2019: What does Buffett value most in life now?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi, Warren and Charlie. My name is Rob Lee (PH) from Vancouver, Canada. Could you please share with us what you value the most in life now? Thank you.

WARREN BUFFETT: Well —

CHARLIE MUNGER: I’d like to have a little more of it. (Laughter and applause)

WARREN BUFFETT: It’s the two things you can’t buy, time and love. And that, I value those for a long time. And I’ve been very, very, very lucky in life, in being able to control my own time to an extreme degree. Charlie’s always valued that, too.

That’s why we really wanted to have money, was so we could do what we damn pleased, basically — (laughs) — in our life. It wasn’t six houses or boats or anything. Well, Charlie’s got a boat. But it doesn’t do us that much good.

But time is valuable. And we are very, very lucky to be in jobs where physical ability doesn’t make any difference.

And, you know, we’ve got the perfect job for a couple of guys with aging bodies. And we get to do what we love to do every day.

I mean, I literally could do anything that money could buy, pretty much. And I’m having more fun doing what I do than doing anything else, and Charlie is designing dormitories. And I mean, he’s got an interesting life, and he brings a lot to it.

He still reads, you know, more books in a week than I get done in a month, and he remembers what he reads. So, we’ve got it very good, but we don’t have unlimited time. And whatever we do to free up the time to do what we like to do — and we both maximize that in our lives — we do.

CHARLIE MUNGER: Anybody’s lucky if he so that what he spends his time at, he really likes doing. That’s a blessing.

WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah, we’ve had so much good luck in life. It sort of blows your mind. Starting with being born in the United States. And Canada would be fine too, incidentally. I don’t want to offend anybody. (Laughter)