Warren Buffett: The financial panic is over (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett, perhaps the world's most admired investor, said on Thursday the financial panic that gripped the globe last year is a thing of the past, even as the U.S.

Warren Buffett, perhaps the world's most admired investor, said Thursday the financial panic that gripped the globe last year is a thing of the past, even as the U.S. economy's struggles persist.

The Nasdaq is back at all-time highs.  After closing at 5,048 back in March 2000, the Nasdaq took more than 15 years to close above that level, closing at 5,056 on Thursday to make a new record closing high. During the day on Thursday, the S&P 500 also breached an intraday record high. 

Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesWarren Buffett began his investing career early, buying his first stock before he was a teenager. By the time he was in his 20s, he founded Buffett Associates and was on his way to becoming a billionaire.

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When Warren Buffett was 25 years old, he had accumulated about $2 million in today's dollars. He had achieved his childhood goal of assured financial independence. Everything after that, he explained in a talk at Ivey Business School in late February, "has been surplus."

2014 has been unnerving.