Warren Buffet is the 2nd richest man in the world next to Bill Gates. His net worth as reported by Forbes is $52 billion. He is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a holding company out of Omaha, Nebraska that oversees and manages a number of subsidiary companies.

Born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska, Buffet is said to have started on the road to fame and fortune as early as age six when he reportedly purchased a 6-pack of coca-cola from his grandfather for a quarter and then sold each for a nickel. Reports have him making his first stock investment at the age of eleven, purchasing three shares of Cities Service Preferred at $38 per share. As the story goes, shortly after buying the stock, it fell to just over $27 per share. Buffet held his shares until they rebounded to $40 then promptly sold them. He would come to regret this after Cities Service shot up to $200; but the experience taught him one of the basic lessons of investing: patience is a virtue." [About.com]

Buffett attended the prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania for three years, then transferred to the University of Nebraska. There he began his interest in investing after reading Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor.

He obtained a Master’s degree in economics in 1951 at Columbia Business School, studying under Benjamin Graham, alongside other future value investors including Walter Schloss and Irving Kahn. Another influence on Buffett’s investment philosophy was the well known investor and writer Philip Fisher. After receiving the only A+ Benjamin Graham ever handed out to a student in his security analysis class, Buffett wanted to work at Graham-Newman but was initially turned down. He went to work at his father’s brokerage as a salesman until Graham offered him a position in 1954. Buffett returned to Omaha two years later, when Graham retired.

Buffett established Buffett Associates, Ltd., his first investment partnership, in 1956. It was financed by $100 from Buffett, the general partner, and $105,000 from seven limited partners consisting of Buffett’s family and friends.

Buffett created several additional partnerships which were later consolidated as Buffett Partnership Limited. He ran the partnerships out of his bedroom, adhering closely to Graham’s investment approach and compensation structure. These investments made in excess of 30% compounded annually between 1956 to 1969, in a market where 7% to 11% was the norm.

Buffett employed a three-pronged approach:

1. Generals: undervalued securities that possess margin of safety and meet expected return-to-risk characteristics[8]

2. Arbitrages: company events that are not related to broader market changes, such as mergers and acquisitions, liquidation, etc.

3. Controls: build sizeable holdings, ally with other shareholders or employ proxies to effect changes in companies

In 1962 Buffett Partnerships began purchasing shares of Berkshire Hathaway, a large manufacturing company in the declining textile industry that was selling for less than its working capital. In 1969, Buffett would dissolve all his partnerships to focus on running Berkshire Hathaway. At the time, Charlie Munger, Berkshire’s current Vice Chairman, remarked that purchasing the company was a mistake, due to the failure of the textile industry. Berkshire, however, became one of the largest holding companies in the world, as Buffett redirected the company’s excess cash to acquire private businesses and stocks of public companies. At the core of his strategy were insurance companies, due to the large cash reserves they must keep on hand to pay out future claims. Essentially, the insurer does not own the reserve, but may invest it and keep any proceeds.

Under Munger’s influence, Buffett’s investment approach moved away from a strict adherence to Graham’s principles, and he began to focus on high-quality businesses with enduring competitive advantages. He described such advantages as a "moat" that kept rivals at a safe distance, as opposed to commodity businesses, which sell undifferentiated products and face direct competition. A classic example of a wide-moat company is Coca-Cola, because consumers are willing to pay more for a Coke than for a generic beverage with a similar taste. On the other hand, salt is considered a commodity product because consumers generally have no preferences for one brand of salt over another.

Investment in wide-moat businesses has become a hallmark of Berkshire Hathaway, particularly when buying whole companies rather than public stocks. As a result, it now owns a large number of businesses which are dominant players in their respective industries, specialize in various niche markets, or possess other unique characteristics to separate them from their competitors. [ text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details ]

Quantifying a billion dollars can be hard for the average person. You know it’s big but you can’t necessarily conceptualize just how big. Forbes reports Microsoft’s Bill Gates’s net worth at $56 billion. Gates is the richest man in the world so obviously 56 billion dollars is a lot of money. By contrast, Oprah Winfrey’s net worth is $1.5 billion and we know she’s super rich because we keep hearing how super rich she is every time we turn around. The same for Donald Trump whose net worth is $2.9 billion. We know these people have an obscene amount of money, but we can’t work figures in the billion around our brain as easily as with figures in the hundreds and thousands. For example, it’s a little easier to understand when you say that 1000 million make 1 billion, or simpler yet to say there are 1 million thousands in a billion., or better yet, let’s put it like this: if you had suitcases filled with a thousand dollars each, you’d need 1 million suitcases filled with a thousand dollars to make 1 billion dollars. Here’s a chart that compares the net earnings of the top 10 richest people in the world according to Forbes.com : Bill Gates 56 billion, Warren Buffet 53 billion, Carols Slim Helu 49 billion, Ingvar Kamprad 33 billion, Lakshmi Mittal 32 billion, Sheldon Adelson 26.5 billion, Bernard Arnault 26 billion, Amancio Ortega 24 billion, Li Ka-shing 23 billion, David Thompson 22 billion

Now, here’s a chart that compares Bill Gate’s net worth to Donald Trump’s and Oprah Winfrey’s net worth. Donald Trump’s net worth as reported by Forbes in their 2007 billionaires list is $2.9 billion and Oprah Winfrey’s is $1.5 billion

Now here’s a chart that compares Bill Gates’s, Donald Trump’s, and Oprah Winfrey’s net worth to that of Joe Millionaire with Joe Millionaire’s net worth at $1 million. (**Note: our Joe Millionaire is just a random Joe and has nothing to do with any known Joe Millionaire personalities)

The graph shows that Joe Millionaire would have an easier time catching up to Oprah Winfrey than Oprah would have catching up to Bill Gates. If you think about it, Joe Millionaire only needs 1499 more million to catch up to Oprah; but Oprah needs roughly 55,400 more million to catch up to Bill Gates.

Nowadays it’s no big deal if you’re a milionaire. There are reportedly more than 5.4 million millionaires in the United States, which is to say that more than 5.4 million US households have at least $1 million in liquid or “investable” assets. By contrast, there are under 1000 billionaires in the entire world. So it’s a really big deal to be a billionaire and no grand event if you’re a millionaire, unless of course you happen to have a good few hundred million. 1 million dollars can’t go very far. Once upon a time it was conceivable that you could live for a good while on a million dollars. If you spend $100,000 per year you can live for 10 years on a million dollars. 10 years isn’t a very long time. If you come into your million dollars at age 25 for example, you’ll be 35 ten years later. If you tried to live on $25,000 a year you’re looking at 40 years.

If you came into a million dollars at age 25 and figured, hey, I’m rich, I can quit my job and just do whatever I want to do with the rest of my life as long as long as I don’t spend more than twenty-five grand a year, you’ll find yourself broke at age 65 assuming you had the discipline to keep your spending at a max of $25,000 dollars. But you wouldn’t be living like a rich man then would you? And what’s the point of having a million dollars if you’re still going to be living at the same level of life? Most people immediately run to buy a new house and a new car when they get money. So let’s say you buy a new house for $250,000 in a sub-division, and 2 new cars, one for you and another for your significant other totalling $80,000. You’re down to $670,000. And your new house and new cars will both come with monthly expenses.

Let’s say your total monthly expenses between your house and car, including gas for traveling, utility bills, groceries and other miscellaneous is $3500. You’re looking at $42,000 per year in expenses to maintain your home and vehicles, transport yourself and eat. You’re probably also going to spend money on things like clothes and CDs, DVDs and other stuff like that on yourself and your significant other, so let’s call that another $2000 per month which is $24,000 per year. Then there’ll be the movies and going out to dinner, ordering pizza and Chinese, and going to the ball game or other event for an additional 2 grand which comes to another $24,000 per year. Then let’s throw away an additional 1000 per month which is the equivalent of $10,000 per year and we’ve got you spending $100,000 per year with $670,000 to your name. In just over 6 years you’ll be back out looking for a job; and you’ll need to find one paying you at least $100,000 per year in order to maintain your new lifestyle. Otherwise you’ll be holding some yard sales and running Ebay auctions. Obviously you don’t have enough money to go crazy with if you have 1 million dollars, or even 2 million or 5 million for that matter. With that kind of money you’re still restricted in where and how you can afford to live.

With a billion dollars you can go a little crazy if you want. A billion dollars after all is 1000 million dollars. You can conceivably throw away 200 million of your 1000 million and still have a whole lot of millions to secure you. You can buy a $25 million dollar house in some prestigious location, although, frankly, I wouldn’t pay 25 million dollars for a 5-bedroom 5-bath house I could buy a near duplicate of in an Alabama suburb for $200,000. Not just for the privilege of being able to say I live in a prestigious location. Which isn’t to say I’d buy the house in Alabama. I’d just rather get a little more value than "prestigious location" out of spending $25 million dollars on a house. Like ‘Tranquility" in Lake Tahoe for example. They at least throw in 210 acres, a conservatory, guest residence, art studio, boat house pavilion, gymnasium with indoor basketball court, stable, two par 3 golf holes, 16-car garage and exquisite furniture for the $100 million they’re asking for the place. The architectural style of ‘tranquility" doesn’t exactly speak to me personally; but if it did, I would consider shelling out one-hundred mil for a 16-car garage and exquisite furniture. Why not? My only complaint would be that a 100 million dollar house situated on 210 acres overlooking Lake Tahoe should have more than just 9 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. Sure, "Tranquility" also comes with guest and staff accommodations but I would personally prefer the main house to have at least 15 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms. It just seems more appropriate than 9; but that’s quibbling over rice grains or some such thing I suppose.

The property taxes for Tranquility are a mere $144,734 per year. With a billion dollars to your name that’s really nothing so outrageous. Over 100 years that’s just 14,473,400 (fourteen million, four-hundred-seventy-three-thousand, four-hundred dollars). That doesn’t really put a serious dent in anything. To acquire "Tranquility" and afford the property taxes for 100 years will cost just 114 million, 473 thousand 400 dollars ($114,473,400) The cost to maintain such an immense property, well, that might take another $50 million over 100 years, but it still doesn’t bring you anywhere close to wiping out 1000 million dollars. You’re looking at $164,473,400 to own and maintain the 210 acre property over a 100 year period. Of course I’m just playing with numbers here and have no factual knowledge of how much it would cost per year to maintain such a property. It could be way more than my estimated half a million per year; but it still wouldn’t put any serious dent in your money while you’re alive. And imagine if you were Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, or one of those multi-billionaires who make moguls like Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump look poor? Gates’s great grandchildren probably couldn’t blow the family fortune in their lifetime unless they spent money wildly, crazily and stupidly. If a billionaire spent 5 million per year for 100 years he’d still have half a billion left over for someone to inherit. Bill Gates’ net worth in 2007 as reported by Forbes is $56 billion. Warren Buffett’s net worth in 2007as reported by Forbes is $52 billion. It’s hard to quantify that kind of money, but if you look at the chart below showing how Bill Gate’s fortune compares to Oprah Winfrey’s and Donald Trump’s you might get an idea just how insignificant a million dollars really is:

He is called the King Midas of Latin America. His name is Carlos Slim Helu, and he is listed as Forbes.com’s 3rd richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $49 billion. Forbes writes of Carlos Slim Helu, "The world’s third-richest man is $19 billion richer this year [2007] and catching up with Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett thanks to a strong Mexican equities market and the performance of his wireless telephone company, America Movil. The son of a Lebanese immigrant, Slim made his first fortune in 1990 when he bought fixed line operator Teléfonos de México (Telmex) in a privatization. Last year he spent $3.7 billion to buy the Latin American operations of Verizon Communications, expanding his empire into Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. A widower and father of 6, Slim is a baseball fan and art collector. He keeps his art collection in Mexico City’s Museo Soumaya, which he named after his late wife. In recent years he has donated close to $4 billion to education and health projects, and to the revitalization of downtown Mexico City’s historical district."

Carlos Slim is said to have a somewhat monopolistic hand in everything in Mexico. In a June 3, 2006 New York Times article titled, "Prodded by the Left, Mexico’s Richest Man Talks Equity", Ginger Thompson writes of Slim, "He controls companies that produce cement, copper and tobacco. His bank lends money to Mexico’s richest companies, insure drivers and offer pensions to the working class. And in the last couple of years some of his companies have begun a push into housing and infrastructure." But the main source of Carlos Slim’s wealth are his telecommunications companies, Telmex and America Movil.

WIKIPEDIA - Carlos slim gained notoriety when he led a group of investors that included France Télécom and Southwestern Bell Corporation in buying Telmex from the Mexican government in 1990 in a public tender during the presidency of Carlos Salinas. He has attracted criticism from some for allegedly abusing its quasi-monopolistic power and stifling competition in long distance, local and mobile markets.

The change in ownership of Telmex coincided with telephone prices going up dramatically, and Mexicans complain that there was no comparable change in service quality. Slim is accused of using his influence on political leaders to ensure that Telmex’s near monopoly on the communication market was maintained, allowing high rates to continue.

The lack of any real competition meant that consumers had to pay more for the telecommunication services than countries with a more competitive market. In recent years, increased public outcry, competition and regulatory assertiveness from the Mexican antitrust commission (Comisión Federal de Competencia) has resulted in lower rates. The long-distance market has been opened up to other competing providers. In 2006, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development based in Paris, reported that Mexicans pay some of the highest phone rates in the world.

According to Mexico’s central bank President Guillermo Ortiz, Mexico has the highest costs of telephone service for business and international residential calls, and the highest cost of broadband internet for businesses among the 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

NEW YORK TIMES - Today, 9 out of 10 telephone lines in Mexico are operated by Telmex. Its mobile sister company, Telcel, operates almost 80 percent of all the country’s cellphones. That dominance has financed Mr. Slim’s expansion abroad. Over the past five years, his wireless carrier América Móvil has bought cellphone companies across Latin America to become the region’s dominant company, with more than 100 million subscribers.

[This is a third party article] - Would you like to sell photos online at your own gallery? Send people to your very own web address to purchase the photos you’ve taken of them. There’s more than one way to go about it. Here we take a look at the benefits of building a photo website, using services designed for professional photographers.

Not long ago it would have been a major project starting your own photography business. My how things have changed. Today, the new online photo services let you up load all of your photos to your own gallery and set your own prices. Shoot whatever you want and send your customers to your beautiful online gallery, to purchase the shots.

It’s the easy way to get your photos and video on line for family, friends and customers to view. They can click to order any size prints or a variety of gifts like coffee mugs, sweatshirts, holiday cards etc… and you make money on every sale you set your own prices. So now you just upload the pictures and Aunt Alice can order what she wants and stop bugging you for copies! Get carried away, upload UNLIMITED photos with a click, shoot a million pictures if you want, you can’t out grow that! Your precious family heirlooms, safely stored in full resolution. Download them anytime you want, because it’s a photo storage website too. Hey, backup is good right? Organizing photo albums could not be simpler with the easy to use tools these companies provide. As with everything each photo sharing website has its advantages, click on the link at the bottom of this ezinearticle to compare the different services.

One of the photo gallery website providers called Smugmug has teamed up with GoogleMaps to create SmugMaps, I would have named it smoogle maps, whatever you call it, it’s so cool! Install GoogleEarth, then click on the green GoogleEarth botton. Then while your logged into your smugmug account click on the map, the photos you select are tagged to that spot and displayed for the world to see, promoting your art gallery. You can also SmugMap by typing in the street address or gps coordinates.

Are you an artist waiting to be discovered? Get your work out there today. Whether your shooting the local cheerleader squad or an expedition to Alaska. Selling your photos is now very easy to do. You don’t really want to go thru the hassle of setting up a merchants account to charge peoples credit cards do you? Good because you don’t have to! You don’t really want to print, trim, pack, address, ship, and provide customer service on each order do you? Good because you don’t have to. (if you answered yes, we have an opening for a lab tech) of course I’m just kidding, we don’t have time for all that, were out shooting more pictures to sell!

That’s right, now you actually have the time to go out and take lots and lots of pictures. Go crazy you can take a million photos if you want. There’s no limit to number of photos that you can upload on some of the professional photo sharing web sites. Hey you’re goal oriented right? How long would it take you to shoot a million photos? Let’s see, this should be easier than figuring out the Tootsie Pop thing. If you shoot everyday for 10 years you’d have to shoot 274 pictures per day, because I don’t think you can take 2739 photos every day for a year!

Here are some suggestions on what to shoot:

1. TAKING PICTURES ON VACATION a) Museums and Historical Landmarks b) National Parks and Monuments c) City Skylines and Architecture d) Amusement Parks e) Back Roads and Byways f) Scenic Overlooks

2. SCHOOL SPORTING EVENTS- Especially regional and state tournaments or championships. They are a goldmine, parents love pictures of their superstars. If you take a photo of each kid and then a team group picture, many of the parents will buy a few. One for the house, one for grandma etc. When you add up all the kids from all the teams, you’re looking at hundred’s kids. The money starts adding up real quick. a) Football Team Photo b) Cheerleader Squad photo c) Homecoming Activities d) Regional & State Championships e) Soccer, Wrestling, Swimming etc… f) School Plays, Concerts and more g) Little League Baseball h) Soccer Teams i) Basketball Teams

3. LOCAL EVENTS- Check the local paper and see what’s happening in your area a) Hot Air Balloon Races and Air Shows b) Car Shows & Motorcycle Rally’s c) Parades & Fireworks d) County And State Fairs e) Craft Shows f) Trade shows g) Concerts h) Tail Gate Parties

4. BOY SCOUTS AND GIRL SCOUTS- Many kids don’t play soccer or basketball, they enjoy scouting, and they buy lots of pictures of the kids during scouting activities. Just go around the event and shoot it up, try to get a nice posed photo of each scout, then a troop shot with the leaders. Make sure you get permission from the appropriate council. a) Camp outs b) Hikes c) The Annual Jamboree d) Pinewood derby e) Fundraisers

5.PROPERTY- Real estate agents need quality photographs to promote their listed properties. Let your local agencies know your available on call and watch the cash start flowing in. Architects need photos of the properties they design for many reasons. Show me the money! a) Real Estate Agencies b) Commercial Properties c) Architectural Photography d) Builders and Contractors

6. RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES- This is my favorite, I live up in the mountains and we have a lot of these type of adventures available close by. Folks on vacation sure like photos of themselves while participating in activities. If you have activities like these in your area, talk with a local outfitter, they are usually very receptive to the idea of photo souvenirs, because it promotes their service long after the adventure is over. a) Whitewater River Rafting b) Horseback Riding Outfitters c) Ski Resorts d) Snowmobile Trails e) Golf Tournaments

7. INSURANCE COMPANIES- Most insurance companies require documentation to reimburse policy holders for a loss. A photographic inventory of all items covered by the policy is recommended by insurance adjusters, this is a huge market. a) Residential b) Commercial

8. FAMILY PORTRAITS- Many families have a portrait done annually. I like to photograph the family during fun time, rather than a studio. I like to have a good time with them. I always get better smiles and more interesting images on location. This year suggest doing the photo at an activity that the whole family enjoys participating in together "A family that plays together, stays together" a) At home b) In the studio c) On location d) Holiday Cards in October

9. SCHOOL ACTIVITIES- If I told you how much money you could make in one day photographing graduates, clubs, dances or homecoming activities, you wouldn’t believe me. So I am going to let you find out for yourself. Then you email me and tell me and I will believe it! Photographing some of the school events like graduation and plays should be done at a dress rehearsal prior to the actual event. Always make prior arrangements with the school before you shoot. a) Graduation b) School Plays c) Dances d) Marching Band e) Homecoming

10. STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY AGENCYS- there are many agencies that will purchase quality images to package and resell. Check stock photo agencies many of them accept freelance work.

Here’s how it goes. Take the photo, give the client a card with your photo gallery web site address on it. Up load the pictures to your gallery. They go to your website and pick out the ones they want and order prints or coffee mugs, whatever they want. Then the photos are printed and shipped by the company that hosts your gallery. Then the company sends you a check. How much you make on each image is up to you. The Photo gallery hosting company charges you say, $1.99 for an 8"x 10" print. You set your retail prices at 24.99 for the print. You just made $23.00. The magic happens when you use the intrinsic artistic value, to increase the value of an otherwise inexpensive piece of paper. Most retailers wish they had a markup this good!

Once you get going, you will be lining up jobs at all sorts of events. Even taking photos while traveling and writing off your business expenses. If you really love photography you should consider your own gallery online.

When I got my gallery, I had so much fun thinking of creative titles for the galleries and getting all my pictures set up and organized. For instance, I have one gallery that is a tribute to trees. Everytime I see a beautiful tree, I capture a picture and display it in a gallery that I named Treebute.