In Memoriam: Charlie Munger, renowned investor and longtime confidante of Warren Buffett, passes away at 99, leaving a void at Berkshire Hathaway. Explore Munger's impactful legacy and timeless investment wisdom through a compilation of his top quotes.
Charlie Munger, the trusted confidante of Warren Buffett, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 99. His death leaves a significant void at Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), and investors believe that despite the conglomerate's established succession plan, filling Munger's role will be challenging. Berkshire announced that Munger peacefully passed away at a California hospital, where he resided. No specific cause of death was provided. Munger was on the verge of turning 100 on January 1.
"Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie's inspiration, wisdom and participation," Buffett, Berkshire's 93-year-old chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
The passing of Munger, who served as Berkshire's vice chairman since 1978, signifies the end of an era in both corporate America and the world of investing. Alongside Warren Buffett, Munger earned widespread respect and admiration from investors globally, with many attending Berkshire's annual shareholder weekends in Omaha, Nebraska, to glean insights from the duo's down-to-earth wisdom on investing and life.
While Munger wasn't directly engaged in the day-to-day operations of Berkshire, his death means that Buffett has lost his longstanding confidante and sounding board.
"It's a shock," said Thomas Russo, a partner at Gardner Russo & Quinn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and longtime Berkshire shareholder. "It will leave a big void for investors who have modeled their thoughts, words and activities around Munger and his insights."
In honor of Munger's enduring legacy, we've gathered a selection of our favourite quotes from Charlie:
바카라I think life is a whole series of opportunity costs. You know, you got to marry the best person who is convenient to find who will have you. Investment is much the same sort of a process.바카라 바카라 1997 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting
바카라You don바카라t have a lot of envy, you don바카라t have a lot of resentment, you don바카라t overspend your income, you stay cheerful in spite of your troubles, you deal with reliable people and you do what you바카라re supposed to do. All these simple rules work so well to make your life better.바카라 바카라 2019 CNBC interview
바카라I think that a life properly lived is just learn, learn, learn all the time.바카라 바카라 2017 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting
"Without the method of learning, you're like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. It's just not going to work very well." 바카라 2021 Daily Journal Annual Meeting
바카라In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn바카라t read all the time 바카라 none, zero. You바카라d be amazed at how much Warren reads 바카라 and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I바카라m a book with a couple of legs sticking out.바카라 바카라 Poor Charlie's Almanack
바카라I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than when they got up and boy does that help 바카라 particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.바카라 바카라 2007 USC Law School Commencement Address
바카라Live within your income and save so that you can invest. Learn what you need to learn.바카라 바카라 Damn Right! : Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger
"I think value investors are going to have a harder time now that there바카라s so many of them competing for a diminished bunch of opportunities. So my advice to value investors is to get used to making less." 바카라 2023 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting
"There is so much money now in the hands of so many smart people all trying to outsmart one another. It바카라s a radically different world from the world we started in." 바카라 2023 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting
"I wish everything else in America was working as well as Costco does. Think what a blessing that would be for us all." 바카라 2022 Daily Journal Annual Meeting
"I love everything about Costco. I'm a total addict, and I'm never going to sell a share." 바카라 2023 Daily Journal Annual Meeting
"One of the inane things [that gets] taught in modern university education is that a vast diversification is absolutely mandatory in investing in common stocks. That is an insane idea. It's not that easy to have a vast plethora of good opportunities that are easily identified. And if you've only got three, I'd rather it be my best ideas instead of my worst. And now, some people can't tell their best ideas from their worst, and in the act of deciding an investment already is good, they get to think it's better than it is. I think we make fewer mistakes like that than other people. And that is a blessing to us." 바카라 2023 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting
바카라If you바카라re going to invest in stocks for the long term or real estate, of course there are going to be periods when there바카라s a lot of agony and other periods when there바카라s a boom. And I think you just have to learn to live through them. As Kipling said, treat those two imposters just the same. You have to deal with daylight and night. Does that bother you very much? No. Sometimes it바카라s night and sometimes it바카라s daylight. Sometimes it바카라s a boom. Sometimes it바카라s a bust. I believe in doing as well as you can and keep going as long as they let you.바카라 바카라 2021 Daily Journal Annual Meeting
바카라Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean (merely average performance).바카라 바카라 Poor Charlie's Almanack
바카라Understanding both the power of compound interest and the difficulty of getting it is the heart and soul of understanding a lot of things.바카라 바카라 Poor Charlie's Almanack
"I am personally skeptical of some of the hype that has gone into artificial intelligence. I think old-fashioned intelligence works pretty well." 바카라 2023 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting
On Big Tech regulation: "I would not break them up. They've got their little niches. Microsoft maybe has a nice niche, but it doesn't own the Earth. I like these high-tech companies. I think capitalism should expect to get a few big winners by accident." 바카라 2023 "Acquired" podcast
바카라We now have computer algorithms trading with other computers. And people buying stocks who know nothing, being advised by people who know even less. It바카라s an incredibly crazy situation ... All this activity makes it easier for us.바카라 바카라 2022 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting
"We are going to miss these newspapers terribly. Each newspaper... was an independent bastion of power. The economic position was so impregnable 바카라 and the ethos of a journalist was to try to tell it like it is. And they really were a branch of the government 바카라 they called them the Fourth Estate, meaning the fourth branch of the government. It arose by accident. Now about 95% of [newspapers are] going to disappear and go away forever. And what do we get in substitute? We get a bunch of people who attract an audience because they바카라re crazy ....
바카라What makes capitalism work is the fact that if you바카라re an able-bodied young person, if you refuse to work, you suffer a fair amount of agony, and because of that agony, the whole economic system works ... You take away that hardship and say, 바카라You can stay home and get more than if you come in to work,바카라 that바카라s quite disruptive to an economic system like ours. The next time we do this, I don바카라t think we ought to be so liberal.바카라 바카라 2022 Daily Journal Annual Meeting
바카라Capitalism without failure is like religion without hell.바카라 바카라 Tao of Charlie Munger
From Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett in the latest Berkshire Hathaway letter to shareholders, published in February:
"Charlie and I think pretty much alike. But what it takes me a page to explain, he sums up in a sentence. His version, moreover, is always more clearly reasoned and also more artfully 바카라 some might add bluntly 바카라 stated.
Here are a few of his thoughts, many lifted from a very recent podcast:
바카라 The world is full of foolish gamblers, and they will not do as well as the patient investor.
바카라 If you don바카라t see the world the way it is, it바카라s like judging something through a distorted lens.
바카라 All I want to know is where I바카라m going to die, so I바카라ll never go there. And a related thought: Early on, write your desired obituary 바카라 and then behave accordingly.
바카라 Patience can be learned. Having a long attention span and the ability to concentrate on one thing for a long time is a huge advantage.
바카라 You can learn a lot from dead people. Read of the deceased you admire and detest.
바카라 Warren and I don바카라t focus on the froth of the market. We seek out good long-term investments and stubbornly hold them for a long time.
바카라 You have to keep learning if you want to become a great investor. When the world changes, you must change.
바카라 Finally, I will add two short sentences by Charlie that have been his decision-clinchers for decades: 'Warren, think more about it. You바카라re smart and I바카라m right.'
And so it goes. I never have a phone call with Charlie without learning something. And, while he makes me think, he also makes me laugh."