‘Taking it easy with Charlie Munger

Timeless advice for investors we don’t have to prove anything by trying difficult things. Stick to your circle of competence.

- DHIRENDRA KUMAR

I've been a huge Charlie Munger fan ever since I bought the book 'Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger in 2005 when it was first published. It's the most expensive book I have bought in my life but worth every bit of its *7,000 price tag. Note that I used the word 'fan'. Am I also a Warren Buffett fan? Well, no, not really. I deeply admire Warren Buffett. I think he is worth emulating, and I recognise that he is a central figure in the world of business and investing. However, I would not use the word 'fan' for my attitude towards him. Charlie Munger, on the other hand, is a character, in the true sense of the word. At the age of 98, he is also witty, lively, and irrepressible.

During the pandemic, Charlie Munger lived up to his reputation. At that time, when most of us were obsessed with our mortality and our fears of illness, an old man (then 96) was cheerfully talking about life. You can watch the whole thing at https://bit.ly/cmunger2. Interestingly, Munger and Buffett were connected when they were practically kids. Charlie actually started working as a teenager at Buffett & Son, a grocery store owned by Warren Buffett's grandfather in the city of Omaha, where he and Buffett both grew up and where their business is still headquartered. He eventually wound up studying meteorology at Caltech and then law at Harvard, all at government expense because he had joined the army during World War II. By the time he was in his early 20s, he had started investing.

As befitting a 96-year-old who has had fabulous success as an investor, most of the things that he says are the wisdom that can be gathered over decades. As investors, many of us keep looking for things that will not change. We identify stocks that have done well for us and developed a deep comfort with them, in the sense that we feel that their success is an unchanging fact that will be with us throughout our investing lives.