After a career that has made him one of the most successful investors of all time, Warren Buffett stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of 2025. It was a role he had held for 60 years, during which time he turned a struggling business into a trillion-dollar investment firm.
Not only did he become one of the wealthiest people on the planet, but he also became one of the most trusted voices in the world of investing, thanks to his many insightful remarks that remain as relevant today as they were in previous decades.
Read on to discover three pearls of wisdom from the Oracle of Omaha that could help you get the most from your investments.
1. Invest for the long term
Buffett has been credited with saying that the stock market transfers money from the ‘impatient to the patient’. This means investing should always be seen as a long-term venture, as doing so provides enough time for your money to grow and smooth-out any downturns along the way.
Treating investments as a ‘get rich quick scheme’ means you’re more likely to sell them if they’re not growing at the sort of level you want. The problem with doing this could be that the investment then goes on to exceed your growth expectations, however you’ll miss out on this as you’ve sold them.
Furthermore, taking a short-term view means you’re more likely to dispose of your investments in a bid to limit losses when the stock market suffers a downturn. This is something we will look at next.
2. Remain calm during a downturn
Buffett has been cited as saying: ‘smile when you read a headline that says, “Investors lose as market falls”'. He goes on to suggest that you re-edit this to: “disinvestors lose as market falls, but investors gain”.
All too often, investors sell to limit potential losses when the market suffers a downturn, a decision many will probably go on to regret. Doing this typically turns a paper loss into an actual loss and deprives your money of the opportunity to recover when the stock market bounces back, which historically it’s tended to do.
To demonstrate this, you might want to consider the following illustration. It reveals the performance of the FTSE 100 between January 2016 and January 2026. The index measures the performance of the largest 100 companies on the London Stock Exchange.
Source: London Stock Exchange
As you can see, the index increased in value over the long-term, even though there were several significant downturns along the way. If you had sold your investments during the downturn, your money would have missed out on the growth that followed.
Always remember that past performance is no guarantee of future performance, and you may receive back less than you originally invested.
3. Don’t watch your investments too closely
One of Buffett’s quotes is: ‘buy, hold and don’t watch too closely’. This refers to the tendency to watch the performance of investments too closely, which could result in you panicking and selling them.
It’s important to remember that the daily movements of the markets can be severe. When this happens, it can feel extremely uncomfortable and you may be panicked into selling your investments, which as we’ve seen, could be a decision you later regret. Similarly, paying too much attention to the media can also create discomfort for investors, which again may result in them deciding to sell to limit potential losses.
This is because the media tends to focus on large movements in the markets, which could create unnecessary alarm. Ignoring your investment’s performance over the last day, week or month, and treating the media as nothing more than ‘background noise’ is often the better approach.
This way you’re more likely to see any drop in the stock market as part of the natural ebb and flow of investing. As such, you’re less likely to make a decision based on fear, which means your actions are more likely to be beneficial for your wealth.
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If you would like to discuss whether investing might be right for you, the stock market or any investments that you currently have, please contact us on 0333 010 0008. We’d be happy to arrange a no-obligation initial meeting with one of our independent financial advisers.
27 February 2026