Nvidia’s Board May Oust Jensen Huang. Warren Buffett’s 90/10 Rule for a 66-Year-Old With $750,000 in an IRA, $2,900 a Month in Social Security and 500 Nvidia Shares
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Nvidia’s board is preparing to oust Jensen Huang, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday evening, hours after the New York Times reported that the chief executive had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, a vice president who reports to him. That came on top of the investigation the board opened last week into his ties to a woman U.S. intelligence has linked to chip shipments to China. Nvidia closed Wednesday at $173.73, 27% below its October 6 record of $239.24, and traded near $164 before Thursday’s open. At that price Nvidia has lost about $1.8 trillion of market value since the record. As of Thursday morning the board had announced no decision.
The report reads as a warning: the biggest risk in the second-largest stock in the S&P 500 is now one person. Nvidia still has the same chips, the same customers and the same order book it had on Tuesday, and the board may yet keep him.
If you are retired and hold an S&P 500 fund, a Nasdaq-100 fund and a few hundred Nvidia shares you bought on the way up, the question is what a week like this does to your money, and what the simplest famous rule in investing would have done instead. Warren Buffett wrote that rule into his will. In his 2013 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders he told the trustee for his wife’s money: “Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund.” He expected that mix to beat most investors who pay high-fee managers. Here is what it means for a 66-year-old with $750,000 in an IRA and $2,900 a month in Social Security.
Your three Nvidia bets
Say you are that 66-year-old: a retired engineer, single, a scenario built to show the math. At Wednesday’s close your IRA held $750,000: $450,000 in an S&P 500 index fund, $200,000 in a Nasdaq-100 index fund, 500 Nvidia shares worth $86,865, and $13,135 in a money market fund. You bought the Nvidia shares in 2024 and 2025 at an average of $120, so even after the slide they show a $26,865 gain on a $60,000 cost. You draw 4% of the account a year, $30,000, on top of $34,800 a year from Social Security.
You think of Nvidia as 12% of your account. It is more. State Street’s S&P 500 fund had Nvidia at 6.3% of the index on November 10, so $28,350 of your $450,000 S&P 500 fund is Nvidia. Your Nasdaq-100 fund had it at 7.1% on November 9, another $14,200. Add the 500 shares and you own about $129,000 of Nvidia, 17% of the IRA. One dollar in six of your retirement money rides on the same board meeting. Those weights are this week’s; at the October record both funds held more.
What the slide cost, and what 90/10 would have cost
At the October 6 record, with Nvidia at $239.24, the S&P 500 fund 2.5% higher and the Nasdaq-100 fund 9.1% higher than on Wednesday, the same holdings were worth $814,244. By Wednesday’s close they were $750,000, a loss of $64,244, or 7.9%, in five weeks. The 500 Nvidia shares account for $32,755 of it, half the loss on 12% of the money. Nvidia’s share of the two funds’ falls adds an estimated $12,238 at this week’s weights. So about $45,000 of the $64,000 loss traces to one company. At $164 the account is $741,633 and the loss since the record is $72,610.
Now run the same $814,244 through Buffett’s split on October 6: $732,819 in the S&P 500 fund and $81,424 in three-month Treasury bills yielding 4.24%. The S&P 500 fell 2.5% over those five weeks, including a 4.4% drop on November 5, and the bills earned interest for 36 days. The 90/10 account would be worth $796,449 on Wednesday, a loss of $17,794, or 2.2%. That is $46,449 less damage than your three-bet version, on the same money over the same five weeks. At $164 for Nvidia the gap is $52,464. The 90/10 account still holds Nvidia, at 6.3% of its stock sleeve, because the index decides that, and it still lost 4% on November 5. The rule dodged the concentration, and only that.
What 90/10 does to your monthly check
Apply the rule to the $750,000 you have today: $675,000 in the S&P 500 fund and $75,000 in Treasury bills, which is what “short-term government bonds” means in practice. The bills cover 30 months of your $2,500 monthly withdrawal before you have to sell a share of anything, and they pay about $3,180 in the first year at 4.24%. Your Nvidia exposure drops to $42,525, 5.7% of the account, all of it through the index: a cut of $86,890 in what one board meeting can touch.
Your income and your 2026 tax bill, single, age 66:
Cash coming in. $2,500 a month from the IRA plus $2,900 from Social Security is $5,400 a month, $64,800 a year.
How much Social Security is taxed. Provisional income is the $30,000 withdrawal plus half of the $34,800 benefit, $47,400. That is above the $34,000 line, so the worksheet puts $15,890 of the benefit on your return, 46% of it.
Adjusted gross income. $30,000 plus $15,890 is $45,890.
Deductions. The $16,100 standard deduction, the $2,050 addition for being 65 or older, and the $6,000 senior deduction that runs through 2028. You are under the $75,000 line where that last one starts to shrink, so you get all of it: $24,150.
Taxable income and tax. $45,890 less $24,150 is $21,740. The first $12,400 is taxed at 10% and the rest at 12%: $2,361 for the year, about $197 a month. You keep $5,203 a month after federal tax, and the tax is 3.6% of the cash you receive. State tax depends on where you live.
The decision the board is forcing on you
Three things decide what you do with the 500 shares.
First, inside an IRA the sale is free of tax. Selling at Wednesday’s price books a $26,865 gain and sends the IRS $0 today, because the tax comes later, on withdrawals, whatever you hold. The same gain in a taxable account would cost $4,030 at the 15% long-term rate. The usual reason to sit on a winner does not exist here.
Second, Buffett’s rule has no room for a Nasdaq-100 fund. It holds Nvidia at 7.1% and the other chipmakers in size too, which is why it sits 10% under its record while the S&P 500 is 2.5% under. Owning both, plus the shares, is the same bet three times.
Third, the timing belongs to the board. It was reported to be meeting as soon as Wednesday, and Nvidia reports earnings on Tuesday. Nobody knows which way the vote goes or what the stock does after it. The $75,000 in bills means your next 30 months of withdrawals depend on neither.
Where the rule is weak: 90% in stocks is a lot for a 66-year-old with no pension, and Buffett wrote it for a trust that will never need to sell in a crash. If you want three years of withdrawals in bills, hold 12%; the arithmetic above barely moves. Keep the costs minimal, as the letter says, and keep the stock sleeve in the whole market.
The bottom line
A 66-year-old with $750,000 in an IRA across an S&P 500 fund, a Nasdaq-100 fund and 500 Nvidia shares owns about $129,000 of Nvidia, 17% of the money. Since the October record the account has lost $64,244, about $45,000 of it Nvidia. Buffett’s 90/10 split would have lost $17,794 on the same money. Applied today it leaves $75,000 in Treasury bills, 30 months of withdrawals, and cuts the Nvidia stake to $42,525. Income is $5,400 a month, federal tax about $197 a month, and selling the shares inside the IRA costs nothing in tax. The board can do what it likes with Jensen Huang. On that plan it cannot touch your next two and a half years of checks.
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I've been writing about stocks and personal finance for 20+ years. I believe all great companies are tech companies in the long run, and I invest accordingly.
