His “withdrawal” speech is a classic and can be viewed on YouTube. He cheerfully acknowledged that, in truth, the Coca-Cola product belonged to the public and not to the company. Sales subsequently soared.

You can watch Don on Charlierose.com in a wonderful interview. (Tom Murphy and Kay Graham have a couple of gems as well.) Like Charlie Munger, Don forever remained a Midwestern boy, enthusiastic, friendly and American to the core.

Finally, Ajit Jain, born and raised in India, as well as Greg Abel, our Canadian CEO-to-be, each lived in Omaha for several years late in the 20th Century. Indeed, in the 1990s, Greg lived only a few blocks away from me on Farnam Street, though we never met at the time.

Can it be that there is some magic ingredient in Omaha’s water?

I lived a few teenage years in Washington, DC (when my dad was in Congress) and in 1954 I took what I thought would be a permanent job in Manhattan. There I was treated wonderfully by Ben
Graham and Jerry Newman and made many life-long friends. New York had unique assets – and still does. Nevertheless, in 1956, after only 1½ years, I returned to Omaha, never to wander again. Subsequently, my three children, as well as several grandchildren, were raised in Omaha. My children always attended public schools (graduating from the same high school that educated my dad (class of 1921), my first wife, Susie (class of 1950) as well as Charlie, Stan Lipsey, Irv and Ron Blumkin, who were key to growing Nebraska Furniture Mart, and Jack Ringwalt (class of 1923), who founded National Indemnity and sold it to Berkshire in 1967 where it became the base upon which our huge P/C operation was constructed.

Our country has many great companies, great schools, great medical facilities and each definitely has its own special advantages along with talented people. But I feel very lucky to have had the good fortune to make many lifelong friends, to meet both of my wives, to receive a great start in education at public schools, to meet many interesting and friendly adult Omahans when I was very young, and to make a wide variety of friends in the Nebraska National Guard. In short, Nebraska has been home.

Looking back I feel that both Berkshire and I did better because of our base in Omaha than if I had resided anywhere else. The center of the United States was a very good place to be born, to raise a family, and to build a business. Through dumb luck, I drew a ridiculously long straw at birth.

Now let’s move on to my advanced age. My genes haven’t been particularly helpful – the family’s all-time record for longevity (admittedly family records get fuzzy as you work backwards) was 92 until I came along. But I have had wise, friendly and dedicated Omaha doctors, starting with Harley Hotz, and continuing to this day. At least three times, my life has been saved, each with doctors based within a few miles from my home. (I have given up fingerprinting nurses, however. You can get away with many eccentricities at 95 . . . . . but there are limits.)

Those who reach old age need a huge dose of good luck, daily escaping banana peels, natural disasters, drunk or distracted drivers, lightning strikes, you name it.

But Lady Luck is fickle and – no other term fits – wildly unfair. In many cases, our leaders and the rich have received far more than their share of luck – which, too often, the recipients prefer not to acknowledge. Dynastic inheritors have achieved lifetime financial independence the moment they emerged from the womb, while others have arrived, facing a hell-hole during their early life or, worse, disabling physical or mental infirmities that rob them of what I have taken for granted. In many heavily-populated parts of the world, I would likely have had a miserable life and my sisters would have had one even worse.

I was born in 1930 healthy, reasonably intelligent, white, male and in America. Wow! Thank you, Lady Luck. My sisters had equal intelligence and better personalities than I but faced a much different outlook. Lady Luck continued to drop by during much of my life, but she has better things to do than work with those in their 90s. Luck has its limits.

Father Time, to the contrary, now finds me more interesting as I age. And he is undefeated; for him, everyone ends up on his score card as “wins.” When balance, sight, hearing and memory are all on a persistently downward slope, you know Father Time is in the neighborhood. I was late in becoming old – its onset materially varies – but once it appears, it is not to be denied.

To my surprise, I generally feel good. Though I move slowly and read with increasing difficulty, I am at the office five days a week where I work with wonderful people. Occasionally, I get a useful idea or am approached with an offer we might not otherwise have received. Because of Berkshire’s size and because of market levels, ideas are few – but not zero.

My unexpected longevity, however, has unavoidable consequences of major importance to my family and the achievement of my charitable objectives.

Let’s explore them.

What Comes Next

My children are all above normal retirement age, having reached 72, 70 and 67. It would be a mistake to wager that all three – now at their peak in many respects – will enjoy my exceptional luck in delayed aging. To improve the probability that they will dispose of what will essentially be my entire estate before alternate trustees replace them, I need to step up the pace of lifetime gifts to their three foundations. My children are now at their prime in respect to experience and wisdom but have yet to enter old age. That “honeymoon” period will not last forever.

Fortunately, a course correction is easy to execute. There is, however, one additional factor to consider: I would like to keep a significant amount of “A” shares until Berkshire shareholders develop the comfort with Greg that Charlie and I long enjoyed. That level of confidence shouldn’t take long. My children are already 100% behind Greg as are the Berkshire directors. All three children now have the maturity, brains, energy and instincts to disburse a large fortune. They will also have the advantage of being above ground when I am long gone and, if necessary, can adopt policies both anticipatory and reactive to federal tax policies or other developments affecting philanthropy. They may well need to adapt to a significantly changing world around them. Ruling from the grave does not have a great record, and I have never had an urge to do so.

Fortunately, all three children received a dominant dosage of their genes from their mother. As the decades have passed, I have also become a better model for their thinking and behavior. I will never, however, achieve parity with their mother.

My children have three alternate trustees in case of any premature deaths or disabilities. The alternates are not ranked or tied to a specific child. All three are exceptional humans and wise in the ways of the world. They have no conflicting motives.

I have assured my children that they do not need to perform miracles nor fear failures or disappointments. These are inevitable, and I have made my share. They simply need to improve somewhat upon what generally is achieved by government activities and/or private philanthropy, recognizing these other methods of redistribution of wealth have shortcomings as well. Early on, I contemplated various grand philanthropic plans. Though I was stubborn, these did not prove feasible. During my many years, I’ve also watched ill-conceived wealth transfers by political hacks, dynastic choices and, yes, inept or quirky philanthropists.

If my children simply do a decent job, they can be certain that their mother and I would be pleased. Their instincts are good and they each have had years of practice with very small sums initially that have been irregularly increased to more than $500 million annually. All three like working long hours to help others, each in their own way.

The acceleration of my lifetime gifts to my children’s foundations in no way reflects any change in my views about Berkshire’s prospects. Greg Abel has more than met the high expectations I had for him when I first thought he should be Berkshire’s next CEO. He understands many of our businesses and personnel far better than I now do, and he is a very fast learner about matters many CEOs don’t even consider. I can’t think of a CEO, a management consultant, an academic, a member of government – you name it – that I would select over Greg to handle your savings and mine. Greg understands, for example, far more about both the upside potential and the dangers of our P/C insurance business than do a great many long-time P/C executives. My hope is that his health remains good for several decades. With a little luck, Berkshire should require only five or six CEOs over the next century. It should particularly avoid those whose goal is to retire at 65, to become lookat-me rich or to initiate a dynasty.

One unpleasant reality: Occasionally, a wonderful and loyal CEO of the parent or a subsidiary will succumb to dementia, Alzheimer’s or another debilitating and long-term disease. Charlie and I encountered this problem several times and failed to act. This failure can be a huge mistake. The Board must be alert to this possibility at the CEO level and the CEO must be alert to the possibility at subsidiaries. This is easier said than done; I could cite a few examples from the past at major companies. Directors should be alert and speak up is all that I can advise. During my lifetime, reformers sought to embarrass CEOs by requiring the disclosure of the compensation of the boss compared to what was being paid to the average employee. Proxy statements promptly ballooned to 100-plus pages compared to 20 or less earlier.

But the good intentions didn’t work; instead they backfired. Based on the majority of my observations – the CEO of company “A” looked at his competitor at company “B” and subtly conveyed to his board that he should be worth more. Of course, he also boosted the pay of directors and was careful who he placed on the compensation committee. The new rules produced envy, not moderation. The ratcheting took on a life of its own. What often bothers very wealthy CEOs – they are human, after all – is that other CEOs are getting even richer. Envy and greed walk hand in hand. And what consultant ever recommended a serious cut in CEO compensation or board payments?

In aggregate, Berkshire’s businesses have moderately better-than-average prospects, led by a few non-correlated and sizable gems. However, a decade or two from now, there will be many companies that have done better than Berkshire; our size takes its toll.

Berkshire has less chance of a devastating disaster than any business I know. And, Berkshire has a more shareholder-conscious management and board than almost any company with which I am familiar (and I’ve seen a lot). Finally, Berkshire will always be managed in a manner that will make its existence an asset to the United States and eschew activities that would lead it to become a supplicant. Over time, our managers should grow quite wealthy – they have important responsibilities – but do not have the desire for dynastic or look-at-me wealth.

Our stock price will move capriciously, occasionally falling 50% or so as has happened three times in 60 years under present management. Don’t despair; America will come back and so will
Berkshire shares.

A Few Final Thoughts

One perhaps self-serving observation. I’m happy to say I feel better about the second half of my life than the first. My advice: Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes – learn at least a little from them and move on. It is never too late to improve. Get the right heroes and copy them. You can start with Tom Murphy; he was the best.

Remember Alfred Nobel, later of Nobel Prize fame, who – reportedly – read his own obituary that was mistakenly printed when his brother died and a newspaper got mixed up. He was horrified at what he read and realized he should change his behavior.

Don’t count on a newsroom mix-up: Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it.

Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.

I write this as one who has been thoughtless countless times and made many mistakes but also became very lucky in learning from some wonderful friends how to behave better (still a long way from perfect, however). Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the Chairman.

I wish all who read this a very happy Thanksgiving. Yes, even the jerks; it’s never too late to change. Remember to thank America for maximizing your opportunities. But it is – inevitably – capricious and sometimes venal in distributing its rewards.

Choose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them. You will never be perfect, but you can always be better.

When I use the phrase “personal finance,” I’m talking about the personal decisions and disciplines we incorporate into our lives concerning the finances in our personal possession.

What is interesting to me about personal finance is that many of the same habits are repeated over and over again by money experts, advisers, and writers. I mean, for the most part, everyone is saying the same thing about which personal finance principles and habits lead to long-term success.

Unfortunately, not all of these principles get applied by people (which is probably why they get continually repeated).

From my experience pursuing and writing about minimalism, I can see why so many of the most common financial principles are hard for people to implement. We spend a lot of money of things we don’t need.

In the US, according to some studies, we spend $1,500/month on nonessentials, and that has resulted in over $1.2 trillion in personal credit card debt. Think of that number: $1.2 trillion dollars! And that doesn’t even include home loans or auto loans.

Will minimalism solve every personal finance crisis in the world? Of course not. But it’ll solve the crisis for more people than you think… maybe even you.

When we choose to buy only the things we need, we provide more margin to follow the Personal Finance wisdom we keep hearing repeated.

As an example, here are seven almost-universally recommended personal finance habits and how they become more attainable through minimalism:

1. Spend Less Than You Earn

The foundation of financial wisdom is to spend less than you earn, but it is often hard to implement in practice.

With minimalism, our wants decrease and we learn better how to discern between needs and desires. We learn how little we actually need to live a meaningful life.

This means we naturally spend less, making it easier to live below our means—and it doesn’t take long to realize, it is not a sacrifice to do so.

2. Save Consistently

As we limit our purchases to only what adds value to our lives, we’ll find that we aren’t as inclined to make impulse buys. More money available at the end of the month (or start of the month) means different things to different people. But if you haven’t been able to save consistently, minimalism can get you there.

With fewer unplanned expenditures, setting aside a consistent portion of our income becomes much simpler. “Save a little bit every month,” something you’ve been told from the very beginning, suddenly becomes achievable.

3. Avoid Credit Card Debt

For the first time ever, Americans hold $1T in credit card debt. This is a problem. Credit card debt builds and builds and will eventually consume your time, money, and focus. And with current interest rates so high, catching up is nearly impossible for people—and it is absolutely impossible for anyone who continues the same spending that led to the debt.

When we embrace minimalism, we’re less swayed by trends, making it less tempting to go into debt for short-term pleasures.

4. Start Retirement Savings Early

Compound interest is on your side when you start saving for retirement early.

Minimalism helps us here too by enabling us to find opportunity to prioritize our future selves, leading us to start that retirement fund earlier and benefiting from the magic of compound interest.

5. Maintain an Emergency Fund

Having a small fund of savings for little emergencies is wise and helpful in our financial lives. Dave Ramsey recommends $1,000 as a starting number—that number sounds good to me. $1,000 is buying less and less these days—but the goal of an emergency fund isn’t to cover every expense that might arise, it’s there to give you enough to cover most emergencies while you focus on paying down debt.

Again, you can see the connection here, when we stop buying things we don’t need, more of our money can be directed towards building (and maintaining) this safety net.

This means when life throws its inevitable curveballs, we’re financially equipped to handle them. Minimalism makes these personal finance principles, which you’ve heard repeatedly, easier and easier. But I’ll add two more.

6. Diversify your Investments

Will every person who pursues minimalism have extra funds available to invest? Not necessarily.

But “diversify your investments” is very common personal finance advice—and it’s good advice. It’s never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket.

For many people who overspend, their home becomes their only long-term investment (plus maybe a little bit deducted from their paycheck into retirement). Buying less offers an on-ramp of extra funds to invest in more places than your home.

7. Plan for Big Purchases

Every once in a while, a significant purchase is required. Maybe it’s a new car, a home renovation, or a much-needed vacation to recharge. Almost every financial expert will advise us to save up over time, and plan for these big-ticket items.

Minimalism, again, makes this easier to do.

There were many life-giving benefits that we discovered when we began living a minimalist life. Its impact on our personal financial picture was one of the very first that we discovered. For us, minimalism meant we finally had some margin in our budget at the end of each month. But the longer we have practiced minimalism, the more personal finance benefits we have discovered and experienced. You will too.

This is sage advice, but not really a prevailing attitude in today’s culture, which would seem to reward folly rather than wisdom.

Today, we often see people racking up huge bills on their credit cards to accumulate fancy stuff, take extravagant vacations, and deck out their houses in a neverending effort to keep up with the Joneses.

We see people with huge homes and expensive cars, but empty, sad hearts.

We see people on the brink of destruction due to bad decisions and bad habits.

As the proverb says, wisdom, not wealth, gets you through this life successfully. If you are a wise person, you can wisely manage your finances as well.

Characteristics of a Wise Person

That means you need to start acting like a wise person. Try emulating these characteristics of people who are wise about their personal finances and see how your life changes for the better.

1. They Educate Themselves

Educate yourself. Wise people learn the basics of personal finance, including information about budgeting, retirement accounts, mortgages, and life insurance. You can’t make solid decisions about money without a deep understanding of all of the elements involved in your finances.

2. They Are Disciplined

Wise people exercise self-control, especially on financial matters.

For example, if you’ve invested in a stock as a long-term investment opportunity, don’t panic and sell the stock based on one day of volatility.

Likewise, if you have a set budget, use discipline to stick to your budget as you walk though the shopping mall. And if you have trouble resisting temptation, try a budgeting framework that automatically curtails your spending, like the envelope budgeting system.

3. They Admit Their Mistakes and Learn From Them

People learn from their mistakes because they must live through the consequences. For example, if you’ve everlent money to a friend or relative who wouldn’t pay you back, you’re wise not to lend the same person money again. That means admitting your mistake and resolving to change your behavior as a result. It’s not a true mistake if it serves as a lifelong learning opportunity.

4. They Are Patient

Patience is a valuable virtue when it comes to personal finances. For example, a wise person saves enough money to purchase a fun, new gadget instead of charging it to a credit card that they can’t pay off in full at the end of the month.

More broadly, wise people take their time when making important decisions, like buying a new car or a house. They also don’t buy more car or more house than they can afford. They’re patient enough to live within their means until they can afford to upgrade.

Bottom line: When you exercise patience, you give yourself a chance to properly gather information and weigh all of your options before choosing the best course of action.

5. They Take Instruction Humbly

A wise person admits that they don’t know everything. They accept the fact that other people are more qualified and more knowledgeable than they are, without dismay.

Valuing others’ opinions and knowledge makes wise people better learners. They see life as a journey, not a destination. They welcome others’ input and don’t feel entitled to a “my way or the highway” approach, even if they’re always entitled to their opinions.

6. They Can Handle Rejection and Failure

Everything we do entails some risk. And usually, risk correlates with potential reward — the greater the former, the greater the latter too.

Wise people don’t take foolish or undue risks. But they also don’t worry about rejection or even failure when taking calculated risks to advance their interests.

For example, a wise person doesn’t worry about rejection when asking for a promotion during a job performance review. A wise person takes action on side business ideas to earn passive income, without worrying about failure.

You can make it through life and maybe even do okay for yourself without ever setting yourself up for spectacular failure. But if you choose that path, your upside is probably going to be limited too.

7. They Know That They Can Only Control Themselves

Wise people don’t worry about what other people think or what other people do. They know that they can only control themselves and that what other people think rarely makes any difference.

For example, if a wise person lives in a modest house because the house was affordable and they weren’t comfortable putting their entire nest egg toward a down payment, they probably aren’t worried what the folks sitting in the fancier, more expensive homes a few streets over think about their choice.

8. They’re Not Ruled by the Bottom Line

Wisdom is better than riches. While wealth (or at least material comfort) is important it doesn’t take precedence over family, friends, and health. Wise people use money as a means to achieve their goals; they don’t see accumulating money as an end goal in and of itself.

9. They Know Their Priorities

Wise people put first things first and last things last. Sure, different people have different priorities and are entitled to live as they see fit, but what all wise people have in common is the ability to prioritize effectively and maintain those priorities amid changing circumstances. Put another way, wise people live efficiently and stay true to their principles, including the financial ones.

10. They Are Trustworthy and Steadfast

A wise person treats others as they want to be treated because they know it will help them, not hurt them. Wise people are who we always go to when we need solid advice. Wise people are who we turn to and who we trust in times of need.

11. They Make the Most of Their Relationships

Wise people understand and revere the power of networking. They don’t shy away from asking advice of successful friends and family members, and they share their successes with others. Wise people continue to learn and increase their base of knowledge, and they know this is significantly impacted by the relationships they cultivate.

12. They Don’t Live Beyond Their Means

Wise people pay their bills on time and only buy things they can afford. They’re not impulse buyers; they don’t feel compelled to spend money on items they don’t need.

13. They Don’t Pay Full Price

Wise people clip coupons, sign up for discount clubs, and shop during sales.

They’re extreme couponers who don’t mind holding up the line at the grocery store while cashiers ring up coupons.

They willingly buy half-price sweaters in the summer, and discounted sandals in the winter.

They comparison-shop online to find the best prices for big purchases

And they never, ever pay full price.

14. They Don’t Squander Money

Whether it’s a tip, winnings from a poker game, or a well-deserved bonus at work, wise people know they need to save or invest this money. Many people squander “found” money, but wise people know this money can help them achieve their long-term financial goals. Instead of wasting this money on something that won’t last or on items they don’t need, wise people put found money to work for them.

Final Word

If it’s true that you can become a wise person by emulating one, this article gives you the blueprint for success. Whether it’s gaining knowledge, putting family first, or taking risks, there’s a lot to be learned from wise people. Take a close look at your personal finances to determine whether you make wise financial decisions and how you can improve. It might just the right time for a change.