Warren Buffett's 5/25 Rule

A Look at Your Goals and Which Ones to Focus on

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This fun portrait was made by Suzanne Sines!

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Warren Buffett. A household name in productivity and the financial world. I’m sure many of you know him just by the mention!

For you unlucky few who don’t know him, he’s known as the Omaha Oracle, one of the most successful investors of all time. As the CEO of Berkshire Hathaways, he owns companies like Geico insurance, Dairy Queen, and Duracell among many more. Currently, he’s the 6th richest man in the world with billions in the three digits.

Other than being a billionaire, he’s known for his philanthropy, donating around 60 billion. He has promised to donate 99% of his wealth to charities.

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“The best investment you can make is in yourself.” - Warren Buffett

The 5/25 Rule

Buffett’s known in the productivity community for his methods of success and improvement. He’s known like Bill Gates, for having a ruthless time management routine, at one time refusing to schedule meetings for more than a day in advance.

His financial advice can often be interchangeable for self-improvement advice, and the 5/25 rule is no exception to that.

This rule sprang up in conversation with his personal pilot Mark Flint while discussing their careers.

He instructed Flint to write 25 professional goals.

(Hey! I’m looking at you, yea you. While you read this process, why don’t you participate too? Write down your 25 professional or life goals)

Like it would for everyone, it took Flint a hot minute to sum up what he wanted for his career. Once he did, Buffet said “Ok, now circle 5 that are most important.”

This of course took even longer for Flint to parse through.

Once he did that he saw what his good friend was getting at and promised to spend most of his time on the five most important goals to his career.

But Warren shook his head and said, “Mark, no, that’s where you have it wrong. The other 20 goals? They have become your avoid-at-all cost list”.

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The Cogs Behind 5/25

One big thing I think Warren Buffett understands as an investor is our version of scarcity: “We have unlimited wants but only so little time”.

Whether we like it or not our time is limited. We only have so many years, so many months, so many days. What are we going to spend that time doing?

Buffet proposes that we prioritize. Prioritize the five goals most important to you and dedicate all your time towards them, so you have the highest chance of achieving your goals.

It’s brutal prioritizing.

You keep your most important long term aspirations and can narrow down your schedule to fit smaller goals to get there.

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything." - Warren Buffett

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Resources to Learn More

• Want to learn more about Warren Buffett? Check out this little biography by Investopedia on his life and philosophy.

• Curious about investing? Check out

  Student Economy
  by Jordan Scott. He makes complex finance terms made easy and what investing strategy might be right for you.

• What about prioritizing? Check out last Tuesday’s newsletter!

Thanks for reading everyone, this was a shorter one this week! I hope it was helpful. Next week there will be an exciting announcement! Get excited :D

Until next teatime,

Kate