Dec 15, 2025
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He has challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight, lashed out at Mark Cuban, and mocked Bill Gates’ appearance. So of course Elon Musk had something to say about one of the most prominent billionaires in the world: Warren Buffett.
“To be totally frank, I’m not his biggest fan,” Musk told Joe Rogan on an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. "He does a lot of capital allocation. He reads a lot of annual reports of companies and all the accounting — and it's pretty boring, really."
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Musk also described Buffett’s principle about companies with sustainable competitive advantages as “lame” during a Tesla earnings call in 2018.
"First of all, I think moats are lame," he said. "They’re nice in a sort of quaint, vestigial way. But if your only defense against invading armies is a moat, you will not last long. What matters is the pace of innovation. That is the fundamental determinant of competitiveness."
When asked about it, Buffett responded, “Certainly you should be working on improving your own moat and defending your own moat all the time. And Elon may turn things upside down in some areas. I don’t think he’d want to take us on.”
To be fair, building rockets, implanting chips and manufacturing electric cars is much sexier than poring over earnings reports all day. However, there is some evidence to suggest that ordinary investors would do well following Buffett’s "boring" approach.
Good investing is boring
Buffett probably wouldn’t heed Musk’s comments since analyzing company fundamentals and looking at the less flashy and exciting industries is at the heart of his investing style.
He isn’t the only one to take this approach. George Soros, another famous investor, once said, “If investing is entertaining, you're probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.”
One of the easiest ways to invest is to open a self-directed trade account with SoFi. This DIY approach allows you to invest with no commission fees, plus for a limited time you can get up to $1,000 in stock when you fund a new account.
SoFi is designed to help you learn investing as you go, with real-time investing news, curated content and the data you need to make smart decisions about the stocks that matter most to you.
Value investing, which Buffett advocates, is focused on finding beaten-down and overlooked companies. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, for instance, includes DaVita HealthCare Partners (DVA), a network of kidney dialysis centers, and Louisiana-Pacific (LPX), a manufacturer of engineered wood panels.
Buffett’s game plan is to find strong companies that generate steady cash flows and deliver predictable performances rather than chase innovation or high-stakes ventures.
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If you’re looking for a collaborative approach to researching and analyzing investment strategies and opportunities, Public offers a community-driven platform for investment insights.
Public’s social investing features let you share ideas with a community of investors and gain insights from your peers.
The platform democratizes investing by offering a commission-free platform for trading stocks, REITs, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, treasuries, and even alternative assets.
Right now, you can take advantage of a 1% uncapped match on every transfer, including brokerage and IRA transfers, 401(k) rollovers, and IRA contributions.
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Boring is key to building wealth
Your chances of earning long-term investing success with stock picking are slim. Even professional hedge fund managers have underperformed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq in the first three months of 2024, according to PivotalPath’s Equity Sector Index.
Even Berkshire Hathaway stock is barely able to outperform the S&P 500 index. Its shares are up 12.7% in 2024, while the benchmark is up 10.5%.
In other words, a retail investor who simply invested in a low-cost index fund that tracks the S&P 500 would have outperformed the hedge fund index.
This illustrates the magic of boring investing. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel or uncover the next big tech breakthrough to generate wealth. Simple, boring investing and compounding are a potent combination that all retail investors should take advantage of.
One of the best ways ordinary investors can harness the power of compound interest is by starting as early as possible. Getting a foothold with your investing strategy can be as simple as downloading Acorns, an automated savings and investment app that makes your spare change go to work for you.
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When you make a purchase on your credit or debit card, Acorns automatically rounds up the price to the nearest dollar and places the excess into a smart investment portfolio. This way, even the most essential spending translates to money saved for the future.
Right now, when you sign up for Acorns, you can get a $20 bonus investment to help jumpstart your wealth building.
You can also consider the safety of investing in gold and other precious metals in physical forms — like coins — instead of stocks, mutual funds and other traditional investments.
For example, you could open a Gold IRA — a type of individual retirement account that allows you to invest in precious metals, with the opportunity to benefit from the tax advantages of an IRA, as well as diversify your portfolio and stabilize your finances in the face of persistent inflation.
Unlike the U.S. dollar, which has lost 87% of its purchasing power since 1971, gold’s purchasing power remains stable over time.
A gold IRA is one option for building up your retirement fund with an inflation-hedging asset.
Opening a gold IRA with the help of Goldco allows you to invest in gold and other precious metals in physical forms while also providing the significant tax advantages of an IRA.
With a minimum purchase of $10,000, Goldco offers will match up to 10% of qualified purchases in free silver.
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If you’re curious whether this is the right investment to diversify your portfolio, you can download your free gold and silver information guide today.
Not everyone can build wealth like Musk. Even launching a successful business on a small scale is incredibly difficult. One in four small businesses fail within the first year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Operating a business is significantly more difficult when economic conditions are not favorable.
So your chances of running a successful business, let alone a trillion-dollar tech giant, are slim. Your chances of steady gains with a certificate of deposit (CD), however, are much better.
When interest rates are moving, high-yield savings accounts can feel like a moving target. You might be earning a competitive APY one month, only to have your bank quietly lower it the next. That’s the trade-off with HYSAs: they’re flexible, but your returns may not be guaranteed.
With the Fed cutting interest rates recently, many savers are already seeing those yields drop. That makes locked-in returns more valuable than ever — and that’s where a certificate of deposit (CD) shines.
With a CD, you lock in a guaranteed rate upfront, so your earnings stay steady for a set term, even if rates slip further. It’s predictable, reliable growth, which is something you don’t always get with traditional accounts.
Raisin makes that even easier by giving you access to high-yield and no-penalty CDs from top U.S. banks, all with no fees and minimums as low as $1.
Prefer higher returns? Choose a high-yield CD for fixed, dependable earnings. Want flexibility? A no-penalty CD lets you access your money early without the usual withdrawal fees that come with a typical CD.
Whether you’re saving for something soon or building a cushion for the long haul, Raisin gives you a simple way to earn more without worrying that tomorrow’s rate changes will eat into your returns.
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The Moneywise Editorial Team is a group of passionate financial experts, seasoned journalists, and content creators who are deeply committed to providing unbiased, relevant, and accurate financial information. With years of combined industry experience, our team is dedicated to maintaining the highest journalistic standards and delivering informative and engaging content. From personal finance and investing to retirement planning and business finance, we cover a broad range of topics to suit the financial needs of our diverse readership. You can trust the Moneywise Editorial Team to empower you with the knowledge and tools necessary to make wise financial decisions.
