How to put some of Warren Buffett’s best money and life advice to work for you

(CNN) — You don’t get labeled the “Oracle of Omaha” for nothing.

As one of the world’s most successful investors, Warren Buffett’s views on markets, companies and the economy have always been of great interest on Wall Street and Main Street.

Now 95, Buffett is stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, 60 years after taking a controlling share in the company.

But during his long tenure Buffett has had plenty of sensible things to say about how to invest well and live a good life through the work you choose and the way you treat people.

Here’s just a sampling:

Don’t lose money

Buffett is best known as a value investor – someone who buys companies he believes are undervalued. “If you buy things for far below what they’re worth and you buy a group of them, you basically don’t lose money,” he explained on Adam Smith’s Money World.

But Buffett’s advice also speaks to the need to diversify risk.

“It’s the foundation of how I manage client money,” said certified financial planner and CPA Brian Kearns. “Investing is about growth, but it is also about capital preservation. … Find reasonably priced investments … but don’t risk too much of your net worth on one idea.”

It also means investing across asset classes. “They all have different risk profiles and, when combined, allow you to hold investments for the long term because you will experience less volatility,” Kearns said.

Focus on the essentials

At a 1998 event at Florida University, Buffett said he doesn’t consider macroeconomic predictions when deciding on an investment. “We have never not bought or bought a business because of any macro feeling of any kind because it doesn’t make any difference.”

Certified financial planner Adam Grossman explains that to clients this way: “While the future direction of the economy is important, it isn’t knowable. For that reason, Buffett says, investors should avoid making forecasts and should definitely avoid listening to others’ forecasts.”

Don’t complicate things

Most people are not investment professionals. But they can have a successful, diversified investment strategy that is simple and affordable.

“You don’t need to be an expert in order to achieve satisfactory investment returns. But if you aren’t … follow a course certain to work reasonably well. Keep things simple and don’t swing for the fences,” Buffett advised in his 2013 shareholder letter.

It’s the same advice he said he gave to the trustee of money he was bequeathing to his wife. “(It) could not be more simple: Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund,” Buffett wrote. “I believe the trust’s long-term results from this policy will be superior to those attained by most investors … who employ high-fee managers.”

Don’t save up sex for old age

At a 2008 event with MBA students, Buffett recounted being collected from the airport by a 30-year-old Harvard Business School student who already was a CPA and thought a job in management consulting “would be the perfect culmination of his resume.”

“I said ‘30 and you already got all this stuff and you are still thinking about spending another couple years doing something you don’t really want to do because it will make your resume be even better?’ I said that sounds a little to me like saving up sex for your old age.”

Buffett suggested that, to the extent possible, the students worry less about making a mint and more about doing work “for an organization or a person you really admire.”

Years later on The David Rubenstein Show, he put it this way: “Look for the job that you would want to hold if you didn’t need a job.”

Steer clear of credit card debt

When speaking at a forum with Nebraska students many years ago, Buffett stressed one thing: “If you start revolving debt on credit cards, you’re going to be paying 18 or 20 percent. And you can’t make progress in your financial life going around borrowing money at 18 or 20 percent.”

His advice: “If you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it.”

Choose your life partner well

Buffett has often sung the praises of his late wife, Susan, with whom he had three children; and of his second wife, Astrid.

He regularly advises that one of the keys to a happy life is sharing it with the right person. “What qualities do you look for in a spouse? Humor, looks, character, brains, or just someone with low expectations,” he said at the 2008 event. “If you make that one decision right, I will guarantee you a good result in life.”

Kindness is a key to greatness

Buffett has often suggested that you can always decide to better yourself – a theme he revisited in his Thanksgiving letter this year.

“Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it,” he recommended.

“Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government,” he wrote. “When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.”

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