Avoid picking individual stocks, rather opt for an S&P 500 index fund over the long run, stated Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He said this while addressing investors around the world on Saturday at Berkshire Hathaway's 2021 annual shareholder meeting.
According Yahoo Finance, he said, "I recommend the S&P 500 index fund." He continued,"...I’ve never recommended Berkshire to anybody because I don’t want people to buy it because they think I’m tipping them into something," he said.
"On my death, there's a fund for my then-widow and 90% will go into an S&P 500 index fund."
"I do not think the average person can pick stocks," he added.
Billionaire Buffett added, "We happen to have a large group of people that didn't pick stocks but they picked Charlie and me to manage money for them 50-60 years ago. So we have a very unusual group of shareholders I think who look at Berkshire as a lifetime savings vehicle and one that they don’t have to think about and one that they'll, you know, they don't look at it again for 10 to 20 years."
Vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger, on the other hand, had a different perspective. He said, "I personally prefer holding Berkshire to holding the market."
He asserted that he is quite comfortable holding Berkshire. "I think our businesses are better than the average in the market."
As per the results, the operating income during the first three months of the year increased to $7.02 billion, up by 19.5 per cent compared to the $5.87 billion posted in the first quarter of 2020.
Consolidated shareholders' equity rose by $4.8 billion to $448 billion by the end of March compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.
