Warren Buffett's sister Bertie: "I feel so lucky that he's my big brother"

Bertie, it is wonderful to see you here. This is a place you've been coming for a very long time. You come back every year, and you're always a big part of things here. But this year in the annual letter, you really took center stage. I mean, you were the opening of the letter, the heart of the letter, the end of the letter. Warren said that when he thinks about writing this, you are his perfect mental model. What did you think when you read that? I cried. That's what I think. Yeah, but I'm going to try not to cry right now. Anyhow, no, it was so sweet. He told me he was going to put me in the annual letter, but he didn't read it to me or anything like that. And I had no idea it was going to be what it was. And yeah, it was so sweet. I mean, I was really, I think about it a lot. It was so lovely. He talks about his relationship with you and how you two have always had such a wonderful, loving relationship. Yes. And yes, never had any arguments. No, you know, and I was thinking about it in terms of, you know, talking with you and stuff. And I thought, gosh, well, he's the closest person to me in the world, because he's been in my world ever. He's older for anyone wondering. And he's been with me my whole life and still is. And there are not many of us in our generation left now. So that even makes it more special. But even without that, you know, he's the one that has always been there. And in a way, he's my big brother. And he's protected me or always helped me if I need it. And he's for length of time, you know, my biggest ever and still is emotional support. Warren pointed out in the annual letter that you are a really smart, savvy investor, that you're somebody who reads many newspapers every day, you have an opinion about financial issues. But you're also somebody who is a very smart investor in her own right that you've something like 45 years ago, you kind of decided to take all of the other things that you were trading. And what happened? You put everything into Berkshire for the most part. Well, I figured out that Warren was better at it than I was. That was easy. I mean, it sounds so simple. But you know, that's just what happened. And I thought, this is ridiculous. You know, he is so good. And it was a little, the hardest thing for me, and I think it's hard for a lot of investors, is that Berkshire Hathaway doesn't pay dividends. And I was in a place in my life where I wanted some dividends, you know, and in some way, you just sell stock, you know, sell stock, you don't know, sell principal, you know, whatever. I didn't say that to him, you know, because I just listened to what he tells me to do. So anyway, but once I got over that hump, and realized, well, that's wonderful. I you know, I can decide when I declare a dividend, I can declare one for myself, you know, in its essence by selling some stock, and, and I can choose when I'm going to do it and choose how much it is. And it's capital gains instead of regular income tax. And that's good. And, you know, once that was, that didn't stop me from doing it. But I had to get used to that emotionally, but I did pretty fast. And he said, then you, you made that change. And then you did nothing, like the patients, and there were a lot of times along the way, because I had a brokerage account, and people, you know, who were brokers, or this or that, or wanted money to start something, or whatever, you know, approach me about that. But luckily, I didn't even have to think about it much. I mean, I knew I was, I was all in with one, and still am and all the way. So you and Warren have always had this wonderful relationship. He says you all have never had a fight, but he does say that there are some competitive streaks. Oh, yes, yes. What comes to mind when you think about competitive games or issues with Warren? Well, it, it being younger, we have had an older sister who's now gone, but she was very sophisticated and whatnot. And I think Warren was very smart, because he picked out me to play all the games with, because I was three years young, and he won everything. And for some reason, it didn't bother me. I still wanted to play. You know, I was always hoping for a win. So we played everything from ping pong, to cards, to Monopoly, to boxing, to I don't know, anything that you could play, we played. And, and, and sometimes he did clever little tricks on me that, for some reason, it didn't make me mad. I just wanted to be part of it. And I also have a joke with him, that when we played Monopoly, when we were, and I was really little, of course, and he was a little bit older. But I remember this so distinctly, but I was so happy because I had this money, and I was saving up the money in little piles in front of me. But as I noticed, as the game went on, I was landing on more and more properties, and then they had houses and hotels. Pretty sure all my money was gone. And I realized too late that it was a better strategy to buy property than hoard the money. But my joke with him about that is, and we laugh about it, because it is actually a joke, but that I trained him to be a winner. Because since he was winning all the time, playing against me, that he owes his great success to the fact that I trained him to win. And he loved it so much, he just kept going. But that's a joke. It's good work, Bernie. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us. Yeah, well, it's a pleasure. And I just want to say one thing, because many people ask me about Warren, you know, and they find out about him and stuff. And to me, he's always been my big brother. He's my big brother. You know, I know he's this tycoon and stuff, and I sort of know that in my head, but that has nothing to do with my reality. He's my big brother, and he's always been a wonderful big brother, and I love him. And I feel so lucky that he's my big brother.