On a Successful Lifetime of Investing
Warren Buffett's right-hand man passed away, but not without giving as much of his wisdom as possible. What can we learn from Charlie Munger?
Dear Friends,
Let’s get a few things out of the way.
Wealth is a tool that should be used to make the world better, to do the work of improving our society that we are called to either by religion or just a general feeling for other members of our species.
The more good work you want to do, the more access to wealth it will take to take to accomplish the work.
One of the most empowering things you can do as a person in the United States is to tap in to how much the existing system subsidizes ownership and investment.
Charlie Munger, whose collected wisdom has been collected in book form in a new edition of “Poor Charlie’s Almanack,” helped Warren Buffett build Berkshire Hathaway to the most successful conglomerate in history, did an excellent interview with John Collison right before his death.
Munger’s clear and incisive wisdom about engaging in good business, making a choice to avoid rent seeking, and basic insights about focusing and limiting for impact is a master class for people who want to be better investors.
There was a time shortly after I graduated from college when I was part of a monthly investment club. An investment club is a group of fewer than 99 people who actively manage their pooled funds to make money.
Being part of an investment club forced me to invest $25 per month in the equity markets, required me to research and explain why an investment was good to other skeptical investors, and created an opportunity to share ideas with my friends that could benefit all of us.
With the improvement in networking technology, it seems like investment clubs could have a resurgence, perhaps coming together with asynchronous voting on investment decisions instead of waiting for a monthly meeting, as a kind of ad hoc small firm to pool ideas and capital between individuals.
Shared decisions are often better decisions and people investing together are less likely to make mistakes than people investing alone.
Would you be part of an investment club?
Yours truly,
Nick