Why did Buffett stop giving his family $10,000 in cash for Christmas?

If you’re spending Christmas with a billionaire, you can expect an extravagant gift or two under the tree. Despite Warren Buffett’s reputation for living a frugal lifestyle, his family has become accustomed to receiving sums of cash during the holiday season.

However, when the Oracle of Omaha discovered how his family was behaving after receiving the gifts, he changed his strategy — ensuring that his wealth was not just a Christmas gift, but a gift for life.

The billionaire’s former daughter-in-law, Mary Buffett — who was married to Warren’s son, Peter — said she initially received $10,000 in hundred-dollar bills.

“As soon as we got home, we spent, wow!” Mary added in an interview with in 2019.

However, if there’s one thing to know about the 94-year-old worth $147 billion, it’s that he prefers investing for the long term rather than spending money quickly.

“Then another Christmas there was an envelope with a letter from him. Instead of money, he gave us $10,000 worth of stock in a company he had recently purchased, a fund that Coca-Cola had.

“He said to either sell them or keep them. I thought, ‘Well, (the stock) is worth more than $10,000.’ So I kept it up and it kept going up,” Mary added.

From that year onwards, Buffett continued to gift stocks to his family, including shares in Wells Fargo bank.

Mary added that she would continue to buy shares in any company that her ex-father-in-law had gifted her because she “knew they would go up.”

But what do you gift the man who can buy practically anything he wants and still sticks to the products he knows and likes?

Despite his wealth, Buffett, for example, is known for driving a 10-year-old Cadillac that was crushed by hail and still lives in the same house he bought in the late 1950s.

“The first year we were married, I realized, ‘Warren is really rich. So he doesn’t want anything,’” added Mary, who was married to Buffett’s son for more than a decade. “I didn’t know what to give him, so I prepared our music company’s balance sheet to show him that we were making money.”

Mary, who is also an author and personal finance expert, said she never presented the company’s financials to Buffett because she wanted his investment.

Instead: “I just wanted to show him, ‘Look, we’re doing good.’”

Mary added that as she spent more time with Buffett, she understood his thinking and that insight into his business’s finances would be in his best interest.

Frugal and generous

Buffett has earned something of a reputation for his frugal nature.

That said, Buffett’s loved ones were quick to defend him against claims that he might not be generous with his wealth.

Speaking to in 2017, Buffett’s daughter Susie said that just because her father isn’t leaving his vast sums directly to her doesn’t mean he isn’t a kind and generous father.

“I really agree with his philosophy of not dumping a huge amount of money on your kids. And by the way, my father gets unfair criticism for this,” she said. “He’s been a lot more generous than people realize. I feel extremely grateful for having the parents I had and for what they gave us.

“But he’s certainly not going to leave us $50 billion and he shouldn’t. It would be crazy to do something like that.”

In fact, even at Christmas, it seems the Oracle of Omaha family is never far from discussing sensible financial management.

As Mary recounted, when the family was gathered at Buffett’s Laguna Beach estate for the holiday season, “all the titans of industry would be there.”

She added: “We would have lunches and dinners, and everyone would talk about companies. Investing was the one thing Warren always talked about.”