None of Warren Buffett's 3 kids ever finished college. Here's what the billionaire wanted them to do instead

None of Buffett’s three children graduated from college. His daughter, Susie, came the closest — she was just three credits shy of finishing her degree before deciding not to continue. Her brothers, Howard and Peter, also left college without graduating.

“My children, if you pool their credits, you got a degree,” Buffett once joked.

Instead of chastising them for not seeing a degree as the finish line, Buffett encouraged his children to pursue work that suited their interests and abilities — a very different approach from what many people might expect from a billionaire’s family.

Buffett cared more about purpose than diplomas

Susie has said some of her earliest memories of her father involved conversations about opportunity, including the few career options that were open to women at the time.

“I still remember him sitting at the dinner table talking about how at that time women had few options for work: nurses, teachers and secretaries,” she said in an interview with FOX Business.

Rather than telling his children what career they should pursue, Buffett gave them room to figure things out for themselves.

Susie went on to focus much of her career on philanthropy, education and helping children and families. Howard became a farmer, conservationist and philanthropist, with work focused on agriculture, food security and humanitarian efforts. Peter built a career in music, becoming an Emmy Award-winning composer and musician while also focusing on philanthropy and social issues.

Their careers couldn’t have been more different, but Buffett has long said he wanted his children to find work that was meaningful to them, rather than follow a path simply because it was expected.

That’s a question more Americans are asking, too. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that only about one-quarter of U.S. adults said a four-year degree was “extremely” or “very important” for getting a well-paying job in today’s economy.

Buffett has never said college is a bad choice. His point was that a degree is one path — not the only path.

The inheritance lesson Buffett has repeated for decades

Buffett’s views on independence don’t stop at education and careers. They also shape how he thinks about passing on his fortune.

For years, the former Berkshire Hathaway CEO has said he doesn’t plan to leave his children a massive inheritance, even though he has built a fortune of more than $100 billion. His reasoning comes down to one idea: he wants to give his kids “enough so that they can do anything, but not so much that they can do nothing.”

Buffett’s philosophy is simple: money should create options, not remove every challenge. He isn’t arguing that children should struggle. His point is that money shouldn’t take away the need to work for yourself or build something meaningful.