If you thought Warren Buffett would spend his retirement perfecting his golf swing or relaxing on a beach, you clearly don’t know the ‘Oracle of Omaha’.
In a recent interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick, the 95-year-old investing legend gave the world a real glimpse into his life after stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. The big takeaway? The CEO title may be gone, but Buffett’s legendary routine remains very much intact.
Now standing at the threshold of a new era for the $1 trillion conglomerate, Buffett appeared as sharp, focused, and witty as ever. While he has officially handed over the reins to successor Greg Abel, his daily life hasn’t undergone the dramatic change many expected from a man who defined American capitalism for more than six decades.
Instead, his retirement looks like a masterclass in intentional living, stripping away managerial distractions to double down on what he loves most: reading, thinking, and investing.
Still punching the clock at Kiewit Plaza
While retirement for most people means the end of the daily commute, for Warren Buffett, that familiar drive remains the foundation of his day.
In his exclusive CNBC interview, he revealed that he still drives himself to the Berkshire Hathaway office every morning, keeping alive the same steady rhythm that has defined his life for decades.
He said in the interview that he has slowed down with age and he’s no longer chasing productivity like he used to when he was the CEO. He still goes to the office not because he has to, but because he wants to be in a space he loves. He is now working because he enjoys it.
‘Greg is better than I was’
The biggest change in Buffett’s daily life isn’t what he does, but who he defers to. For sixty years, Warren Buffett was the undisputed final word on everything from insurance to ice cream. Today, that weight sits on the shoulders of Greg Abel. Speaking to CNBC, Buffett offered a level of humility that is rare in the high-stakes world of finance.
“Greg is so good. It was kind of embarrassing how good he is,” Buffett admitted. He noted that Abel now handles the heavy lifting of managing Berkshire’s 200+ subsidiary businesses—a task Buffett is more than happy to relinquish. “Greg covers more ground in a day than I would in a week, even when I was at my peak,” he added. This hand-off has allowed Buffett to return to his roots: pure, unadulterated capital allocation without the administrative headaches of being “The Boss.”
Buffett’s ‘retirement filter’
The mechanics of Buffett’s “work” now take place in a tight, 20-foot radius. He spends his hours reading and waiting for the phone to ring, though he’s much pickier about who he talks to these days. While Greg Abel takes the long, polite calls from persistent investment bankers, Buffett has developed a ‘retirement filter.’
“I cut them off in about 10 or 15 seconds,” Buffett told Becky Quick, describing his interactions with those trying to sell him on the “next big thing.” Instead, his most frequent interaction is with Mark Millard, who handles the mechanics of Berkshire’s stock and bond purchases. Millard sits just down the hall, and every hour or so, he brings Buffett a “sheet” of the day’s activities. It’s a low-tech, high-trust system that allows Buffett to stay engaged without being overwhelmed.
T-Bills and the $350 billion question
If you want to know what Warren Buffett does with his free time, look no further than the US Treasury. During the CNBC interview, it was revealed that Berkshire Hathaway is currently sitting on a cash hoard north of $350 billion. Much of this is parked in Treasury bills, and Buffett is personally overseeing the movement of these massive sums.
“We bought 17 billion this week,” he said in the interview, referring to T-bills. In his retirement, Buffett has become perhaps the world’s most significant individual monitor of the ‘risk-free rate.’ He isn’t interested in the casino of the daily stock market, which he says is filled with people looking to gamble. Instead, he’s happy to sit on his mountain of cash, waiting for a ‘fat pitch’ that makes sense for the long term. “The idea that people think they know what the market’s going to do is just crazy,” he said.
Buffett is ‘un-retiring’ for a reason
Perhaps the most surprising part of the morning was Buffett’s excitement over his new partnership with NBA icon Stephen Curry and his wife, Ayesha. After ending his famous charity lunch tradition in 2022, Buffett is ‘un-retiring’ for a special auction to benefit the Glide Foundation and the Currys’ Eat. Learn. Play. foundation.
Buffett explained to CNBC that his desire to keep the legacy of the late Cecil Williams alive was what brought him back to the table. “It would have killed me to have it just die off,” he said. He’s even putting his own skin in the game, promising to match the winning bid personally, a move he revealed during the broadcast that Steph Curry didn’t even know about yet.
As the CNBC interview ended, one thing was clear: Warren Buffett’s retirement isn’t really a goodbye; it’s just a shift. He’s left behind titles and meetings to focus on what he does best: reading, thinking, and giving.
He may not be CEO anymore, and he might move a bit slower, but he’s exactly where he wants to be. As he signed off, it was clear that the Oracle of Omaha isn’t done yet, just working on his own time now.