Swoosie Stays Level-Headed

Swoosie Kurtz is a celebrated actress who's successfully diversified from the stage into film and TV.

Performances in Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July and John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves brought her Tony Awards; her role in Wendy WassersteinÂ's Uncommon Women won an Obie.

Twice nominated for Emmys for her Sisters role on NBC, Kurtz appears in CBSÂ's Love & Money this fall.

Her unusual first name? A variant on The Swoose, the B-17 flown by her pilot father in World War II.

I spent a lot of time in Omaha, Nebraska, because my grandparents lived there. And my grandmother ran a chain of hotels. I learned from her. She was a great businesswoman.

My grandfather owned this livestock commission company. On Saturdays he'd have me help with the paperwork and go through the vault.

My dad was in the Air Force. And he was away a lot. My mom really handled most of the finances in our family. She took care of keeping up the insurance and the registration on the car.

So I learned a lot from her.

I'm very fortunate to be an in-law of Warren Buffet. And you couldn't have a better mentor....(Laughs) Needless to say, I only drink Coca-Cola.

Do you personally ever seek him out for advice?

When I was first starting out, and I finally had some money to invest, he advised me. I was able to get into Berkshire Hathaway sort of early on - which has been a wonderful thing.

A few years ago, my manager got me this incredible job. And I couldn't think what to give him for a present, so I gave him one of my shares of Berkshire Hathaway, which he's never stopped talking about. He calls it the gift that keeps on giving. (Laughs) Because it just keeps going up and up.

Warren is very steady. He always says he's into things for the long term. The ups and downs of the market don't affect him that much. But he just so brilliantly understands the place and use of money.

I can't say I consult with him on a daily basis. But I certainly got a great foundation from him.

So, from whom have you learned important lessons about money?

I had friends and acquaintances who suddenly started making television or movie money. They have all of their bills sent directly to the business manager. They get a monthly accounting or something but they don't really look. And the guy takes off with $20,000, or $200,000.

I retain a CPA, who is beyond brilliant. He's beyond a CPA; he does so many things for me. And a broker.

I'm very hands-on. I won't say that I see every bill that comes in, but the person who pays my checks alerts me if there's something odd. Along the way, I've seen a couple of times when something has slipped through the cracks.

In show business making money is weird, because it happens really quickly. I had a lot of years of my tiny apartment in New York - weekly trips to the unemployment ofice and working in the theater, where you make very, very modest...barely a living. To suddenly do a television show or a movie - it becomes this sort of Monopoly money.

Most people, my CPA said, who suddenly make this serious money, they run out and they buy a Ferrari or a Porsche, a 14-room house in Beverly Hills. I've never been one to do that. I love good clothes and I love to eat in restaurants. But I'm not what the normal person would consider extravagant.

I don't ever want to be in a position of having to do a job I don't want to do, just for the money. And if I have too much overhead, somebodyÂ'll offer me some schlocky TV movie for a lot of money, and I'm going to have to do it.

With me, the work comes first. And that's always seemed to lead me down the right path. Then I ask, "How much are they going to pay me?"

What's changed in your life about the role money plays?

It's streamlined things for me. It's made me not have to wait in as many lines. And I get things faster and easier, which saves time, when time is money.

I still think of it as a means to an end. How many times do we have to see examples of how money doesn't make people happy?

What's the most important thing you do with your money, aside from meeting basic needs?

I have a great assistant, Perry. And he has changed my life. And he's taken so many burdens off me. I have the energy and the health and the alertness to do the things that I have to do and enrich my work.

That I can help other people out, in as many ways as possible, is so great.

Some people, when they pursue investing, they're like, "I've got to time the market, I've got to be No. 1."

I don't think I'm obsessed at all. I'll take great risks in my work, in front of a camera, or on stage. But I don't want to take great risks with money.

I don't feel that I know enough about it, that I'm a big enough wheeler-dealer. And I just want to hang on to what I've got and increase it.

I didn't grow up with money. My parents never had their own home until they retired.

What this business has done for me I'm just very grateful for. I never set out to do this. And I never expected to be making the kind of money that I have at certain times in my life made. And it's not like a dream come true, because I never dreamed it.

I feel that I was blessed with a talent. And then this was like a great side bonus: to be paid really well.

What's been your biggest money mistake?

A white coat that I bought in the middle of the winter in New York with this horrible sheepskin scratchy stuff in the inside. I thought it was really glamorous. (Laughs)

It was so stiff, I couldn't sit down on the bus. I had to stand. I'd have the Times clutched to my chest. And when I got home, the headlines in the front of The New York Times were across my white suede coat. (Laughs)

It was not a major financial disaster, but I was on unemployment then.

It's like anything that has wonderful potential, like television, or electricity. It could be used so harmfully. And it can be used to such brilliant effect.

What's the best decision that you've ever made when it comes to money?

I always win when I remember that you get what you pay for.

People go, "Oh my God, well if I buy that there, it's going to cost me X amount of dollars."

They're still going to have to spend X amount of money if they get it at the cheaper place. So for this much more, I can get the best. Is it worth it, and can I afford it?

If you could do your business and money decisions over, is there anything that you would change?

I would have invested in computers. (Laughs) Years ago.

Marjorie Backman is a copy editor for CBS.com