Why Warren Buffett has stayed as Berkshire Hathaway CEO, the job he loved, into his mid-90s

Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 1:00 PM 5 min read

• Warren Buffett, who turns 95 on Saturday, is set to retire as Berkshire Hathaway CEO this year.

• Retirement experts and Buffett gurus discussed why the investor kept working for so long.

• One said it was "more than a job" for Buffett; it was his life's work.

Warren Buffett, 95, is celebrating his last birthday as CEO of one of the most valuable companies in history.

The world's most famous investor has been Berkshire Hathaway CEO since before fellow billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg were born. But he'll step back from the job at the end of this year.

Business Insider asked retirement gurus and Buffett acolytes why they think the legendary investor kept working so long — and why he's calling it quits.

Kerry Hannon, author of the upcoming "Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future," told Business Insider, "Work is identity for many people."

She said working late in life could benefit a person's mental and physical health by making them still "feel relevant, needed, valued," adding that Buffett "knew that and was all in."

Often, people pass the conventional retirement age of 65 and still feel they have "juice to contribute," Hannon said. That drives them to keep working, especially if they feel a sense of purpose and can see that their output matters to the world, the retirement and career strategist added.

Buffett may have stayed as CEO because he felt "energized and empowered by the possibilities of his work," which generated huge financial returns for himself and others and had a global impact, Hannon added.

Over the past 60 years, Buffett has turned Berkshire from a failing textile mill into one of the world's biggest companies with roughly 400,000 employees, a $1 trillion market value, a $300 billion stock portfolio, and a long list of subsidiaries that includes Geico, BNSF Railway, and Fruit of the Loom.

The soaring value of Berkshire stock has made Buffett one of the 10 richest people on the planet with a net worth of $150 billion, even though he's given more than $60 billion to the Gates Foundation and other good causes.

When recognizing it's time to quit, Hannon said that older people often know themselves and can gauge when their mental and physical stamina is no longer enough for the work.

"The ideal scenario is to exit when you want, how you want," she said. She added that Buffett's immense clout as Berkshire's CEO, chair, and largest stockholder meant he was "uniquely positioned to do just that, pressure-free."