Warren Buffett's Son Cashed In $90K Instead of Waiting on $500 Million — Now He's Using 'Buffett Bucks' to Build His Own Dream Town in New York

Most 19-year-olds don't walk away from a future fortune. But Peter Buffett isn't most people. The youngest son of Warren Buffett took his $90,000 inheritance in the 1970s, cashed out his Berkshire Hathaway stock, and used it to buy himself time—not more stock. 

That same stock would be worth over $500 million today, but Peter says he has "no regrets" according to his memoir “Life Is What You Make It.” And considering what he's doing now, it's clear he never looked back.

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Instead of climbing the corporate ladder, Peter dropped out of Stanford, moved to San Francisco, and chased his dream of becoming a composer. After a chance connection with MTV led to jingle work, Peter built a successful career in music, producing albums, scoring films, and building a name of his own. Today, he's spent decades doing things his way—and now he's using that same energy to reshape a town in upstate New York.

Since 2010, Peter and his wife Jennifer have lived in Kingston, New York, where they co-run the NoVo Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the world. Backed by Warren Buffett's annual donations of Berkshire stock to his children's foundations, NoVo has quietly poured at least $160 million—and possibly over $250 million—into the region. That's more than Kingston's entire municipal budget.

The couple's vision is bold. Through NoVo, they've launched initiatives that touch every part of life: a local radio station, a health care network, a food co-op, and even their own currency—jokingly dubbed "Buffett Bucks"—meant to support local commerce and keep dollars circulating inside the community.

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They've also purchased key properties, like the 1,500-acre Gill Farm, rebranded as the Hudson Valley Farm Hub, which now trains the next generation of organic farmers. Then there's Tech City, a former IBM site being revived as a cultural and business hub with skateparks, food labs, and artist spaces—part of a proposal called BLUEprint, which is widely expected to win the redevelopment bid. And yes, they kicked it off with a robot-themed dance party.

But not everyone's cheering.

According to reporting from Tablet Magazine back in 2021, residents and past NoVo collaborators have expressed concern over the outsized influence of one private foundation. Some say NoVo's grantmaking feels like a silent contract: take the funds, don't question the source. "They've invested more money than the actual budget of the city of Kingston," one resident told Tablet, "without there being any sort of democratic process."

Still, Peter insists this isn't about control—it's about empowerment. He's said the goal isn't to dictate how the community should evolve, but to support ideas that might not happen otherwise.

Whether it's visionary or problematic—or both—there's no denying the scale. What started as a $90,000 inheritance has turned into a multimillion-dollar reinvention of an entire town. And in classic Buffett fashion, it's all been done with long-term thinking and a focus on value.

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