RIP Charlie. Absolute legend. He is gone but his knowledge will forever be passed on…
Sad news yesterday that Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s business partner, has died. He was 99. He would have been 100 on 1 January 2024
RIP Charlie Munger, the greatest – and most quotable – investor of all time. “The first rule of a happy life is low expectations. That’s one you can easily arrange. And if you have unrealistic expectations, you’re going to be miserable all your life.”
The greatest lesson I took from Munger is not about investing but about resilience. He lost his 9-year old son to cancer. He lost his eye. He lost most of his money in a divorce. His fund had 50%+ drawdowns, and yet every day, he got up over and over again to keep compounding. The ability to go through shit and get up and keep moving forward is the greatest ability you can have, particularly if you can do it cheerfully. Being smart, talented, well connected helps. But it all means nothing if you don’t get back up after life knocks you down.
- “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up.”
- “The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.”
- “It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”
- “In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time – none, zero.”
- “I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don’t know the other side’s argument better than they do.”
- “The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting.”
- “You don’t have to be brilliant, only a little bit wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long, long time.”
- “The first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang ’em back.”
- “There are worse situations than drowning in cash and sitting, sitting, sitting.”
- “The game of life is the game of everlasting learning. At least it is if you want to win.”
- Honorable mention is “Bitcoin is probably rat poison squared.”
“Every time you see the word EBITDA, you should substitute the word ‘bullshit earnings.”
There’s no way that you can live an adequate life without many mistakes. In fact, one trick in life is to get so you can handle mistakes. Failure to handle psychological denial is a common way for people to go broke.
These quotes reflect Munger’s emphasis on continuous learning, rational decision-making, and a long-term perspective in investing and life.
R.I.P. Charlie.
