Warren Buffett's 5 Greatest Investments of All Time

The Secret Behind 6 Decades of Greatness

Warren Buffett is widely considered the greatest investor who has ever lived. Berkshire Hathaway, the company he has run since 1965, has turned $1,000 into over $40 million over that period. The S&P 500 turned that same $1,000 into roughly $300,000. The gap is almost impossible to believe.

So what is the secret? You might expect the answer to be some complex formula — thousands of investments, dozens of genius decisions every year, constant activity. But in 2022, Buffett said something that might surprise you. He admitted that Berkshire's extraordinary record was largely the product of only about a dozen truly great decisions over 58 years. A dozen. Out of thousands of opportunities he saw over six decades, roughly 12 decisions did most of the heavy lifting.

That tells you something important: great investing is not about doing a lot of things. It is about finding a small number of truly exceptional businesses, buying them at a sensible price, and then getting out of the way and letting them compound. Here are the 5 investments that define what Buffett built.

1. Apple — Buffett's Greatest Dollar Investment

Most people are surprised to learn that Buffett's biggest investment ever was a technology company. For most of his career he stayed away from tech because he said it was too hard to predict which companies would win long-term. Then he changed his mind about Apple — not because he suddenly understood semiconductors or software engineering, but because he came to see Apple as something else entirely: one of the greatest consumer brands and customer loyalty stories ever built.

Berkshire started buying Apple shares in late 2016. By mid-2018, Berkshire had spent approximately $36 billion building its position and owned about 5.2% of the company. Think about what that means. For every 100 dollars of Apple's profits, Berkshire was entitled to about $5.20 of it — without having to run a single store, hire a single engineer, or make a single product.

The investment grew to be worth $174.3 billion by the end of 2023 — nearly 5 times what Berkshire originally paid. Here is something even more interesting: while Berkshire held its shares and did nothing, Apple was using its profits to buy back its own stock. That shrank the total number of Apple shares in existence. So Berkshire's 5.2% ownership grew to 5.4% without Buffett spending another dollar. He owned a larger piece of a growing pie without doing anything.

Berkshire sold a large chunk of Apple in 2024 and still holds a significant position today. The Apple investment is the clearest example of what Buffett looks for: a business so deeply embedded in people's lives — the phone, the ecosystem, the apps, the loyalty — that customers almost never leave. And one that generates so much cash it can reward its owners in multiple ways simultaneously.

2. American Express — A $1.3 Billion Bet That Became $56 Billion

This one starts with a great story. In the early 1990s Berkshire invested $300 million in American Express. By 1994 Buffett was not sure he wanted to keep it. AmEx was facing tough competition from Visa and other card companies and Buffett was actually leaning toward selling.

Then he went golfing.

During a round of golf in Maine, Buffett spent 18 holes asking questions to Frank Olson, the CEO of Hertz, about the credit card industry. By the time they finished the back 9, Olson had convinced Buffett that AmEx's corporate card business was a genuinely exceptional franchise. Instead of selling, Buffett decided to buy more. Berkshire ended up owning about 10% of American Express by 1995 at a total cost of approximately $1.3 billion.

Then he essentially did nothing for 30 years.

At the end of 2025 that same $1.3 billion investment was worth $56 billion. That is roughly 43 times the original investment. But here is the part that really makes your jaw drop: in 2025 alone, AmEx paid Berkshire $479 million in dividends. That single year's dividend check equaled about 37% of what Berkshire paid for the entire investment three decades earlier. Every year. Like clockwork. Just from dividends on shares that cost $1.3 billion a long time ago.

The lesson Buffett draws from AmEx is that a great franchise — a business people trust and rely on and keep coming back to — does not need to be replaced by something new. It just needs time.

3. Coca-Cola — The Ultimate Patience Play

Here is a fun fact: Buffett first tasted Coca-Cola as a child in the 1930s. He even bought 6 Cokes for 25 cents from his family's grocery store and resold them for 5 cents each, making a small profit. He could see from a young age that people loved this product and kept buying it.

Then he waited 52 years to invest.

In 1988, Buffett finally bought Coke stock. He spent approximately $1.3 billion building Berkshire's position over several years. At the end of 2025, those same shares were worth approximately $27.9 billion — about 21 times his original investment. He has never sold a single share.

But the dividend story is what makes this truly special. In 1994, Berkshire collected about $75 million in Coke dividends. By 2025 that number had grown to $816 million — in a single year. That is $816 million in cash paid to Berkshire just for owning Coke stock, on an original investment that cost $1.3 billion. In other words one year of Coke dividends now equals about 63% of everything Berkshire ever paid for the stock. And the stock itself is worth 21 times what they paid.

Coke's physical volume barely grew over those decades. This was not a rocket ship growth story. What Buffett understood was that Coke had pricing power — it could raise prices a little bit every year — and it barely needed any extra money to keep growing. Almost all the profits could be sent back to shareholders. That is what a great business looks like.

4. GEICO — Buffett's First Love

GEICO is the car insurance company behind those famous gecko commercials. But before it was a TV staple, it was a young Warren Buffett's favorite stock — and his investment in it is one of the most remarkable stories in financial history.

In January 1951, Buffett was a 20-year-old student studying under the legendary Benjamin Graham at Columbia University. He discovered that Graham was the chairman of a company called GEICO and decided to visit their offices on a Saturday. The building was locked. He kept knocking until a custodian let him in, and he eventually ended up spending 4 hours talking to a senior executive about the insurance business.

What he learned blew him away. GEICO sold car insurance directly to customers, skipping the traditional network of agents. That meant GEICO's costs were dramatically lower than every competitor. Lower costs meant lower prices for customers, which meant more customers, which meant even lower costs. It was a powerful flywheel. Buffett was so excited he put more than 65% of his entire net worth into GEICO stock.

Then he sold it in 1952 for a small profit. Twenty years later he calculated those shares would have been worth $1.3 million. He later said that mistake taught him one of his most important lessons: never sell an identifiably wonderful business.

Fortunately he got a second chance. In 1976 GEICO nearly went bankrupt after management badly mispriced its policies. A new CEO came in to turn things around. Buffett concluded that the thing that made GEICO special — its structural cost advantage — had survived the crisis. He started buying again, investing $45.7 million and acquiring about a 33% stake. He then did nothing for 15 years. During that time GEICO bought back so much of its own stock that Berkshire's ownership grew from 33% to about 50% — without Buffett spending another dollar. By 1995 that $45.7 million investment was worth $2.4 billion. That is 52 times his money. In 1996 Berkshire bought the other half of the company for $2.3 billion, and GEICO has been one of Berkshire's most important businesses ever since. In 2025 alone GEICO generated $6.8 billion in pretax earnings.

5. See's Candies — The $25 Million Lesson That Changed Everything

See's Candies is a chocolate and candy company based in California. It is not a technology company. It is not a financial giant. It sells boxed chocolates. And it might be the investment that changed how Buffett thinks about business more than any other.

In 1972, Berkshire bought See's for $25 million. At the time it was generating less than $5 million in annual profit. The seller wanted $30 million. Buffett refused to pay more than $25 million. The seller eventually agreed. Buffett later admitted that if the seller had walked away, he would have too — and one of his greatest investments would have gone to someone else.

Here is what made See's so special. The business had incredibly strong brand loyalty in California — people gave See's chocolates as gifts for decades, it was woven into traditions and memories in a way that made customers deeply reluctant to switch. That loyalty gave See's pricing power. Every year it could raise prices a little bit and customers kept buying. And the business barely needed any extra money to grow.

Between 1972 and 2007, See's generated $1.35 billion in cumulative pretax earnings. The entire additional capital required to produce all those earnings was just $32 million. Think about that. $25 million purchase price. $32 million in additional investment over 35 years. $1.35 billion in earnings. And Berkshire still owned the business.

See's taught Buffett and his longtime partner Charlie Munger something that transformed how they invested. Early in his career Buffett had been trained by Benjamin Graham to buy cheap stocks — businesses that were statistically inexpensive even if they were mediocre. See's showed him that a truly exceptional business with real pricing power and minimal capital needs was worth paying a fair price for. It is far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price. That idea became the foundation of everything Berkshire built after 1972.

What These 5 Investments Have in Common

When you look at Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, GEICO, and See's Candies side by side, a few things stand out immediately. None of them were obscure, unknown businesses that Buffett discovered before anyone else. Coke was already one of the most famous companies in the world. AmEx was an institution. Apple was already a global giant. What Buffett did differently was recognize that their best qualities — the loyalty, the pricing power, the cost advantages, the economics — would compound quietly for decades, and then have the patience to hold on while they did.

Every single one of these businesses also bought back its own stock, which quietly grew Berkshire's ownership percentage over time even when Buffett was not spending another dollar. That recurring theme — great businesses returning cash to shareholders intelligently — is one of the things Buffett looks for most.

And perhaps most importantly: none of these required Buffett to be right every year. He held Coke for nearly 4 decades without selling a share. He held AmEx for 30 years. He bought GEICO, sold it too early, waited 25 years, bought it again, and held it for another 30. The timeline was long. The activity was low. The returns were extraordinary.

That is the real lesson. Great investing is not about finding a new great idea every month. It is about finding a handful of truly exceptional businesses over a lifetime, buying them at sensible prices, and then being patient enough to let compounding do what it does. Tag me in the community and let's talk about which businesses today you think belong in that category.

Disclaimer
Everything Money is Not an Investment Advisor: Everything Money (including Paul, Mo, and Any other person including, but not limited to, other staff members, guests, personalities, etc.) is not an investment adviser, and it is not registered as such with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission or any other state or federal authority under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 or any other law. The investments and strategies discussed in Everything Money’s YouTube videos and on Everythingmoney.com are not and should not be considered investment advice and may not be suitable for you. They do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation, needs, or personal circumstances and are not intended to be specific to you. Before acting on any investment or strategy discussed, you should always do your own research and make your own independent decision about whether it is suitable for your particular circumstances. You should also consider seeking advice from your own legal, financial, tax, accounting, or investment advisers. Everything Money does not provide such advice.

READ THE FULL DISCLAIMER HERE: https://everythingmoney.com/disclaimer