Mason to Munger to Buffett: Snowball Triple Play Redux

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Jackie Mason—yes, that Mason!—one of the three above-entitled nonagenarians, passed away this week at 93, after a lifetime of hilarious standup comedy.

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What did Jackie leave?

As Charlie Munger says, like everyone else, “He left it all.”

In Jackie’s case mind-blowing/gut-busting, irreverent observational humor, much of it about human foibles, life and money:

Behavioral economics before the term was coined.

Jackie’s frequent target: Dumb Money.

Especially among people who should know better: his own.

Jackie’s favorite Dumb Money story:

“Every Jew knows a building he could have bought thirty years ago for nine dollars.

[Dumb Money wags a finger]

‘Do you know what that building is worth today?!

One hundred-eighty-seven million!’”

Jackie proceeds to puncture Dumb Money pride:

“So why don’t you buy something now?”

“’Now is too late!’”

And Jackie gets a big laugh out of Dumb Money, ever convinced it’s Smart Money that just can’t catch a break.

Because Dumb Money knows it’s always too late to buy a diamond in the rough with perfect hindsight.

As Warren Buffett teaches:

“In the business world the rear-view mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”

That said, maybe Dumb Money ain’t so dumb after all.

Dumb Money is smart enough to know there’s no sure thing.

But that leaves Dumb Money uninvested: holding inflation-racked cash.

So Who Is The Dumb Money?

To be sure, no one ever believes they’re Dumb Money, even though most money is Dumb Money.

Frankly, Smart Money just does not include the average investor, amateur or pro.

Most investors never meet and rarely exceed market averages.

So, to be more polite, how does “Ordinary Money” get its fair share of the growing wealth of world markets without undue risk?

The three wisest and most generous minds of finance---the Mount Rushmore of Investment---Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger and the late Jack Bogle have all drawn the same conclusion:

Don’t try to beat the market, simply buy the market through

Low-Cost Index Funds

I have profiled Jack Bogle of Vanguard, creator of the first index fund, in “Jack Bogle’s Wonderful Life.”

With low-cost index funds you never lose your shirt nor miss the winners you would never find on your own.

Just roll Warren Buffett’s indexed proverbial Snowball down the longest hill of your life and compound your share of the world’s wealth.

As you mature your Snowball will roll and grow and through the magic of compounding amass your wealth.

“Do As I Say, Not As I Do!”

I once had the pleasure of being interviewed by Informed Choice Radio of Great Britain.

I was asked if it were not disingenuous of Warren Buffett to recommend low-cost index funds to his audience yet buy individual stocks and companies for himself?

Is that not the hypocrisy of “Do as I say, not as I do!”?

I thought for a moment:

For a trapeze artist or the world’s foremost investor that is no hypocrisy.

That’s generously protecting the health and welfare of an unwary public.

“Do not try this at home!”…or anyplace else.

The same can be said for standup comedy.

No one but Jackie Mason dares perform a Jackie Mason routine.

Here’s “The World According To Me”:

RIP Funny Man.