Warren Buffett could afford to live in a palace. Several, actually. But the billionaire who built Berkshire Hathaway and sits on a net worth of roughly $160 billion in 2025 still lives in the same Omaha home he bought in 1958 for just $31,500.
Yes, really.
Located on a quiet street in Nebraska, Buffett's five-bedroom home is now worth around $1.3 million, according to Zillow. It's modest by billionaire standards, with no marble fountains, private helipads, or gold-plated garage doors. But Buffett speaking about his home in a 2017 interview with CNBC, he said "I wouldn't trade it for anything."
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The Oracle of Omaha, known for his no-frills frugality, still drives himself to McDonald's, shops at discount stores, and once used a flip phone well into the 21st century.
And yet, he's five times richer than the sultan of Brunei, whose fortune sits at a relatively humble $30 billion — if you can call that humble.
But while Buffett invests in simplicity, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has gone full throttle on opulence.
His main residence, Istana Nurul Iman, is the largest residential palace in the world, holding the Guinness World Record with a jaw-dropping 2.15 million square feet of gold-covered grandeur. Completed in 1984 and now estimated to be worth $3 billion, the palace boasts 1,788 rooms, 257 bathrooms, a banquet hall that can seat 5,000 guests, and a mosque for 1,500 worshippers.
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And that's just the beginning.
The sultan's estate features 22-carat gold domes, air-conditioned stables for 200 polo ponies, a private zoo with Bengal tigers, and a garage housing 110 luxury cars. That's not even counting his personal collection of over 7,000 vehicles, including hundreds of Ferraris, Bentleys, and gold-plated Rolls-Royces. In 2010, Time magazine reported he was spending $20,000 flying his barber in from London.
The contrast is almost cartoonish. One man lives in a sprawling kingdom with air-conditioned horse stables and 44 types of imported marble. The other lives in Omaha and still thinks a good deal is more satisfying than a good bottle of wine.
While Sultan Bolkiah's lifestyle is a symbol of Brunei's royal heritage and oil-fueled riches, Buffett's philosophy has always been about value — not vanity. Despite their differing tastes, both men are icons of wealth. But only one of them is likely to leave the world with most of his money donated to charity.
In the battle of billions, Buffett proves you don't need a palace to be king.
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