Berkshire Hathaway Stock: What Warren Buffett Can Teach You About Patience
Warren Buffett took a failing textile mill in 1965 and turned it into one of the largest companies on Earth. Berkshire Hathaway has compounded at roughly 20% per year for six decades — almost double the long-term return of the S&P 500.
There's no get-rich-quick lesson here. There's something better: a get-rich-slowly playbook that has worked across nine recessions, two world-changing tech revolutions, and every Wall Street fad in between.
What Berkshire actually owns
Berkshire isn't a single business — it's a portfolio. Two broad buckets:
- Wholly owned subsidiaries: GEICO, BNSF Railway, Dairy Queen, Duracell, See's Candies, and dozens of insurance and energy companies.
- Stock holdings: Apple (huge), American Express, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Chevron, plus a long tail of smaller positions.
Buying BRK.B (the Class B share) is essentially buying a one-stop diversified American portfolio managed by the greatest capital allocator of the 20th century.
The core Buffett principles
- Buy great businesses at fair prices, not fair businesses at great prices.
- Time in the market matters more than timing the market.
- Be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy.
- Your favorite holding period should be "forever."
- Never invest in something you don't understand.
None of these are secrets. They're framed prints in every finance major's bedroom. The reason they still work is that almost nobody actually follows them — especially the boring ones.
Patience as a competitive edge
Buffett's biggest edge isn't a smarter spreadsheet — it's a longer attention span. Most professional investors are measured quarterly and lose their jobs for trailing the market for 18 months. They literally can't be patient.
You can. Nobody fires you for holding through a 30% drawdown. Time is the one advantage retail investors have over Wall Street, and most of them throw it away by checking the price every day.
Class A vs Class B shares
Berkshire has two share classes:
- BRK.A — original class, currently around $700,000 per share. Yes, per share. Buffett refuses to split it.
- BRK.B — created in 1996 to make Berkshire accessible to normal humans. Currently around $450/share. Same economic exposure, just smaller per share.
For 99.99% of investors, BRK.B is the answer. Fractional shares make even that fully accessible with $10.
The honest case for and against
Bull case: world-class capital allocation, fortress balance sheet, $300B+ in cash to deploy when markets crash, lower volatility than most large-caps.
Bear case: Buffett is in his 90s. Greg Abel is set up to succeed him, but the post-Buffett era is uncharted. Berkshire is also so big now that it can't move the needle by buying a small great business — it has to buy giant ones.
Reasonable people own BRK.B as a core position. Reasonable people also point out it's barely outperformed the S&P 500 in the last decade. Both are true.
Key Takeaway
Berkshire's 60-year track record is the loudest argument for patience in investing. You can't replicate Buffett's IQ, but you can copy his time horizon — which is the actual source of most of his returns. Buy BRK.B (or a broad index fund), automate contributions, hold forever. The math does the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Should I buy Berkshire Hathaway stock?
BRK.B is a defensible core holding — diversified across insurance, railroads, energy, retail, and a stock portfolio led by Apple. Performance has roughly matched the S&P 500 in the last decade. Reasonable to own; not a magic ticket.
What is the difference between BRK.A and BRK.B?
BRK.A is the original share class, currently around $700,000 per share and never split. BRK.B was created in 1996 at a fraction of the price (now around $450) so smaller investors could participate. Same economic exposure per dollar invested.
What will happen to Berkshire after Warren Buffett?
Buffett has named Greg Abel as his successor as CEO. The investment portfolio will continue to be managed by Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who Buffett hired specifically for the transition. The post-Buffett era is genuinely uncertain, but the company is built to outlast him.
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Findexhq Editorial Team
A team of personal-finance writers and former fintech operators on a mission to make money make sense — for everyone.