investing is value investing — acquiring more than you are paying for.
You must value the business in order to value you the stock.
No wise pilot, no matter how great his talent and experience, fails to use his checklist.
There are worse situations than drowning in cash and sitting, sitting, sitting. I remember when I wasn’t awash in cash — and I don’t want to go back.
…it never ceases to amaze me to see how much territory can be grasped if one merely masters and consistently uses all the obvious and easily learned principles.
Once you get into debt, it’s hell to get out. Don’t let credit card debt carry over. You can’t get ahead paying eighteen percent.
If you always tell people why, they’ll understand it better, they’ll consider it more important, and they’ll be more likely to comply.
Spend less than you make; always be saving something. Put it into a tax-deferred account. Over time, it will begin to amount to something. This is such a no-brainer.
You don’t have to be brilliant, only a little bit wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long, long time.
Three rules for a career: 1) Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy yourself; 2) Don’t work for anyone you don’t respect and admire; and 3) Work only with people you enjoy.
I won’t bet $100 against house odds between now and the grave.
I try to get rid of people who always confidently answer questions about which they don’t have any real knowledge.
…being an effective teacher is a high calling.
I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody’s that smart…
Without numerical fluency, in the part of life most of us inhibit, you are like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.
In my life there are not that many questions I can’t properly deal with using my $40 adding machine and dog-eared compound interest table.
Munger on investing and trading frequencies:
“And the one thing that all those winning betters in the whole history of people who’ve beaten the pari-mutuel system have is quite simple. They bet very seldom. It’s not given to human beings to have such talent that they can just know everything about everything all the time. But it is given to human beings who work hard at it who look and sift the world for a mispriced be that they can occasionally find one.
And the wise ones bet heavily when the world offers them that opportunity. They bet big when they have the odds. And the rest of the time, they don’t. It’s just that simple. That is a very simple concept. And to me it’s obviously right based on experience not only from the pari-mutuel system, but everywhere else.
So you can get very remarkable investment results if you think more like a winning pari-mutuel player. Just think of it as a heavy odds against game full of craziness with an occasional mispriced something or other. And you’re probably not going to be smart enough to find thousands in a lifetime. And when you get a few, you really load up. It’s just that simple.
WhenWarrenlectures at business schools, he says, “I could improve your ultimate financial welfare by giving you a ticket with only 20 slots in it so that you had 20 punches, representing all the investments that you got to make in a lifetime. And once you’d punched through the card, you couldn’t make any more investments at all.”
Charlie Munger in “Poor Charlie’s Almanac”
Pg 6 – “Read all the time”
Pg 45 – The Lollapalooza Effect – Charlie coined this phrase as a way of describing an idea, concept or business strategy that literally grows exponentially due to favorable coinciding events.
Pg. 40 -“Be prepared, act promptly, in scale, on a few major opportunities.”
Pg 48- Jessy Livermore, “Big money is made in the waiting”
Charlie then goes on to explain that he would sit on 10-20 million at a time in T-Bills just waiting.
Pg 49 – “It takes character to sit there with all that cash and do nothing. I didn’t get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities”
– “It’s like looking for a horse that pays 50/50 and has a 3-to-1 chance of winning.”
Pg 60 – “The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t” – Mark Twain
On Coumpound Interest:
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world” – Einstein
“Never interrupt it unnecessarily” – Munger
“…’tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold…Remember that money is of a prolific generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more” – Benjamine Franklin
“If you took our top fifteen decisions out, we’d have a pretty average record. It wasn’t hyperactivity, but a hell of a lot of patience. You stuck to your principles and when opportunities came along you pounced on them with vigor.” – Munger
On page 61 – 64 there is an investment checklist that is a must read!
“There are worse situations than drowning in cash and sitting, sitting, sitting. I remember when I wasn’t awash in cash and I don’t want to go back. – Munger
“The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotations” – Isaac Disraeli
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read a good book of quotations” – Sir Winston Churchill
Pg. 88 – “You need to have a passionate interest in why thing are happening. That cast of mind, kept over long periods, gradually improves your ability to focus on reality. If you don’t have that cast of mind your destined for failure even if you have a high I.Q.” – Munger
“Our game is to recognize a big idea when it comes along, when it doesn’t come along very often. Opportunity comes to the prepared mind.” – Munger
A good portion of the book is focused on the importance of multiple mental models and the lack of them in academia.
Another hot topic that shows up more than once is the importance of reading.
“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time-none, zero. You’d be amazed at how muchWarren reads-and at how much I read. My children laugh at me, they think I’m a book with a couple of legs sticking out” Munger
“Take a simple idea and take it seriously.” — Munger
“Our experience tends to confirm a long-held notion that being prepared, on a few occasions in a lifetime, to act promptly in scale, in doing some simple and logical thing, will often dramatically improve the financial results of that lifetime. A few major opportunities, clearly recognizable as such, will usually come to one who cotinuously searches and waits, with a curious mind that loves diagnosis involving multiple variables. And then all that is required is a willingness to bet heavily when the odds are extremely favorable, using resources available as a result of prudence and patience in the past.” — Munger
“Look at those hedge funds — you think they can wait? They don’t know how to wait! I have sat for years at a time with $10 to $12 million in treasuries or municipals, just waiting, waiting…As Jesse Livermore said, ‘The big money is not in the buying and selling…but in the waiting.'” — Munger
“It takes character to sit there with all that cash and do nothing. I didn’t get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.” — Munger
“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up.” – Charlie Munger
“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time — none, zero.” – Charlie Munger
“Choose clients as you would friends.” – Charlie Munger
“It takes character to sit there with all that cash and do nothing. I didn’t get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.” – Charlie Munger
“No wise pilot, no matter how great his talent and experience, fails to use his checklist.” – Charlie Munger
“There are worse situations than drowning in cash and sitting, sitting, sitting. I remember when I wasn’t awash in cash — and I don’t want to go back.” – Charlie Munger
“Once you get into debt, it’s hell to get out. Don’t let credit card debt carry over. You can’t get ahead paying eighteen percent.” – Charlie Munger
“Just keep your head down and do your best.” – Charlie Munger
“Easy money corrupts.” – Charlie Munger
“It takes character to sit there with all that cash and do nothing. I didn’t get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.” – Charlie Munger
“Spend less than you make; always be saving something. Put it into a tax-deferred account. Over time, it will begin to amount to something. This is such a no-brainer.” – Charlie Munger
“Three rules for a career: 1) Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy yourself; 2) Don’t work for anyone you don’t respect and admire; and 3) Work only with people you enjoy.” – Charlie Munger
“I won’t bet $100 against house odds between now and the grave.” – Charlie Munger
“I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody’s that smart.” – Charlie
