The Worlds most famous Investor today has turned 80 years old. Warren Buffett, who is now valued at approximately $47 billion, is still going strong into his 9th decade. Buffett who is looked upon as one of the best investors in the world, has done pretty well these last 12 months. How does $10 billion sound for a birthday present? In the last year Buffett’s net worth has gone from $37 billion to over $47 billion, mainly due to his share in his Berkshire Hathaway corporation, which has risen in value.

Buffett has been known for making shrewd investment decisions which ultimately pay off. This was no different in the last few years when the World economies have gone through mayhem. He recently stated, “We’ve put a lot of money to work during the chaos of the last two years. When it’s raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble.”

The big time investor is also big on giving. He has donated billions of dollars to charities over his lifetime, and plans on giving away almost all of his wealth to charity when he and his wife pass away. He has already pledged over $30 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, making it the largest pledged donation in history. Buffett explained a couple years ago why he is giving most of his money away to charitable organizations, saying, “I don’t have a problem with guilt about money. The way I see it is that my money represents an enormous number of claim checks on society. It’s like I have these little pieces of paper that I can turn into consumption. If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do nothing but paint my picture every day for the rest of my life. And the GDP would go up. But the utility of the product would be zilch, and I would be keeping those 10,000 people from doing AIDS research, or teaching, or nursing. I don’t do that though. I don’t use very many of those claim checks. There’s nothing material I want very much. And I’m going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity when my wife and I die.”

So happy birthday Mr. Buffett, with many more to come.