You’re More Like Warren Buffett Than You Think

Individual investors have an edge even if some don’t use it

By 

Spencer JakabMay 5, 2025

Warren Buffett at the world premiere of the HBO film ‘Becoming Warren Buffett’ in 2017. PHOTO: NANCY KASZERMAN/ZUMA PRESS

Suggesting you can invest like Warren Buffett sounds crazy.

The man has been an epic compounding machine, turning a dollar invested at the start of his professional career into about $365,000 today. Buffett’s ferocious intelligence, preternatural patience and long run—during a great time to own U.S. stocks—make it basically impossible for anyone else to match his record.

But, compared with professional investors, it is much easier for a little bit of that magic to rub off on your portfolio. Buffett was never about making a quick buck, and everyday investors can play the same long game.

The fact that Buffett wasn’t a portfolio manager, strictly speaking, after the late 1960s gave him incredible freedom. He made concentrated bets like Coca-Cola and Apple. He ignored critics who said he had lost it, such as during the tech bubble. He shrugged when flash-in-the-pan managers like Cathie Wood were anointed the “new Warren Buffett.”

It hasn’t just been a straight ride higher. During his six-decade run atop Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett has trailed the market a third of the time and lost money in 11 years. It surely bothered him, but much less than it would a pro fund manager facing career risk. Likewise, he never faced pressure to own the Nifty Fifty, Cisco, Nvidia or other fashionable stocks.

An attendee at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday. PHOTO: BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS

It is well known that 90% of mutual-fund managers will lag behind their benchmark over a decade. Less known is that investors in their funds do even worse, trailing their return by 1.1 percentage points, on average, according to Morningstar. On the other hand, a value-stock portfolio—those in the waters where Buffett has fished—has beaten the broad market by an average of 2.7 percentage points a year over the decades.

Not only don’t you have to cave to the pressures faced by the pros. You also can buy and hold the dull stocks, or index funds owning them, while ignoring the market’s fads and gyrations.

Consider two 21-year-old college graduates who each save $3,000 a year until they turn 65. One succumbs to typical emotional-timing errors and return-chasing behavior. The other instead captures just half of the long-run value premium that enhanced Buffett’s returns (it isn’t what it used to be). 

Assuming a market return of 8% for a stock-and-bond portfolio, the typical investor would have $835,000. One who allowed a bit of Buffett’s patience and teachings to rub off on her portfolio would have $1.75 million on retirement day.

Berkshire’s retiring CEO hasn’t just been a giant of the professional investing world—he’s a giant among pygmies. You can’t be Buffett, but being just a little bit like him can leave you towering over pros and other individuals alike.

Write to Spencer Jakab at Spencer.Jakab@wsj.com