Finance

Warren Buffett tells WSJ he stepped aside as CEO after finally feeling old

Published

3 weeks ago

May 14, 2025

Warren Buffett does a walkthrough of the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2025.

David A. Grogen | CNBC

Age isn’t just a number for Warren Buffett after all.

The 94-year-old investment legend recently surprised shareholders by announcing his intention to step down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after an epic 60-year run. The reason behind the decision was the physical effects of aging he’s been experiencing, Buffett said in a new interview with the Wall Street Journal.

“I didn’t really start getting old, for some strange reason, until I was about 90,” he told the Journal in a phone interview. “But when you start getting old, it does become—it’s irreversible.”

The Oracle of Omaha, who turns 95 in August, revealed to the paper that he started to lose his balance occasionally, while experiencing issues remembering someone’s name sometimes. His vision also turned less clear when reading newspapers.

It marked an end of an era at Berkshire, which was a failing New England textile mill six decades ago and was transformed into a one-of-a-kind conglomerate with businesses ranging from Geico insurance to BNSF Railway. Buffett is handing over his reins on a high note as Berkshire shares are near a record high, giving the conglomerate a market cap of nearly $1.2 trillion.

Berkshire’s board voted unanimously to make Greg Abel, now vice chairman of noninsurance operations, president and CEO on Jan. 1, 2026, and for Buffett to remain as chairman.

Still, Buffett said he remains mentally sharp to make investment decisions when opportunities arise. The value investing icon is known to take advantage of market turmoil and depressed prices to make big purchases.

“I don’t have any trouble making decisions about something that I was making decisions on 20 years ago or 40 years ago or 60 years,” he told the Journal. “I will be useful here if there’s a panic in the market because I don’t get fearful when things go down in price or everybody else gets scared….And that really isn’t a function of age.”

— Click here to read the original WSJ story.

Finance

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Published

2 hours ago

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Finance

Retirement account balances dip in Q1 2025 as savings rates hit record high

Published

4 hours ago

June 4, 2025

Business Finance News

Jack Otter and the ‘Barron’s Roundtable’ panelists share their best tips for how to prepare for retirement amid a market concerned with tariffs.

Retirement account balances dipped in the first quarter due to stock market turbulence. Still, people kept socking away money for their retirement, according to new data from Fidelity Investments.

The financial services company analyzed more than 50 million retirement accounts, finding that the average balances of 401(k), IRA and 403(b) accounts all saw small declines during the first three months of 2025.

The average 401(k) account balance decreased 3% quarter over quarter to $127,100, according to Fidelity Investment’s Q1 2025 retirement analysis.

IRA accounts had average balances of $121,983 and 403(b) accounts held $115,424 on average in the first quarter, 4% and 2% lower than the prior quarter, respectively.

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Fidelity largely attributed those declines to “market swings.”

The market was turbulent during the first quarter amid uncertainty surrounding tariffs and other policy issues, including popular index funds.

Still, retirement savings rates “stayed consistently high,” according to Fidelity.

For 401(k) accounts, employee contribution rates hit 9.5% during the first quarter, with the employer contribution rate coming in at 4.8%, according to its analysis.

Combined, the 14.3% savings rate for 401(k) accounts marked a “record” and the “closest it’s ever been to Fidelity’s suggested savings rate of 15%,” the company said.

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Holders of 403(b) accounts, meanwhile, had a rate of 11.8% on average.

“Although the first quarter of 2025 posed challenges for retirement savers, it’s encouraging to see people take a continuous savings approach which focuses on their long-term retirement goals,” Sharon Brovelli, president of workplace investing at Fidelity, said in a statement. “This approach will help individuals weather any type of market turmoil and stay on track to reach their retirement goals.”

During the first quarter, which was plagued with market volatility, 17.4% of 401(k) holders upped the size of their contributions, while only 4.9% lowered theirs, the report found.

Meanwhile, contribution rates among 14.6% of 403(b) holders went up in the first quarter.

Only a small percentage of people with those types of retirement plans altered their asset allocation during the first quarter, with just 6% of 401(k) users doing so and 4.7% for 403(b), it found.

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Fidelity’s analysis also showed that people with IRAs upped the amount of money that they put in those retirement accounts in the first quarter by 4.5% compared to 2024’s first quarter.

A separate survey released Monday by Gallup found 59% of U.S. adults have funds put away in a retirement savings account.

Among those with retirement savings plans that have not yet left the workforce, half reported they “expect to have enough to live comfortably in retirement,” according to Gallup.