The most crucial financial decision in life isn't about stock picks or economic forecasts, but about choosing a life partner, as a bad marriage can derail wealth accumulation and happiness, while a good one provides an invaluable, unseen advantage.
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I am 99 years old this year.
May every year
Tens of thousands of people flock to Omaha like on a pilgrimage.
Me and Warren
Enclosed like rare animals in a zoo
Their eyes were fervent
Holding a laptop
Charlie asked me the same question one after another.
Which stock should I buy?
Charlie, how can I earn 10 million in 10 years?
Is artificial intelligence the next big thing?
Whenever I see these young and intelligent
Ambitious face
A complex sense of pity always rises within me.
Because I know
They asked the wrong question.
They stared at that
Stock codes that determine only 10% of one's wealth in life
But for the one who determined 90% of their happiness
Black swan factors in ultimate wealth
Ignoring
This factor is not when the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates.
It's not about whether the economy will experience a recession.
Instead, after returning home every night
Who is the person sleeping next to you?
If I were to use my life experience...
Here's the most important financial advice for you.
I would say he chose the wrong partner.
It is what you can endure in your lifetime.
Largest financial loss
There is none.
I know that young people nowadays like to talk about compound interest.
Talking about snowballs
You see this as a magic formula for getting rich.
But you overlooked
The most terrifying variable in the compound interest formula
That is interruption
I have said this on many occasions
The first principle of compound interest is that it should be used only as a last resort.
Never interrupt it
And a bad marriage
It's the most powerful crusher of compound interest.
Let's do the math from an investment perspective.
Many people naively believe
The cost of divorce is only the division of 50% of the assets.
In other words, if I had 2 million
Give the other party 1 million
Although my heart aches
But at least half
Right or wrong?
This is simply naive linear thinking.
The real loss is that one who looks at
You need to know the unseen hidden costs
Your most valuable asset in this life
Not your bank deposits
Rather, it's your mental bandwidth.
Clarity in your decision-making
Imagine
You fight battles outside every day
Facing fierce business competition
You need to handle complex workplace relationships
You need an extremely calm mind to judge the trend.
But if you go home
What I faced was endless arguments, suspicion, and cold wars.
Or perhaps the other party lost control of their emotions.
And the mess they created
Your brain will be filled with this garbage.
You don't sleep well at night
Daytime mental confusion
In that state
Every career decision you make
Every investment decision
They are most likely wrong.
A bad partner
It will drain your energy like a black hole.
When your competitors are focused on improving themselves
You're busy dealing with the civil war at home.
The battle hasn't even started yet.
You've already lost.
This is not just theory
This is a lesson I learned the hard way.
I made many mistakes when I was young.
But the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life
It's not about buying a textile factory.
But it was when I was very young and foolish.
Married the wrong person in his first marriage
I was in my twenties at that time.
opinionated
I thought that as long as I was smart and hardworking, I could control everything.
Including changing a person
But I chose someone who was completely incompatible with me.
The result was a few hellish years.
Whether mentally or financially
I paid a heavy price.
When I got divorced at 30
I have almost nothing.
My net worth is now zero.
I was driving a beat-up yellow Pontiac.
Weeping in the streets of Pasadena
My eldest son, Teddy, had leukemia at the time.
Lying in the hospital
But I can barely afford the best medical care.
That was the biggest setback of my life.
sense of despair
10,000 times more violent than any stock market crash
Because stocks will rebound after they fall.
But those golden years were destroyed by a terrible marriage.
They'll never come back.
so
When young people ask me how their families can avoid bankruptcy...
I always tell them not to set fires in their homes.
A bad partner
It's a fire in your backyard.
Conversely
If you choose the right person
Just like when I met Nancy later.
Or like Warren meeting Susan.
A good partner
It is the best moat in your life.
They are not only your life partners
It's also your safety margin.
Look at Warren
He is one of the richest people on the planet.
But he often said
His most successful investment in his life
Didn't buy Coca-Cola
It wasn't that I bought See's Candies.
Instead, he chose the right wife.
Why
Because Susan gave him unconditional love and support.
This extreme emotional stability
This allows Warren to focus 100% of his energy.
All invested in capital allocation
He fought outside
But he knew his rear was safe.
His base camp is warm
This is a huge
Competitive advantages that others cannot see
If you are at home
You also have to be constantly on guard against someone stabbing you in the back.
If you are at home
You still need to spend 80% of your energy explaining your dreams.
Then you will never win a war outside.
So young people
Wake up! Stop treating it like picking up coins on the street.
Go pick your partners.
Don't let age or parental pressure stop you from doing this.
Just find someone to make do
The time you spend researching a stock
Even the time spent choosing a mobile phone
Often more than studying that
I want to sleep in bed with you for decades.
I need to share my bank account with you.
It takes much longer for the people who determine your child's genes to do so.
This is utter madness.
Marriage is not a romantic fairy tale.
Marriage is a relationship that lasts for decades.
Unlimited Liability Partnership Agreement
It is the biggest single investment you've ever made.
Once a contract is signed
The cost of exiting is shockingly high.
Extremely poor liquidity
If this investment goes to zero
All your efforts in the second half of your life
They're probably all just paying the price for this mistake.
So since this investment is so important...
Since the risk is so great
What strategy should we use to ensure a high win rate?
I'm not going to talk about romance and poetry with you today.
We didn't even talk about dating skills.
I'm going to teach you three of the most hardcore rules for choosing a partner.
These three rules
I rose from the ruins of my first failed marriage
After climbing out
A summary of a lifetime of pain and reflection
They not only protected me for the rest of my life
It also helped me and Warren.
I've seen through countless unreliable business partners.
Learn them
It can save you the biggest amount of money you've ever wasted in your life.
Many people ask me about Charlie
How can I find my perfect soulmate?
My answers always disappoint them.
Don't try to find smart people
Don't try to find rich people
Don't even try to find pretty people.
So the first ironclad rule is to use reverse thinking.
There's a phrase I've said my whole life.
All I want to know is where I'm going to die.
That way I'll never go there again.
When it comes to choosing a partner
The logic is the same.
If you want to be happy
You don't need to study what happiness is.
You only need to study what will inevitably lead to suffering.
Then avoid them
If you can successfully avoid those
It will definitely ruin the quality of your life.
The remaining options are probably not too bad.
Based on my observations in 1999
There are three types of people
No matter how charming they are
How talented!
No matter how rich
You must avoid them as if they were the plague.
Because they are the deadly poison of compound interest in life.
Category 1
This is also the most important type of unreliable person.
This is the absolute bottom line.
If a person is unreliable
Then all his other advantages
Intelligence, Education, Humor, Beauty
All equal to 0
It's even worse than 0.
Imagine it as a negative number.
You are a race car driver
You bought a Ferrari
The engine is top-of-the-line.
The appearance is perfect
The interior is luxurious.
However, the car's brakes are unreliable.
The steering wheel occasionally goes out of control
Would you drive this car on the road?
Would you dare sit inside?
If you sit down
You're not driving.
You are committing suicide.
In the long journey of marriage
Reliability is the ticket to that interpersonal relationship.
If your partner says, "I'll pick up the kids..."
But he forgot
If he says we'll save money to buy a house
But then he spent all the money.
If he lies about small things
Discounting on promises
So what is your daily life like?
It will turn into a terrifying Minesweeper game.
You have to spend a lot of energy
Go check his work
Go and patch up his hole
These transaction costs will consume your life.
So remember my words.
No matter how much that person makes your heart flutter
As long as you find a crack in reliability
Turn around and run immediately
Don't look back.
Don't be soft-hearted.
The second type of person sees the world from the victim's perspective.
These kinds of people are very dangerous
Because they themselves not only live in hell.
They will also pull you in.
They always felt the world owed them something.
If work is not going well
That's because the boss is an idiot.
If the investment loses money
That's market fraud.
If life is not going well
That's because the parents didn't provide enough support.
Or social injustice
They always see themselves as victims.
what does that mean
This means
They will never have to take responsibility for their failures.
If you marry this kind of person
What consequences will there be?
It's very simple.
If any problems arise in your life
That must be your fault.
Because within their logical closed loop
They are innocent victims.
Since the world is unfair
So, as his partner...
He must also be one of the perpetrators.
This kind of person will spread like a virus.
It spreads resentment, jealousy, and negativity to you.
They will crush your ambition.
Because in their eyes
All efforts were in vain.
All success is luck.
I've met too many incredibly talented people in my life.
This mindset ruined his life.
Mozart is an example.
He considered himself a genius.
The world should support him
As a result, he lived a miserable life.
Stay away from people who feel like the whole world has wronged them.
Even if they are as talented as Mozart
We can't have it either
The third type of person has extremely unstable emotions.
Marriage is a marathon that lasts for decades.
There will be countless bumps, storms, and unexpected events along the way.
What you need is a car with a stable chassis.
well-dampened off-road vehicles
Instead of a car that slightly hits a stone
Racing cars that are prone to overturning
People with extremely unstable emotions
That's the car that flips over.
When they're in a good mood, they might praise you to the skies.
It makes you feel incredibly romantic
But once under pressure
Once you encounter setbacks
They would collapse instantly.
Become a tyrant
Or become a giant baby
You need to know
The most important decision in life
Buying a house, having children, career transition, and coping with the crisis
They are often made under high pressure.
If your partner loses their mind under pressure
Will be hysterical
Will attack you
How could you possibly make the right decision?
An emotionally stable partner
You are in this chaotic world
The Last Harbor
And an emotionally unstable partner
It's a landmine buried in your backyard.
You don't know when you stepped on it.
It will shatter your life to pieces.
Okay, now we know.
The first type of person is unreliable.
The second type of person has a victim mentality.
The third type of person is emotionally unstable.
So even if the other party is very rich
No matter how smart or good-looking
As long as he meets any one of these three conditions
Please remove directly.
So the remaining pools are smaller.
But they are all high-quality assets.
At this time
Young people usually ask me the second question.
Now that I know what kind of person to look for, Zari
Then I
How can I attract the attention of high-quality people?
This leads to my second ironclad rule.
It is also the cruelest rule.
Many young people come to me
Listed a long list of criteria for choosing a partner
I want to find someone good-looking.
Also needs to be smart.
Ideally, the family should also be well-off.
A gentle personality is also required.
And also need to understand my soul
They spoke with great enthusiasm.
It's as if all they need to do is list them.
God will pack this person up and deliver them to the door.
Every time this happens
I only have one question for them.
If you are that perfect person
Would you like yourself now?
They usually freeze.
Then an awkward silence ensued.
This is the second ironclad rule I'm going to teach you.
The only way to get a good spouse
First and foremost, you deserve a good spouse.
You must remember
This world can be crazy at times.
But not yet crazy.
It will inexplicably destroy an excellent partner
Rewarding someone who doesn't deserve it at all.
A mess
The marriage market is extremely efficient to some extent.
A good partner is not a fool.
They are also conducting due diligence.
They are also looking for quality assets.
If you are lazy and unreliable
Emotional instability
Do not like to study
But he spends all his time fantasizing
Can I find someone who is hardworking, reliable, and emotionally stable?
A learned and talented partner
Come save your life
That's not called choosing a partner.
That's called fraud.
I've seen too many tragedies like this in my life.
Some people are a lump of mud themselves.
But he wanted to find a gold brick to stick on his face.
The result was either they couldn't find it at all.
He eventually died alone, consumed by resentment.
Either they tricked someone using disguise.
But the truth came to light after the marriage.
To be thrown away like trash
Or they encountered
They are scammers who prey on this kind of greed.
In the end, both people and money were lost.
Don't believe those domineering CEOs.
TV series about falling in love with Cinderella
That's a fairy tale for children.
The logic of the real world is that dragons should be paired with dragons.
Phoenixes mate, rats' sons know how to dig holes.
A truly lasting and happy marriage
It was never about poverty alleviation.
Instead, it's a partnership of equal strength.
Warren and I have been able to work together for over 50 years.
We've never argued even once.
Why? Because we are the same kind of people.
We are all rational
They are both honest and love reading.
if
I'm someone who only knows how to indulge in pleasure and debauchery all day long.
Warren wouldn't even glance at me.
The same applies to marriage.
If you want your partner to be rational
You need to learn to control your emotions first.
If you want your partner to be ambitious
You need to turn off the game console and go read a book first.
If you want your partner to be loyal
You need to take care of your lower body first.
This is not just moral preaching
This is the most basic economic principle of exchange.
Do you want to attract a golden phoenix?
You need to first cultivate yourself into a phoenix tree.
If you are just a pile of rotten grass
Then you'll only attract flies.
So young people
Stop seeking things outside yourself.
Take your eyes back from staring at others.
Put it on yourself
You need to build
Its own moat
This moat wasn't given to you by your parents.
Rather, it's your character, your knowledge, and your judgment.
When you transform yourself into someone, even alone
People who can also live a wonderful, interesting, and wealthy life
You don't need to chase after anyone at all.
That equally outstanding person
I can recognize you at a glance in a crowd
At this point, your union is not about one person depending on the other.
Rather, it was two independent souls who decided to journey together.
To create greater welfare
This is what a truly high-class marriage is like.
Okay, now let's assume you've avoided the madman.
It also improved myself.
Found the right person
You got married
Does that mean everything will be fine?
The real test has only just begun.
That's why even two good people
Sometimes life can turn into hell.
This is where my third ironclad rule comes in.
How to manage expectations
Many young people are so excited before their wedding that they can't sleep.
I felt that from then on, I would have happy and joyful days.
Six months after the wedding, I was so disappointed I wanted to bang my head against the wall.
Why is it that people have changed?
No one has changed.
Your expectations were wrong.
I've lived a relatively happy life.
There is a very simple secret
The secret is just three words: low expectations.
Benjamin Franklin is my hero.
He once said a famous quote about marriage.
I suggest you memorize it.
Keep your eyes wide open before getting married.
After getting married, you should close your eyes halfway.
What does this mean?
This means
Before investing
That is, the dating stage
You need to conduct the most rigorous due diligence.
You need to open your eyes wide and see his shortcomings clearly.
Don't just look at how generous he is when he gives you gifts.
See if he swears when he gets stuck in traffic.
Observe whether he is polite to the waiters.
See if his relationship with his parents is healthy.
You should ask yourself
A cruel question for him: if this shortcoming...
For example, leaving socks lying around.
For example, being a little lazy
For example, being talkative
I can never change it.
Can I endure this for 50 years?
If your answer is no
Then forget it.
Don't fantasize that I'll change him after we get married.
This is humanity's greatest delusion.
You want to train a cat to be a dog
The end result was that the cat went mad.
You've gone mad too.
But once you've completed your due diligence...
Decided to sign this marriage certificate
That is, after the investment is completed
Your strategy must immediately undergo a 180-degree turn.
At this point, you need to learn to turn a blind eye.
You need to lower your expectations
You have to accept that the person sleeping next to you is not a god.
Just an ordinary human being with all sorts of bad habits.
He snores
He is emotional
He forgets anniversaries
If you focus on these flaws every day
Use a magnifying glass to find fault
Then you are shorting your own happiness.
You need to learn to see the big picture.
As long as he is reliable in important matters
As long as he remains kind
still loving You
Those trivial frictions in life
Let him be.
In marriage
There is a hidden cost.
But it is the most expensive
That is the cost of trust.
Warren and I manage an empire worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
But we don't have a written contract.
We don't need
I know he wouldn't cheat me.
He also knew I wouldn't cheat him.
This seamless trust
It saved us countless legal fees.
Negotiation time and psychological strain
The resulting efficiency is astonishing.
The same applies to marriage.
If you can find someone you can completely trust
You don't need to check his phone.
There is no need to guard against him transferring assets.
There's no need to worry about him even if he comes home an hour late.
This kind of peace of mind
That's the biggest benefit marriage brings you.
It frees your mind.
Bandwidth allows you to handle more important things outside.
Therefore, the best state of marriage
It's not about seeing each other's hearts race with excitement every day.
Instead, the two people stood back to back, looking in the same direction.
Inner peace
This peace comes from choosing the right person.
It comes from the fact that you are worthy of him
More from
You have extremely low expectations of him.
Finally, I'd like to talk to you about the exit mechanism.
In the venture capital field
On the first day of investing money
I was just thinking about how to quit.
How to go public through an IPO
How to sell it to the next round of buyers?
Then cash out and leave.
But in the investment of marriage
If you're thinking about an exit mechanism from the beginning
Then you're destined to lose.
Marriage is the most important thing in the world.
Very few
Assets that must be acquired using a buy-and-hold strategy
Young people these days are too impetuous.
My phone is broken, so I'm getting a new one.
Buy new clothes when they get old
I think people can be replaced at any time.
You have this consumerist habit
It got into my emotions.
Any argument
Any friction
You're not thinking about how to repair it.
Rather, did I choose the wrong stock?
Should I cut my losses and switch to a different account?
This is why the divorce rate is so ridiculously high now.
You are using a short-term trading mindset.
To manage an asset that needs to be held for 100 years
You need to know
The cost of changing hands in this market is extremely high.
If you frequently change partners
You think you're looking for something better
You are actually constantly depleting your emotional capital.
Every breakup
It will take away some of your trust.
A part of innocence and a part of mental bandwidth
Eventually you become shrewd and indifferent.
Full of defensiveness
You think you're a seasoned player in love?
Actually, you're already bankrupt.
true masters
It's like me and Turbo holding Coca-Cola.
Hold your partner
In the past few decades
Coca-Cola has also encountered crises.
It has also experienced declines and been questioned by the market.
But we didn't sell.
We know its kernel is good.
We know that as long as we give it time
It will traverse the cycle
The same applies to marriage.
Over the long 50 years
You must have moments when you want to strangle each other.
There will definitely be low points where you don't like the other person.
This is normal.
This is part of the cycle.
Don't be swayed by short-term fluctuations.
To deny long-term value
As long as that person's true nature is as described above.
Reliability is not the victim
Stable mindset and emotions
If nothing has changed, you should hold on firmly.
What you need to do is be patient.
Communication is like watering a gardener.
Instead of cutting down trees like a butcher
This kind of persistence will bring huge compound interest.
This kind of compound interest is not money.
I lived to be 99 years old.
I can tell you a secret
When you are old and can no longer walk
When you are lying in a hospital bed
That string of zeros in your bank account
It means nothing to you
Your reputation
Your status
They all seem like fleeting clouds.
At that time, your only asset in life
The person sitting by your bed
It's the person who remembers how much sugar you want in your coffee.
That's when I saw you at your most disheveled.
The person who still holds your hand
It's that memory you shared for half a century.
He's the only one who can understand your old jokes.
This feeling of being witnessed
This deep connection
It's something that no amount of money can buy.
This is the ultimate reward of the compounding effect of marriage.
so
Take my advice and choose with the most discerning eye.
Avoid those crazy and toxic people.
Demand the strictest standards of yourself
Make yourself worthy of those wonderful people
Operate with the most realistic low expectations
Tolerate those that are unimportant
Flaws and then
Once you find the right person
Lock up your position
No matter how many temptations there are outside
Regardless of market fluctuations
Don't sell, never sell!
Treat your entire life as the most enduring investment you can make in him.
I believe in myself
When you are 99 years old
You will find
This is the greatest thing you've ever done in your life.
The most profitable investment
I am your old friend
I hope my words...
It can help you on your life's balance sheet.
Avoid the biggest mine
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