‘Money has no utility’: Warren Buffett prizes 1 personal asset above all else — here's how you can take advantage of it

In a 2016 interview (1) on Bloomberg’s The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations, Warren Buffett said if there were anything on his bucket list, he would have done it already.

And it’s not because he’s thrown money at his dreams. It’s because of his prioritization of another resource, which is just as important — especially for investors looking to join the seven figure society.

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“Money in terms of making trips or owning more houses or having a boat or something,” Buffett said, adding that, “money has no utility to me. Time has utility to me.”

On the surface, it might seem a trite piece of advice, but in practice — and over the course of a lifetime — having a handle on your time is essential.

Buffett was 86 and still working hard at the time of the interview, and chuckled at the idea of doing things many people his age do such as relax, play shuffleboard and enjoy retirement.

“They spend all week planning their haircut, usually,” he laughed. “I get to do, everyday, what I love with people that I love. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

The business juggernaut admitted his greatest pleasures in life were running his business, making winning investments and, of course, spending time with his family.

He said he views his life-long enterprise Berkshire Hathaway “like a painter regards a painting — the difference being that the canvas is unlimited. There’s no finish line at Berkshire and it’s a game that you can continue to play.”

Since then, Buffett has fully retired as CEO, but still sits on Berkshire’s board.

Winning at the game of life doesn’t necessarily mean you have to earn billions and run a business empire like Buffett.

Here are some other ways you can turn time to your advantage.

Money can buy you time

Buffett said “money has no utility” for him, but he understands how it does for the average American who might not want to work forever. After all, many take a “work to live” approach to employment not a “live to work” mindset.

If you save and invest your money wisely during your working life — by making the most of high-interest saving accounts, tax-advantaged investment accounts, like a 401(k) or an individual retirement account (IRA), and diversifying your investment portfolio with traditional stocks and bonds, alternative assets and (if you can afford it) real estate — you can set yourself up for success in retirement.

What then does a successful retirement look like? According to Northwestern Mutual, Americans think they’ll need $1.46 million to retire comfortably (2).

Ideally, that means you can enjoy free time in your golden years to do the things you love with the people you love.

Buffett said he wasn’t interested in owning multiple houses or a boat, but if that’s how you enjoy spending your free time — at a lake house and taking your grandkids out for a spin on the water — money can make that possible. Likewise, it can help you to retire early and give you confidence that you have the means to live comfortably in your later years.

What’s more, if you’ve planned your finances so that you can retire early and live off your savings and any dividends, that may also mean you can delay taking Social Security, which means that you’ll receive higher monthly payments when you do eventually start claiming benefits — with the maximum amount available to those who start age 70 or older.

It’s easier said than done to set yourself up for a long, successful and financially fruitful retirement.

If you have a portfolio of $250,000 or more, platforms like WiserAdvisor can connect you with vetted professionals who specialize in this kind of planning.

Simply answer a few questions about your savings, retirement timeline and overall investment portfolio.

From there, WiserAdvisor reviews its network to match you — for free — with up to three vetted, reputable advisors aligned with your specific needs.

You can then schedule no-obligation consultations with your matches to determine who is the best fit for your long-term goals.

Note that WiserAdvisor is a matching service and does not provide financial advice directly. All matched advisors are third parties, and specific financial results are not guaranteed.

Read More: 4 simple ways to grow your cash without touching the stock market

Give your investments time to grow

During the 2016 interview with Rubenstein, Buffett also said: “My life has been a product of compound interest.”

In other words, it was playing the long game and letting time do the work that helped build his fortune.

This is because you can reap the benefits of compound interest. Essentially, it’s not just investing $100 a month that adds up over time. It’s keeping any interest generated from your investments in the game too. That way you can generate interest on top of interest with regular deposits as a force multiplier.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you invest $100,000 in a fund or account that delivered an average annual growth rate of 10.15% over a certain period of time.

Using that 10.15% figure, your $100,000 investment would grow to $110,150 in one year. The year after that, your shares would be worth $110,150 X 1.1015 = $121,330. The year after that, $133,645 and so on. As you can see, when you earn interest on your interest, that can lead to exponential growth over time — and you can speed up that process even further by reinvesting any dividends that you earn.

Keep in mind, however, that the market fluctuates and you will not get the same rate of return every year.

Buffett is a true advocate of the power of compound interest. As a renowned value investor, he’s known for his buy-and-hold strategy — often holding onto stocks for decades and watching them grow.

And you don’t have to be an investing mastermind like Buffett to make the most of compound interest, and you don’t have to invest large sums of money to reap the benefits.

Take advantage of compound interest

You can invest your spare change and watch your dimes grow into dollars, or you can put your money to work over time through any number of online investing apps or crowdfunding platforms.

An easy way to get started is to round-up each purchase you make to the nearest dollar with Acorns.

How it works is simple: Acorns bumps that $4.25 morning coffee up to $5.00 and invests the difference in a diversified portfolio of ETFs managed by experts at leading investment firms like Vanguard and BlackRock. Even better, the portfolio is tailored to your risk tolerance.

This can help you get a handle on investing, and in one of Buffett’s preferred investment vehicles too. The legendary investor has often touted the benefits of investing in something that pays out consistently over time, such as an ETF tracking the S&P 500 (3).

Then, once you’ve become comfortable with the round-ups, Acorns lets you set up monthly deposits so you can start building compound interest faster. The best part? If you sign up with just a $5 monthly contributions, Acorns will give you a $20 bonus investment to get started.

If, on the other hand, you want to pick you own stocks you may want to get rock solid research to help inform your decisions. Chasing trends to get rich quick might seem appealing, but often by the time winning trades hit the headlines it’s already too late to get in at the ground floor.

Moby offers expert research and recommendations to help you identify strong, long-term investments backed by advice from former hedge fund analysts.

In four years, and across almost 400 stock picks, their recommendations have beaten the S&P 500 by almost 12% on average. They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Moby’s team spends hundreds of hours sifting through financial news and data to provide you with stock and crypto reports delivered straight to you. Their research keeps you up-to-the-minute on market shifts, and can help you reduce the guesswork behind choosing stocks and ETFs.

Plus, their reports are easy to understand for beginners, so you can become a smarter investor in just five minutes.

But for those closer to retirement, the question isn’t just about growth — it’s about wealth preservation too.

Secure your wealth with gold

For most retirees, a yearly ritual is the process of liquidating part of their retirement accounts to bolster their income. However, in years where the market is down a withdrawal using just the 60/40 portfolio split of stocks and bonds means you’re losing money. This is when having an alternative to draw from, and one that doesn’t necessarily move in tandem with the market, can be a good idea.

Gold has long been a popular hedge for investors looking to diversify their accounts. Unlike fiat currency, like the U.S. dollar, gold can’t be printed at will be central banks. In tough times, investors also tend to pile in, which can drive prices higher — a boon if you’re already holding gold.

One way to invest in gold that also provides significant tax advantages is to open a gold IRA with the help of Priority Gold.

Gold IRAs allow investors to hold physical gold or gold-related assets within a retirement account, which combines the tax advantages of an IRA with the protective benefits of investing in gold, making it an attractive option for those looking to potentially hedge their retirement funds against economic uncertainty.

To learn more, you can get a free information guide that includes details on how to get up to $10,000 in free silver on qualifying purchases.

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Article Sources

We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see ourethics and guidelines.

Bloomberg (1); Northwestern Mutual (2); Berkshire Hathaway (3)

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.