The question we get most often: "Where should I start?" With 102 letters across 70 years, the honest answer is: it depends on where you are as an investor. Here are three paths, based on experience level.
Level 1: New to Value Investing
Start with five letters that establish the conceptual foundation:
- 1977 Berkshire Letter — Introduces the concept of "moats" and discusses what makes a business durable. Most foundational text in all of Buffett's writing.
- 1987 Berkshire Letter — The market crash letter. Short, honest, and demonstrates exactly how Buffett thinks about panic vs. opportunity.
- 1996 Berkshire Letter — Discusses the "hundred-year flood" concept and why diversification matters for most investors. Excellent bridge between theory and practice.
- 2000 Berkshire Letter — The tech bubble letter. Buffett explains clearly why he didn't participate — and what he missed vs. what he avoided deliberately.
- 2025 Farewell Letter — The final letter. Reading this after the earlier ones, you can see how fully his thinking matured while his core principles remained constant.
Reading time for these five: approximately 4–5 hours total. Time invested: high. Understanding gained: the framework that underlies every subsequent letter.
Level 2: Intermediate — Know the Basics
You understand margin of safety and intrinsic value. Now you want to see how Buffett applied these concepts across different situations:
- 1962–1969 Partnership Letters — The清算 (liquidation) letters. Watching Buffett close his partnership while explaining his reasoning to Limited Partners is masterclass communication.
- 1983 Berkshire Letter — See's Candies and the origin of " Wide Moat." This is the single most-cited letter by serious Buffett scholars.
- 1992 Berkshire Letter — "The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville." Buffett's philosophical defense of value investing — and his famous bet against efficient markets.
- 2008 Berkshire Letter — The financial crisis. Buffett was buying. Read what he was thinking.
- 2019 Berkshire Letter — The battle between operating earnings vs. acquisition impairments. Buffett's transparency about accounting choices is remarkable.
Level 3: Advanced — Structural Analysis
You want to understand not just what Buffett thought, but how he evolved:
- Read the partnership letters chronologically (1956–1970). The evolution from Graham disciple to independent thinker is visible.
- Cross-reference letters by topic: search for "intrinsic value" across all letters and read the passages in sequence.
- The 1989 and 1990 letters together document the first signs of Buffett's thinking about banking — which would become his largest sector concentration.
- Compare the 2011 and 2018 IBM letters: watch a position being built, defended, and exited — all in public.
The One Letter Everyone Skips But Shouldn't
1999 Berkshire Letter — Almost no one reads this because it contains Buffett's famous admission that he missed the technology bubble entirely. Most investors find it uncomfortable. It's actually the most honest letter he ever wrote: a public acknowledgment of a significant gap in his circle of competence, made at the peak of that gap's cost.