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Charlie Munger has died

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Re: Charlie Munger has died

#161
post #34

One of the greats of investing. And a value investor. It's all about the profits, not the growth. Munger is gone, Bogle is gone, Buffett is 93. Who takes up the mantle of value investing now?

I think Buffet has at least 7 more years, plenty of time for a successor to rise.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#162
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every financial advisor and 401k plan recommends index funds by default, and it is how the vast majority of people and organizations store their wealth. It doesn't need any more cheerleaders or icons. It had simply become synonymous with investing at large. This is passive investing, not value investing. Value investing is very much active investing, otherwise how would you select the undervalued assets? Value inve…

Value investing is a strategy. Index funds are a vehicle. The two can and do coexist, even more so than any other such pair because their risk profile (conservative) and time horizon (long term) are so well aligned.

> Value investing is a strategy. Index funds are a vehicle.

Yes, that's correct. They are orthogonal concepts.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#163
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually agreed with his reasoning on this and don't think it was motivated by greed at all. Firstly it would have been cheaper for the students. But secondly and more importantly, the buildings did have windows, it was only the dorms themselves which didn't, but the reasoning for this was that were primarily built for sleeping so he argued they didn't need windows. And not requiring windows meant that each student…

have you ever been to a dorm? do you think people just sleep there? especially a couple thousand people?

Two years and two roommates, they literally only spent their time in our shared room when they went to bed. 95% of waking hours, they were in communal area or classes. Myself, on the other hand, I liked my window and full room for half the price. Although we really need to figure out the communal area for society, because bars, parks, and cafes in the US are not even close to cutting it for how communal people are in college.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that different from just… normal investing?

EDIT: My hobbyist, lay understanding, this is not investment advice, I likely have errors in my understanding I've seen Growth and Technical investing be contrasted to Value. Growth being looking for companies which have not actualized revenue goals but appear to be able to do rapidly(they're growing, look for the ones that grow fastest), Technical is looking at trends and patterns (they're trending, catch the trend…

Growth is about future value, which is subtilty different from what you said. You make predictions on what the company will earn in the future.

Value by contrast is looking at current earnings.

Both are predictions of the future value, one just weights the current earnings high. While you often have a bias to one, generally you should consider both. Don't buy current income if growth says the company will collapse. Don't buy growth if the company won't grow to support the value in the future.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that different from just… normal investing?

Most people buy exciting stocks, not cheap stocks (cheap relative to intrinsic value). Value stocks are by definition boring and unknown. Think iron ore mines, regional banks, house builders, carpet makers, and other yawn-fest-profit-machines.

Value stocks can be well known. Fortune 100 companies sometimes are great values.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#166
In 1949, Charlie Munger was 25 years old. He was hired at the law firm of Wright & Garrett for $3,300 per year, or $42,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars.

A few years later, in 1953, Charlie was 29 years old when he and his wife divorced. He had been married since he was 21. Charlie lost everything in the divorce, his wife keeping the family home in South Pasadena. Munger moved into “dreadful” conditions at the University Club and drove a terrible yellow Pontiac, which his children said had a horrible paint job. According to the biography written by Janet Lowe, Molly Munger asked her father, “Daddy, this car is just awful, a mess. Why do you drive it?” The broke Munger replied: “To discourage gold diggers.”

Shortly after the divorce, Charlie learned that his son, Teddy, had leukemia. In those days, there was no health insurance, you just paid everything out of pocket and the death rate was near 100% since there was nothing doctors could do. Rick Guerin, Charlie’s friend, said Munger would go into the hospital, hold his young son, and then walk the streets of Pasadena crying.

One year after the diagnosis, in 1955, Teddy Munger died. Charlie was 31 years old, divorced, broke, and burying his 9 year old son. Later in life, he faced a horrific operation that left him blind in one eye with pain so terrible that he eventually had his eye removed.

But by the time he was 69 years old, he had become one of the richest 400 people in the world, been married to his second wife for 35+ years, had eight children, and countless grandchildren.

Beyond investing and business, Charlie teaches us about resilience, dignity, and life well lived. Rest in peace to a legend.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#167
post #46
post #34

One of the greats of investing. And a value investor. It's all about the profits, not the growth. Munger is gone, Bogle is gone, Buffett is 93. Who takes up the mantle of value investing now?

You have to remember that Bogle/Munger/Buffet all gained prominence when value investing wasn't a thing and investing of any kind was wildly out of reach for the common man. Today anyone can go online and buy VTI in minutes. Every financial advisor and 401k plan recommends index funds by default, and it is how the vast majority of people and organizations store their wealth. It doesn't need any more cheerleaders or i…

> investing of any kind was wildly out of reach for the common man

Oh baloney. I signed up for a Schwab account and started buying stocks at my first job long before the internet. My dad started buying stocks in the 1940s on his military pay (never much). Elevator boys were famously buying stocks in the 1920s.

All the "reach" required was some get-up-and-go to sign up for a brokerage account. It didn't cost anything. They didn't check your tax returns or do a credit check.

The whole point of the stock market was to sell stock to anyone who would buy it.

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#168

In 1949, Charlie Munger was 25 years old. He was hired at the law firm of Wright & Garrett for $3,300 per year, or $42,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars. A few years later, in 1953, Charlie was 29 years old when he and his wife divorced. He had been married since he was 21. Charlie lost everything in the divorce, his wife keeping the family home in South Pasadena. Munger moved into “dreadful” conditions at the Univer…

[deleted]

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#169
post #38
post #9

Everybody should read his speech, "The Psychology of Human Misjudgment": https://fs.blog/great-talks/psychology-human-misjudgment/ It's a fantastic read that can really help you understand why supposedly rational masses of people can end up being so wrong. In the tech world, it ends up being more relevant than one would like it to be.

That linked is the revised version A transcript of the original speech at Harvard, June 1995, should be e.g. at https://jamesclear.com/great-speeches/psychology-of-human-mi... A recording of the original speech is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv7sLrON7QY

Much better version here

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~venky/teach/Munger-misjudgmen...

Re: Charlie Munger has died

#170
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it depends on what you mean by sharp. Quick? No, physical capabilities. His understanding of companies/markets/etc still were considered quite sharp by most investors I know.

Still didn't get bitcoin.

Who does?
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