Warren Buffett is the best investor of all time. This is not an understatement. Since 1955, he has turned an initial investment of $100,000 into a conglomerate with more than $700bn of assets worldwide.
And investors who have joined him for the ride have done incredibly well. This is why I have always wanted to invest alongside the billionaire. Luckily for me, even though I am based in the UK, there are options available to me for investing with Buffett.
International investor
The first and most straightforward way of investing alongside Warren Buffett is to buy shares in his conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway.
This company is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and has two primary share classes. The A shares, which Buffett himself owns and are worth more than $400,000 each, and the B shares, which are trading at more affordable $277.
Many online stockbrokers today allow investors to buy overseas shares. That is how I have invested in Berkshire myself. I own the shares directly, which lets me invest alongside the Oracle of Omaha.
Another strategy I could use to invest alongside this billionaire is to buy some of the stocks he owns in his portfolio. I could invest directly in companies such as Coca-Cola and Apple.
Some investors may find this approach more acceptable because they may not understand all of the other businesses inside Berkshire. However, I would rather own the whole package.
Warren Buffett mentality
As well as investing in Berkshire directly, investors could also build exposure to the group by acquiring a UK fund that owns the stock. This could be a good option for investors who do not want to worry about exchange rates or do not have access to a broker that allows overseas dealing.
One option I own is the Personal Assets Trust. This fund holds a large number of Berkshire shares alongside other assets. The downside of this approach is the fact that investors have to pay a management fee. And there will also be other assets in the portfolio.
Another method is to buy a fund that tries to invest like Warren Buffett. The most successful fund that follows this style is the CFP SDL UK Buffettology. Keith Ashworth-Lord has been granted the licence to use the term ‘Buffettology’ in Europe because of his success in running the fund using a similar style to the Oracle.
The largest holding in the fund at present is the miniatures producer Games Workshop. I should note that just because the fund is called the Buffettology fund, it does not mean that it will match Buffett’s performance. It is only designed to replicate his strategy.
Those are the investments I would buy to build exposure to Warren Buffett in my portfolio.
