- Up Charlie Munger worked with Warren in Buffet’s grandfather’s grocery store in Omaha, Nebraska. Munger earned $2 for ten hours of labor in the 1930’s before he went off to college.
He’s originally from Omaha and left to attend the University of Michigan to become a meteorologist in the army during World War II. He later ended up earning a degree from Harvard Law School, the funny thing is that Harvard Business School rejected Buffett’s application.
Warren Buffett was rejected by the Harvard Business School in 1950. “I spent 10 minutes with the Harvard alumnus who was doing the interview, and he assessed my capabilities and turned me down,” Buffett recalled. The lesson? Choose yourself.
Munger reconnected with Buffett at a dinner party in 1959. This shows the real power of networking in the right circles as that dinner party made Munger billions through their business partnership.
Munger ended up back with Buffett as vice chairman of the corporate insurance holding company Berkshire Hathaway. Charlie Munger is Warren Buffett’s business partner and most trusted friend and advisor.
Munger is the chairman of the publisher Daily Journal Corp. and sits on the board of one of his top holding the retailer Costco.
Munger is a very pragmatic investor that looks for real business value at a great price with the potential for future cash flows and growth very similar to Buffett.
What is in Charlie Munger’s portfolio?
Munger believes in holding a concentrated portfolio of his top picks that he is an expert on. He is currently very heavily weighted in the finance sector with the top U.S. banks. He is also bullish on online retailing in China, however he did recently reduce his Alibaba position by 50% this year.
Period: Q2 2022
Portfolio date: October 5, 2022 13F filing
Number of stocks: 5
Portfolio value: $163 million
Size Rank/Ticker/Company/Portfolio%
- BAC – Bank of America Corp. 42.49%
- WFC – Wells Fargo 39.16%
- BABA – Alibaba Group Holdings 14.68%
- USB – U.S. Bancorp 3.45%
- PKX – POSCO 0.22% [1]
A quote that sums up his portfolio management theory: “It’s absolute insanity to think owning 100 stocks instead of five makes you a better investor.” – Charlie Munger
How many shares of Berkshire Hathaway does Charlie Munger own?
Most of his wealth was built through his shares in Berkshire-Hathaway. Charlie’s family has 90% or more of its net worth in Berkshire shares. Charlie Munger still owns approximately 4370 Berkshire Hathaway class A shares and 643 Berkshire Hathaway class B shares not part of his 13f portfolio filing. [2]
How much is Charlie Munger’s net worth?
Charlie Munger’s current net worth in 2022 is approximately $2 billion and he ranks #1408 in wealth on Forbes Billionaires list. [3]
Charlie Munger Quotes on Life
Here are my favorite Charlie Munger quotes that provide great lessons for success in life, business, and the financial markets.
“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. You’d be amazed at how much Warren 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.” ― Charlie Munger
“To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. The world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people.” ― Charlie Munger
“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day-if you live long enough-like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve.” ― Charlie Munger
“We both (Munger and Buffett) insist on a lot of time being available almost every day to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. We read and think.” ― Charlie Munger
“There is no better teacher than history in determining the future… There are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book.” ― Charlie Munger
“Acquire worldly wisdom and adjust your behavior accordingly. If your new behavior gives you a little temporary unpopularity with your peer group…then to hell with them.” ― Charlie Munger
“We all are learning, modifying, or destroying ideas all the time. Rapid destruction of your ideas when the time is right is one of the most valuable qualities you can acquire. You must force yourself to consider arguments on the other side.” ― Charlie Munger
“It takes character to sit with all that cash and to do nothing. I didn’t get top where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.” ― Charlie Munger
“What are the secrets of success? -one word answer :”rational” ― 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 Munger
“Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. There’s a lot of pain and no fun. Why would you want to get on that trolley?” ― Charlie Munger
“The iron rule of nature is: you get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, you put sugar on the floor.” ― Charlie Munger
“If you don’t get this elementary, but mildly unnatural, mathematics of elementary probability into your repertoire, then you go through a long life like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.” ― Charlie Munger
“A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments. And that is why we say that having a certain kind of temperament is more important than brains. You need to keep raw irrational emotion under control. You need patience and discipline and an ability to take losses and adversity without going crazy. You need an ability to not be driven crazy by extreme success.” ― Charlie Munger
“Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean (merely average performance).” ― Charlie Munger [4]
“Well, the first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang ’em back. If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form. You’ve got to have models in your head. And you’ve got to array your experience both vicarious and direct on this latticework of models. You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life. You’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head.” ― Charlie Munger [5]
