Top Warren Buffett Stocks
Coca-Cola (KO), 400 million. Kraft Heinz (KHC), 325.6 million. Apple (AAPL), 300 million. Occidental Petroleum (OXY), 264.3 million.
Invest in Index Funds
If you're looking for the simplest way to invest, Buffett recommends the index fund. Index funds are investments that track the return of a market index, representing a particular section of the stock market. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index is one such index.
1. Apple: $73.5 billion (24.8% of invested assets) Even though Buffett has overseen the sale of more than 615 million shares of Apple (AAPL -1.03%) between Oct. 1, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2024, the smartphone kingpin remains Berkshire Hathaway's largest holding by a significant amount in the new year.
While your investing choices are personal, there's one option that comes highly recommended by billionaire investor Warren Buffett: The S&P 500 index fund. Here's why it's such a fantastic investment, and how you could earn hundreds of thousands of dollars while barely lifting a finger. Image source: The Motley Fool.
Warren Buffett, one of the world's most successful investors, has shared plenty of advice over his long career. But one piece of advice stands out as his top rule: “The first rule of investment is don't lose money.” And if you ask about the second rule?
In the second quarter of 2024, Buffett again bought more shares of Chubb, Occidental, the two Liberty Media Sirius XM tracking stocks, and Sirius XM. He also initiated new positions in aerospace and electronics company Heico and cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty.
Musk's best investments include PayPal, SpaceX, DeepMind Technologies, Tesla, and The Boring Company. Elon Musk is an engineer, industrial designer, and technology entrepreneur known for disrupting multiple industries. Musk holds the distinction of being the world's richest person as of January 2025.
Many novice investors lose money chasing big returns. And that's why Buffett's first rule of investing is “don't lose money”. The thing is, if an investors makes a poor investment decision and the value of that asset — stock — goes down 50%, the investment has to go 100% up to get back to where it started.
2. Steer Clear of Consumer Debt. In a world where a single swipe of a card can get you seemingly anything you want, Buffett still prefers to use cash instead of a credit card as much as he can. Though he is the owner of an American Express card, obtained all the way back in 1964, Buffett makes a point of avoiding it.
Despite being the sixth-richest person globally, Warren Buffett continues to drive a 2014 Cadillac XTS he purchased with hail damage. Although he can afford any luxury vehicle, Buffett prefers the practicality of his 10-year-old car.
A: Five rules drawn from Warren Buffett's wisdom for potentially building wealth include investing for the long term, staying informed, maintaining a competitive advantage, focusing on quality, and managing risk.
Buffett recommends putting 90% in an S&P 500 index fund. He specifically identifies Vanguard's S&P 500 index fund. Vanguard offers both a mutual fund (VFIAX) and ETF (VOO) version of this fund. He recommends the other 10% of the portfolio go to a low cost index fund that invests in U.S. short term government bonds.
At the start of 2024, Jeff Bezos owned 988,251,817 shares of Amazon stock, according to the SEC. In November of the same year, he owned 909,709,895 shares. This means he sold roughly 8% of his total shares, but he also still owns roughly 9% in Amazon.
Apple. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has ranked as the largest holding in Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway portfolio for several years. The iPhone maker is still at the top early in the new year. Berkshire owns 300 million shares of Apple worth around $73.2 billion, representing 24.8% of its total holdings.
The Doge department is a nod to the shiba inu doge meme that's also linked to the dogecoin cryptocurrency, named by Elon Musk as his "favorite" cryptocurrency and accepted as payment by his Tesla car company.
According to a recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the investment company run by Wall Street legend Warren Buffett now holds no stock in Snowflake, which achieved a $120 billion post-IPO valuation in 2020.
Buffett's most commonly cited financial advice is as follows, “Rule №1: Never lose money. Rule №2: Never forget rule №1.” So, before investing, determine whether you can lose the money you're investing in.
By following these four golden rules—starting early, investing regularly, thinking long-term, and diversifying—you set yourself up for a successful investing journey. Remember, the goal isn't just to make money but to build wealth in a sustainable, low-stress way.
FNILX and QQQM are often described as some of the best index funds for beginner investors.