REUTERS/Rick Wilking
- Warren Buffett can't stand fancy food, drives badly, and spotted the mid-2000s housing bubble.
- He blanched at the idea of truffle sauce on his steak, and foresaw a decade of housing pain in 2004.
- Buffett's biographer, Alice Schroeder, shared those details in a resurfaced Reddit post from 2014.
Warren Buffett's biographer shed light on the famed investor's eating habits, driving skills, and concerns about the mid-2000s housing bubble in a newly resurfaced Reddit post from 2014.
Alice Schroeder, the author of "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life," has spent roughly 2,000 hours with the Berkshire Hathaway CEO, making her a true authority on all things Buffett.
She was asked on Reddit for a personal story from her time spent with the billionaire, and volunteered the following:
"Dining with Warren is such an experience. Once, we were at a restaurant and Warren ordered a steak. The waiter offered him truffle sauce. The look on his face was priceless. It was as if someone said, 'Would you like some arsenic, Mr. Buffett?'"
Buffett's disgust won't surprise anyone familiar with his signature diet of burgers, hot dogs, ice cream, cookies, and chocolates, washed down with five cans of Coke a day. "I have never seen him drink water," Schroeder noted.
The Berkshire chief — one of the world's wealthiest people with a net worth in excess of $100 billion — typically grabs McDonald's on his way to work and won't even touch unfamiliar foods like sushi.
Schroeder also shared her experience of sitting in Buffett's passenger seat:
"He's a terrible driver. There's always something going on in his head and he's also talking to you, meanwhile the car wanders between lanes and goes through yellow lights. He drives slowly to make sure it won't cause too much damage if he gets into an accident. I think he is doing less driving these days and being driven more, thank goodness."
Buffett is known for his single-minded obsession with investing, and oversees a sprawling conglomerate with $1 trillion of assets, so it's not unexpected that his mind (and his car) wander when he's on the road.
Schroeder also told an anecdote that suggsests Buffett was deeply skeptical of the last housing boom, and expected home prices to crash and not recover for a decade:
"Here's a good one. I bought a house in 2004 and when I told him he was aghast. That's when I knew we were in a serious housing bubble. Finally he said, 'Well, don't worry, you'll be able to sell it in ten years, so just hold on until 2014.'"
Buffett's simple tastes, occupied mind, and eye for value won't be news to his close followers, but they show the investor hasn't changed much in the last decade.