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The Billionaire's Black Sheep - Nicole Buffett

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malaise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 10:48 PM
Original message
The Billionaire's Black Sheep - Nicole Buffett
http://www.marieclaire.com/world/news/warren-buffett-granddaughter-nicole-buffett?src=syn&dom=yah_buzz&mag=mar&ha=1&kw=ist
<snip>
What's it like when your grandpa is the richest man in the world? For Nicole Buffett, it means forgoing cable TV and health insurance and making do on $40,000 a year. Here, she dishes on her upbringing and why her grandfather Warren Buffett disowned her.

It was the last time the pair would share an embrace. Two years later, Nicole agreed to appear in The One Percent, a documentary by Johnson & Johnson heir Jamie Johnson about the gap between rich and poor in America. "I've been very blessed to have my education taken care of, and I have had my living expenses taken care of while I'm in school," she states on camera. None of the Buffetts, a famously press-averse bunch, had ever before appeared in so public a forum to dish about their upbringing. Though Nicole informed her father of her role in the film and he had no objections, she failed to give her grandfather a heads-up. Asked in the film how he'd react to her interview, Nicole responds, "I definitely fear judgment. Money is the spoke in my grandfather's wheel of life."

The perceived sense of entitlement and Nicole's self-appointed role as family spokesperson prompted Buffett to tell Peter that he'd renounce her. A month later, the mega-billionaire mailed Nicole a letter in which he cautioned her about the pitfalls of the Buffett name: "People will react to you based on that 'fact' rather than who you are or what you have accomplished." He punctuated the letter by declaring, "I have not emotionally or legally adopted you as a grandchild, nor have the rest of my family adopted you as a niece or a cousin." Nicole was devastated. "He signed the letter 'Warren,'" she says. "I have a card from him just a year earlier that's signed 'Grandpa.'"

But Buffett's decision was irrevocable.
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tammywammy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 10:51 PM
Response to Original message
1. I wish I had gotten a free college education n/t
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Sultana Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 11:08 PM
Response to Reply #1
12. Me too
:(
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aquart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 10:52 PM
Response to Original message
2. $40,000 a year is not enough for health insurance?
Something is very wrong with this country.
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smokey nj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 10:57 PM
Response to Original message
3. I saw the documentary, and I don't understand why her grandfather disowned her.
Nicole didn't say anything negative about him or the family, nor did she complain about her upbringing.
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malaise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 11:01 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. The privacy factor I guess
That's called disowning - damn.
Still it's interesting that he still lives in his 30,000 home.
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smokey nj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 11:04 PM
Response to Reply #6
9. That's a big part of it - the uber-rich don't like anybody discussing it.
There are some scenes in the film of Jamie Johnson trying to discuss wealth disparity with his father and to describe his father as uncomfortable is an understatement.
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Donnachaidh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 10:58 PM
Response to Original message
4. "making do" on 40K a year? Oh BOO FRIGGIN HOOO
Must be awfully tough having to *make do* on what many Americans have been told is an *okay* salary for them.

:nopity:
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malaise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 11:03 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. Yep
Clueless.
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smokey nj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 11:06 PM
Response to Reply #7
11. If you can, see the documentary. Nicole Buffet isn't a spoiled brat by any means.
She wasn't getting any money from her grandfather before he disowned her. If I remember correctly, she was working as a nanny when Jamie Johnson interviewed her.
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readmoreoften Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 10:59 PM
Response to Original message
5. What an asshole that guy is.
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tammywammy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 11:06 PM
Response to Reply #5
10. It's HIS money, why's she expecting to live off it? n/t
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smokey nj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 11:08 PM
Response to Reply #10
13. She doesn't expect to live off it. Watch the documentary, She wasn't getting any money
from her grandfather, when she was interviewed for the film she was working as a nanny.
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tammywammy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 11:09 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. Then why is this even a story
I'd love to get a raise up to $40,000/year. :shrug:
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MrMickeysMom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-17-08 11:04 PM
Response to Original message
8. Warren Buffett is entitled to act as a grandfatherly asshole if he want to
WB placed too much importance on us caring.

I'd rather read about his talents, which so far is investing in America, not investing in his family relationships.
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