How much money would make you feel wealthy? $10,000, $100,000, $1 million?

If you had purchased just one share of Berkshire Hathaway for a pittance years ago, you?d be sitting today one share that hit (briefly) a new high of $100,000 per share.

How could one share be worth that much? The simple answer is that BRK.A shares were never split nor dividends ever paid.

For those of you who may not be familiar with this company, Berkshire Hathaway Holdings Inc. is managed by Warren Buffett, made even more famous recently when he declared that he would donate most off his personal fortune of more than $40 billion, the largest individual gift ever by anyone (corporate, individual or government) to charity.

According to Forbes magazine, Warren Buffett, the son of Nebraska politician, delivered newspapers as a boy and had to file his first tax return (on his income) at age 13.

He studied under value-investing guru Benjamin Graham at Columbia, refined the undervalued stocks concept, then built that investment acumen into legendary status.

Originally a textile firm in 1965, Berkshire Hathaway today is a holding company comprised of more than 70 individual businesses and equity holdings, ranging from reinsurance, jet leasing, jewellery to candy production.

You may have seen the GEICO television ads with the Australian-accented gecko, without realising that GEICO is totally owned by Berkshire.

Mr. Buffett has also long favoured equity positions in stocks such as Coca-Cola (with a hamburger for lunch), Gillette, Anheuser-Busch, Wells Fargo and so on, carrying significant but noncontrolling interests in these companies.

He acquired five new companies in 2005, including more insurance (Medical Protective), recreational vehicles (Forest River), new media (Business Wire).

Berkshire stock is up 19 percent in past 12 months; since 1965 it has had a compound annual increase of 21.5 percent, beating the S&P500 benchmark by more than 200,000 percent.

Go to www.berkshirehathaway.com for a fascinating review of Mr. Buffett?s annual letter to shareholders.

Limiting his salary to an estimated $100,000 per year and never having sold any of his company stock holdings, his modest unassuming exterior disguises a razor sharp entrepreneurial mind.

Long a critic of wasteful and irresponsible corporate management, he has said of excess executive compensation: ?Getting fired can produce a particularly bountiful payday for a CEO. He can ?earn? more in that single day, while cleaning out his desk, than an American worker earns in a lifetime of cleaning toilets.

?Today, in the executive suite, the all-too-prevalent rule is that nothing succeeds like failure.?

Our summer investment quiz contestants? comments: One of them included Berkshire Hathaway in his words of wisdom for us all.

For their efforts in the investment quiz, each of these great people have earned themselves a copy of the Standard & Poors (or the Wall Street Journal) Guide to Money and Investing.

Under a blanket of confidentiality, their remarks are below:

One very, very hardworking contestant said that she ?did find some of the questions challenging but was determined to get an entry in?.

I even printed off all the articles to help me find some of the answers. I found it just as enjoyable searching for the answers as you did in providing the questions.

I am basically quite a conservative investment person, but I do like to seem to be financially literate.

I find the best investment right now is paying off the mortgage as soon as possible.

People would be surprised by how much they would save making many extra payments. So far I have taken seven years off the original date.

It is unfortunate that most people do not wish to learn about their finances.

The money they earn nowadays is unreal compared to what our parents earned.

I know firsthand how hard I have tried to help my children manage money.

My mom was one of the best teachers in that respect and I never really strayed too far away from her advice.

I haven?t really much else to say on the investment philosophy side, but I will add ? there are loads of opportunities for earning extra money in Bermuda.

I have four part-time jobs outside of my day job, mainly on weekends.

The money really does add up and this is what I use to pay extra on my loans or credit card bills.

I have also saved for various home projects using these funds and I feel a real sense of accomplishment when I have completed them.

Another secret is to keep savings/investments simple and appropriate for your lifestyle.

Another participant sent in the following, very intuitive advice:

On the subject of investment philosophy, I do not think that I can add anything to what your column provided. I have learned over the years that:

1) It is only the exceptional person who can actively trade and profit by it.

2) High risk investments are just that: the bigger the potential return, the greater the risk of losing the investment.

3) The younger you are, the more sure you are that the odds will be in your favour, and it is a good thing that you ARE young when you take the risk, because you still have time to recover.

4) Don?t keep trying that kind of risk towards retirement (except with very small amounts, just for the challenge).

4) Start young with a buy and hold strategy, with solid stocks. Warren Buffett sets a good example.

As an observation on investment attitudes, it is amazing how many people mentally put the profits in the bank immediately when they invest in (as an example) a mutual fund with a three-year record of 40 percent returns.

No investment can continue to perform at that level, and the bigger the return, the sooner it will peter out (on average, that is). Thanks again for the fun.

@EDITRULE:

Quiz Participants have been notified and may pick up their investment books at Argus Financial Limited, Hurst Holme, 12 Trott Road, Hamilton.

@EDITRULE:

Martha Harris Myron CPA/PFS CFP? is a Senior Relationship Manager at Argus Financial Limited. She specialises in Financial Planning for a Flat World? lifestyle transitions and rewarding retirements for executives and career professionals. DirectLine: 294-5709. Send confidential e-mail to mmyronargusfinancial.bm.

This article expresses the opinion of the author alone. Under no circumstances is the content of this article to be taken as specific investment or financial planning advice, nor as a recommendation to buy/ sell any investment product.