It’s finals season, and I’ve been neglecting this space as I hunker down with my head buried in the books. But the news of Warren Buffett retiring is too much of an important event to ignore. After all, he remains the main inspiration for this blog. For finance nerds like me, it feels like the end of an era.

Buffett’s run at Berkshire Hathaway is the stuff of legend. Since taking over in 1965, he’s turned $100 into $5.5 million, an almost absurd return that’s made the S&P 500 look like a flat line by comparison. His annualized returns have been about double the market’s for nearly six decades. That’s unheard of.

In his later years, Buffett’s focus shifted. Rather than chasing stocks, he let his “four giants” carry the load: insurance, BNSF Railway, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and Apple. Meanwhile, he quietly built up a war chest of cash, now a record $333 billion, which is larger than almost every company in the S&P 500. His refusal to buy just for the sake of buying is classic Buffett: “We only swing at pitches we like.”

The stock may have dipped 5% since his retirement news broke, but the legacy is untouchable.