‘High on Coke’: Elon Musk stunned by Berkshire’s dividend payout. Learn how to build your own passive income stream now

Jing Pan

Sun, September 20, 2026 at 2:35 PM GMT+3 9 min read

Photo by Fabrice Coffrini / AFP via Getty Images

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk is no stranger to eye-popping sums of money. After all, he currently holds the title of the world's wealthiest person, with his wealth fluctuating around $1 trillion since SpaceX's June IPO (1).

But even for Musk, some financial figures are enough to raise an eyebrow.

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For instance, Berkshire Hathaway's 2022 annual report revealed that the investment empire earned $704 million in dividends that year from its Coca-Cola holdings (2). Upon hearing the news, Musk couldn't resist commenting on X, "Berkshire Hathaway [is] high on Coke (3)."

That figure was calculated based on Berkshire's roughly 400 million shares in Coca-Cola and the 44 cents per share that Coca-Cola paid out in quarterly dividends in 2022 (4).

Fast-forward to 2026, and that dividend payout has climbed even higher. According to Berkshire's latest 13F filing for the second quarter of 2026, the company still holds 400 million shares in Coca-Cola (5). With Coca-Cola having raised its 2026 dividend to $2.12 per share (6), Berkshire is estimated to collect an impressive $848 million in dividend income for the year.

As the former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett has long expressed his love for Coca-Cola.

On a 2019 Squawk Box episode, Buffett shared with CNBC, "I drink probably five 12-ounce Cokes a day, and that's about 700 calories, and I've been doing it more or less my whole life. I can't imagine anybody that feels better than I do (7)."

Beyond his appreciation for the taste, Buffett's Coca-Cola investment became a remarkable source of passive income for the company — and you can learn from his strategy when building your own portfolio.

Here are three takeaways to consider on your path to passive income.

Dividend stocks

Investing in the stock market has never been more accessible, allowing everyday investors to earn passive income through dividend-paying stocks — just like Buffett. Companies that consistently pay dividends enable investors to earn income without having to sell their shares.

High-quality companies like Coca-Cola can even increase these dividends over time, amplifying the income stream.

Buffett highlighted the power of this approach in his 2022 letter to shareholders, where he wrote, "The cash dividend we received from Coke in 1994 was $75 million. By 2022, the dividend had increased to $704 million. Growth occurred every year, just as certain as birthdays (2)."

From there, Buffett made it seem easy: "All Charlie [Munger] and I were required to do was cash Coke's quarterly dividend checks. We expect that those checks are highly likely to grow."

Indeed, Coca-Cola has raised its dividend every year for the past 64 years, demonstrating a strong commitment to shareholders (8).

However, keep in mind that past performance isn't a guarantee of future results. When buying a dividend stock, it would be prudent not to focus solely on its payout or yield. Taking the time to understand the company's business fundamentals is still important, and if you're following Buffett's lead, you'll probably be looking for companies with durable competitive advantages.

But if you're not a lifelong investor like Buffett, it can be hard to know where to invest your money. Before you select stocks, it's important to understand the market.

Get tips from experts

Moby offers expert research and recommendations to help you identify strong, long-term investments backed by advice from former hedge fund analysts.

In four years, and across almost 400 stock picks, their recommendations have beaten the S&P 500 by almost 12% on average. They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Moby's team spends hundreds of hours sifting through financial news and data to provide you with stock and crypto reports delivered straight to you. Their research keeps you up-to-the-minute on market shifts and can help you reduce the guesswork behind choosing stocks and ETFs.

What's more, their reports are easy to understand for beginners, so you can become a smarter investor in just five minutes.

Putting the advice into action

Once you've got expert advice to back you up, you might want to shop around for the right investing platform to put it into action.

One of the easiest ways to invest is to open a self-directed trade account with SoFi. SoFi's easy-to-use DIY investing platform lets you buy stocks, ETFs and more with no commission fees and no account minimums.

SoFi is designed for both beginners and seasoned investors, with real-time investing news, curated content and the data you need to make smart decisions about the stocks that matter most to you.

Plus, for a limited time you can get up to $1,000 in stock when you fund a new account.

Index funds

Buffett's Coca-Cola investment highlights that building wealth doesn't always come from making the right call at exactly the right moment. Sometimes, it comes down to owning good assets, holding them for a long time and allowing the returns to pile up.

For everyday investors, Buffett has often pointed to an even simpler way to put that long-term philosophy into practice — index funds. In fact, he bet in 2007 that the S&P 500 stock index would outperform hedge funds over a decade — and won in 2017 (9).

That's perhaps why Buffett has said that regularly investing in a low-cost S&P 500 index fund "makes the most sense practically all of the time (10)."

Even smaller contributions can add up. For instance, investing just $20 each week for 30 years can help you save over $179,000, assuming it compounds at 10% annually (11). For context, the S&P 500 has averaged annual returns of roughly 10% since 1957 (12).

Platforms like Acorns allow users to invest spare change from everyday purchases automatically, helping them steadily build wealth without having to think about every market move.

All you have to do is link your cards, and Acorns will round up each purchase to the nearest dollar, investing the difference — your spare change — into a diversified portfolio of ETFs managed by experts at leading investment firms like Vanguard and BlackRock.

With Acorns, you can invest in a S&P 500 ETF with as little as $5 — and, if you sign up today and set up a recurring investment, Acorns will add a $20 bonus to help you begin your investment journey.

Real estate

Another way to earn passive income is through real estate, since well-chosen properties can provide investors with a steady stream of cash. It's also considered a reliable hedge against inflation, with property values and costs often rising alongside the cost of living.

But these days, you don't need to be a landlord to start investing in real estate. There are plenty of ways to tap into passive income — similar to dividends — but with the inflation-hedging power of property.

For instance, the Arrived Real Estate Income Fund is designed to generate regular dividend income while focusing on capital preservation.

The fund already manages more than $83 million in assets and has historically delivered an annualized cash yield of more than 8.4%. To put this in perspective, even the "aristocrats" of dividend stocks can struggle to reach a high-water mark of 5.51%, according to Morningstar (13).

How it works is simple: Arrived offers short-term loans for professional real estate projects seeking to renovate, refinance or fund new construction. Each loan goes through a disciplined selection process and is backed by residential real estate, adding another layer of underwriting rigor and downside protection.

Even better, Arrived Real Estate Income Fund investors also have quarterly liquidity options beginning six months after their initial investment, offering more flexibility than many traditional income-focused investments.

Unsure? Get expert advice

If managing your investments yourself gives you an uncomfortable head rush, you might want to consider reaching out to a team of experts.

Especially for investors with portfolios of $250,000 or more, financial decisions can become increasingly nuanced. Managing withdrawals, minimizing tax exposure and ensuring long-term sustainability often requires greater coordination and strategic planning.

In these cases, working with a financial advisor can help reduce costly mistakes.

If you have a portfolio of $250,000 or more, platforms like WiserAdvisor can connect you with vetted professionals who specialize in this kind of planning.

Simply answer a few questions about your savings, retirement timeline and overall investment portfolio. From there, WiserAdvisor reviews its network to match you — for free — with up to three vetted, reputable advisors aligned with your specific needs.

You can then schedule no-obligation consultations with your matches to determine who is the best fit for your long-term goals.

WiserAdvisor is a matching service and does not provide financial advice directly. All matched advisors are third parties, and specific financial results are not guaranteed.

- With files from Aditi Ganguly.

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