Warren Buffett once said there’s a major investment that’s ‘not taxed at all’ — holds the key to wealth. Do this now
Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below.
With an estimated net worth of about $141.2 billion, legendary investor Warren Buffett has built a tremendous financial empire — making him the 11th richest person in the world, as of April 1, 2026 (1).
Buffett is also known for sharing his investing wisdom with everyday Americans, prioritizing steady growth like the S&P 500 over decades, but, according to the Oracle of Omaha, there’s one thing that everyone can invest in, regardless of income.
Buffett’s nearly foolproof philosophy, which underpins his success, starts with one thing: self-investment. As he explained to shareholders at Berkshire Hathaway’s 2022 annual meeting, “Whatever abilities you have can’t be taken away from you (2).”
“They can’t be inflated away from you,” he added. “The best investment by far is anything that develops yourself, and it’s not taxed at all.”
Now, at 95 years old, Buffett has finally retired from his longtime post as Berkshire’s CEO, having announced the decision at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in May 2025. Former Vice-Chair Greg Abel took over the top job of CEO on Jan. 1, 2026, while Buffett will remain as chair.
Despite this shake-up, Buffett is confident about Berkshire Hathaway’s legacy.
“It has a better chance I think of being here 100 years from now than any company I can think of,” Buffett said during an interview early in 2026 with CNBC (3).
In a more recent March 31 Squawk Box appearance, Buffett expressed confidence in Abel’s stewardship (4). If anything, Buffett lamented not stepping aside sooner, noting that: “Greg is so good. It was kind of embarrassing how good he is, because he has covered … more ground in a day than I would in a week, even when I was at my peak, let alone my present condition.”
Here’s how to follow in Buffett’s footsteps, even if they’ve slowed down in recent years — especially when it comes to thinking long term rather than trying to time the market.
While this isn’t a traditional investment tip, Buffett firmly believes that by regularly investing in knowledge and self-improvement, you yourself become an asset and can more easily access opportunities for growing your wealth.
“Address whatever you feel your weaknesses are, and do it now,” Buffett said during a different interview with Forbes (5).
“Nobody can take away what you’ve got in yourself — and everybody has potential they haven’t used yet. If you can increase your potential 10%, 20% or 30% by enhancing your talents, they can’t tax it away. Inflation can’t take it from you. You have it the rest of your life.”
Read More: I’m almost 50 years old and don’t have retirement savings. Is it too late?
In this way, Buffett stands out as one of the most encouraging and inspiration-minded of the billionaire class, but not just for his pithy quotations from Berkshire shareholders’ meetings.
He is also committed to philanthropy.
For instance, Buffett spearheaded the Giving Pledge, a 2010 initiative to encourage other billionaires to distribute their massive wealth to charity during their lifetimes.
Buffett, Bill Gates and other famous names signed on, but recently, some high profile members of the pledge have pulled out — most notably Peter Thiel, who said the pledge was an “Epstein-adjacent, fake Boomer club” and has encouraged other billionaires to drop their commitment, according to a report in The New York Times (6).
In spite of this setback, the Oracle of Omaha is sticking to his word.
And Buffett is not the only financial guru who encourages giving back. The seventh step of Dave Ramsey’s famous money management philosophy, the 7 Baby Steps, is “build wealth and give (7).”
Investing smarter helps you to do the first, so that you’re ready — like Buffett — to do the second on a large scale. But to get there, you need to be focused on the horizon, not short-term shifts.
Market volatility isn’t exactly a foreign concept for the Oracle of Omaha.
Buffett began investing when he was 11, back in 1942. Having lived through several recessions, Buffett has, time and again, shrugged off volatility.
“Over the long term, the stock market news will be good,” Buffett wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times in 2008 (8).
“In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president,” he explained.
“Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497,” concluded Buffett.
It’s hard to argue with that reasoning.
When it comes to specific assets or asset classes, Buffett can be bullish on real estate, which he points to as a prime example of a productive, income-generating asset.
In 2022, he stated that if you offered him “1% of all the apartment houses in the country” for $25 billion, he would “write you a check (9).”
But while real estate might be a good investment, its barrier to entry can be difficult to cross. Luckily, there are plenty of platforms that can allow you to invest in real estate with ease.
New investing platforms like Arrived can help you tap into the real estate market with as little as $100, even if you’re not an accredited investor — or simply don’t want to invest thousands of dollars in one asset.
Backed by world-class investors, including Jeff Bezos, Arrived allows you to invest in shares of vacation and rental properties, earning a passive income stream without the extra work that comes with being a landlord of your own rental property — no midnight maintenance calls over burst pipes.
To get started, simply browse through their selection of vetted properties, each picked for their appreciation and income-generating potential. Once you choose a property, you can start investing and earn any monthly dividends.
Arrived even offers a secondary market, meaning that under the right circumstances, you can move your money around.
Even better, for a limited time, when you open an account and add $1,000 or more, Arrived will credit your account with a 1% match.
If diversifying into multifamily and industrial rentals appeals to you, you could consider investing with Lightstone DIRECT, a new investing platform from the Lightstone Group, one of the largest private real estate companies in the country with over 25,000 multifamily units in its portfolio.
Since they eliminate intermediaries — brokers and crowdfunding middlemen — accredited investors with a minimum investment of $100,000 can gain direct access to institutional-quality multifamily opportunities. This streamlined model can help reduce fees while enhancing transparency and control.
And with Lightstone DIRECT, you invest in single-asset multifamily deals alongside Lightstone — a true partner — as Lightstone puts at least 20% of its own capital into every offering. All of Lightstone’s investment opportunities undergo a rigorous, multi-stage review before being approved by Lightstone’s Principals, including Founder David Lichtenstein.
How it works is simple: Just sign up with your email, and you can schedule a call with a capital formation expert to assess your investment opportunities. From here, all you have to do is verify your details to begin investing.
Founded in 1986, Lightstone has a proven track record of delivering strong risk-adjusted returns across market cycles with a 27.6% historical net IRR and 2.54x historical net equity multiple on realized investments since 2004. All told, Lightstone has $12 billion in assets under management — including in industrial and commercial real estate.
As such, even if multifamily rentals don’t appeal to you, Lightstone could still serve you well as an investment vehicle for other real estate verticals.
Get started today with Lightstone DIRECT and invest alongside experienced professionals with skin in the game.
Buffett has been around the block a few times, experiencing many highs and lows. He has managed a stock portfolio through periods of double-digit inflation rates in the 1970s and has plenty of insight on what to own when consumer prices spike.
That’s why Buffett likes high-quality businesses with low-capital needs, such as Apple. The technology company boasts impressive financial metrics, which have enabled it to thrive during periods of inflation.
Of course, not everybody has his experience or support. While Buffett surrounded himself with a team of experts at Berkshire Hathaway, individual investors have to do their own research.
But there is still a way to get the best investment data, distilled in a digestible format that can help you make the best money moves.
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.
That being said, you don’t always have to invest large sums to move toward your savings goals. Just $10 a week could make a difference over a lifetime — if you’re smart about what to do with your spare change.
That’s where platforms like Acorns can come into play.
It works like this: All you have to do is link your cards, and whenever you make a purchase on your credit or debit card, Acorns automatically rounds it up to the nearest dollar. The excess — coins that would wind up in your pocket if you were paying cash — is then invested in a diversified portfolio of ETFs managed by experts at leading investment firms like Vanguard and BlackRock.
Plus, if you sign up now with a recurring monthly deposit of just $5, you can get a $20 bonus investment to help you start on your investing journey.
If you favor Buffett’s long-term advice to invest in the S&P 500, this could be a good place to start.
While Buffett is known for being uninterested in gold investing — describing it in a 2011 letter to shareholders as an asset “that will never produce anything” — other money mavens consider it to be a solid hedge against inflation, particularly because its purchasing power has remained relatively stable over time.
For instance, Ray Dalio, the founder and former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, has been a staunch supporter of the precious metal.
“Gold is a very excellent diversifier in the portfolio,” Dalio said at the Greenwich Economic Forum in October 2025, adding, “because it is one asset that does very well when the typical parts of the portfolio go down (10).”
And this has played out in 2025 and going into 2026. A tumultuous market has driven investors toward gold, pushing its price up by nearly 50% in the past 12 months, as of March 31, 2026 (11).
Even if Buffett isn’t interested in gold, his strategy of holding for the long term applies in this market, as you can tie gold investments to your retirement fund by opening 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.
If you’d also like to convert an existing IRA into a gold IRA, Priority Gold offers 100% free rollover, as well as free shipping and free storage for up to five years. Qualifying purchases can also receive up to $10,000 in free silver.
And just like your skills, investing in gold can help you reduce inflation’s impact on your nest egg. Download Priority Gold’s free 2026 gold investor bundle to learn more.
Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise’s best stories and exclusive interviews first — clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
Forbes (1), (5); CNBC (2), (3), (4), (9), (10); The New York Times (6), (8); Ramsey Solutions (7); APMEX (11)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.