Finance

Warren Buffett’s daughter-in-law couldn’t think of a good Christmas present — so she showed her company’s finances to him

  • Warren Buffett’s daughter-in-law couldn’t think of a good Christmas present for him, so she showed him her company’s finances.
  • Mary Buffett was married to the famed investor’s son, Peter, between 1980 and 1993, and the pair owned a music business together.
  • “I didn’t know what to get him, so I put together our music company’s balance sheet to show him that we were making money,” she told ThinkAdvisor. “I just wanted to show him, ‘Look, we’re doing good.'”
  • View Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Warren Buffett’s daughter-in-law couldn’t think of a good Christmas present for him, so she showed him her company’s finances.

Mary Buffett was married to the famed investor’s son, Peter, between 1980 and 1993. The pair owned a music business together, which played to her strengths as a former Columbia Records executive who had also managed Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s music-publishing companies.

“The first year we were married, I realized, ‘Warren is very rich,'” Mary told ThinkAdvisor. “‘Therefore, he doesn’t want anything.'”

“I didn’t know what to get him, so I put together our music company’s balance sheet to show him that we were making money,” she said.

Unlike most people who walk Warren through their assets and liabilities, Mary wasn’t seeking an investment.

“I just wanted to show him, ‘Look, we’re doing good,'” she told ThinkAdvisor.

Mary also painted a picture of Christmas with the Buffetts: Lots of food, famous faces, and debates about intrinsic value.

“When the family got together in Laguna over Christmastime, all the titans of industry would be there,” she said in the interview. “We’d have lunches and dinners, and they’d all talk about companies. Investing was the only thing Warren ever talked about!”

Since divorcing Peter, Mary has worked as a consultant and speaker, founded an online school, and taught business and finance to university students. She has also written nine books about Buffett, according to her website.

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