Warren Buffett is the chairman and the biggest shareholder of investment firm Berkshire Hathaway. The company owns MidAmerican Energy, Geico, and Clayton Homes. It also has shares in American Express, Coca-Cola, and Wells Fargo. Buffett, who is dubbed as the “Oracle of Omaha,” currently has a net worth of $96.6 billion and a 52-year average yearly returns of 20.8 percent, according to Forbes.

Buffett was born on August 30, 1930 to a stockbroker father and eventual congressman, named Howard, and a housewife named Leila Stahl. He was raised in Omaha, Nebraska. Even as a child, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman had already shown a keen interest in handling stocks, with stories of him listing stock prices on the chalkboard located in his father’s office. By age 11, Buffett bought his first stock shares when he visited the New York Stock Exchange. At the time, he opted to purchase three shares of Cities Services Preferred for his own investments and another three for his sister Doris.

At age 13, Buffett worked as a paperboy and handled both the morning and afternoon routes. In 1944, he reached his short-term goal of earning $1,000. He spent his high school at Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, D.C. Aside from his newspaper business, Buffett was also known for selling stamps, Coca-Cola drinks, and golf balls. He sold magazines door-to-door while working as an editor for Stable-Boy Selections, which was a horse racing tip sheet. Later on, he and a friend decided to start a pinball rental business where they identified their high school classmates as potential customers.