Warren Buffett's Son Pays Rent to His Billionaire Dad to Farm 1,906 Acres —The More He Weighs, the More He Pays: 'Buffett Version of Weight Watchers'

You'd think being the son of one of the richest men on Earth comes with certain perks—like free rent. Not if your dad is Warren Buffett.

Howard Buffett, the middle child of Berkshire Hathaway's legendary CEO, runs a commercial farming operation spread across 1,906 acres in Nebraska and Illinois. He's worth around $400 million, according to LuxuryLaunches, pals around with royalty, and has sat on some of the biggest corporate boards in America. But when it comes to farming, he's just another guy who pays rent—literally—to his dad. And yes, it's based on how much he weighs.

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Back in a 1990 Fortune article, Howard explained one of the more bizarre Buffett family traditions while discussing a 406-acre farm: "Dad owns the land. I pay him a percentage of the gross income as rent. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but the rent is based upon my weight. I'm 5 foot 8, and I weigh around 200 pounds. He thinks I weigh too much — that I should weigh 182.5. If I'm over, my rent is 26% of gross income. If I'm under, 22%. It's the Buffett family version of going to Weight Watchers."

He added, "I don't mind it, really. He's showing he's concerned about my health. But what I do mind is that, even at 22%, he's getting a bigger payback than almost anybody around. Somehow he always manages to control the circumstances."

And that's just one slice of the Buffett land pie.

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In a 2012 CBS News report, Howard was said to be working 1,500 acres solo in Pana, Illinois. The commercial acreage under those two operation totaled 1,906 acres—a mix of land he owns and land he rents from his father.

According to the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, he oversees multiple foundation-operated farms in Arizona, Illinois, and Nebraska. Add in two ranches in Arizona, a ranch and farm in New Mexico, and a farm in Texas, and you've got a man who spends more time in fields than boardrooms.

His mission, though, goes way beyond yield. Howard spends about $50 million a year through his foundation, targeting food insecurity and poverty—particularly in Africa. What started as a passion for conservation evolved into a full-blown fight against hunger, after he realized starving communities can't protect ecosystems if they're just trying to survive. "Many were starving," he wrote in his book "40 Chances.” "I realized I had to shift my efforts to a more fundamental issue."

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Howard didn't exactly cruise into adulthood on a yacht. He dropped out of college, dug basements, drove bulldozers, and worked at See's Candies. A 2011 Business Insider article reported he even sold off 600 shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock to launch his first business—a construction company. Eventually, he joined Coca-Cola's board and was tapped to become Berkshire Hathaway's future nonexecutive chairman—not for stock picking, but to safeguard the company's values.

Warren Buffett has always said his kids would earn their own way, and this weight-based rent scheme might be the most Buffett way of proving it. While other billionaire heirs are out flipping NFTs or lounging on superyachts, Howard's in the fields—keeping an eye on crop yields and the bathroom scale. And while it's been nearly a decade since he last mentioned the rent in The Atlantic back in 2016, if the deal's still in place, he might just be the only farmer in America with a lease agreement that doubles as a weight-loss incentive.

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