Investment Advice from an Old Bastard

I know a lot on here are interested in investment, inflation and interest rates, I was reading this today and the observations that Charlie Munger makes is something that many ....lets say older people feel with todays generation's and the ultimate advice they are given.

Take from it what you will but it is a good read regardless.

At 98-years-old, Charlie Munger still delivers the one-liners

Charlie Munger has been investing with Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway since 1978. While Warren hosts the company’s Annual Shareholder Meetings, answering questions for hours, it is Charlie who delivers the acerbic wit. Given his wealth and age, nobody and nothing is off limits, sometimes to Warren’s chagrin. It makes for fine entertainment when he is prepared to speak the truth that others avoid.

Charlie was born on 1 January 1924, and to mark his 98th birthday, some of his one-liners are collected on this video. As the introduction says:

“Charlie Munger isn't just one of the greatest investors who has ever lived, he is also one of the few brilliant minds who basically has no filter. When he sees something which he thinks is wrongdoing or stupid, he just can't help but being opinionated and speak up about it.”

Let ‘er rip, Charlie

“Those of you who are about to enter business school or are there, I recommend you learn to do it our way but at least until you're out of school, you have to pretend to do it their way.”

“Warren, if people weren't so often wrong, we wouldn't be so rich.”

“I think you would understand any presentation using the word EBITDA, if every time you saw that word, you just substituted the phrase ‘bullshit earnings’.”

“I'm optimistic about life. I can be optimistic when I’m nearly dead. Surely the rest of you can handle a little inflation.”

“The best way to get what you want in life is to deserve what you want. How could it be otherwise? It's not crazy enough so that the world is looking for a lot of undeserving people to reward.”

“Everybody wants fiscal virtue but not quite yet. They're like that guy who felt that way about sex. He’s willing to give it up but not quite yet.”

“Well, you don't want to be like the motion picture executive in California. They said the funeral was so large because everybody wanted to make sure he was dead.”

“It was investment banker-aided fraud. Not exactly novel.”

“Sure, there are a lot of things in life way more important than wealth. All that said, some people do get confused. I play golf with a man he says, ‘What good is health, you can't buy money with it.’"

“Well, there are a lot of things I don't think about and one of them is companies that are losing $2-3 billion a year and going public.”

“In accounting, you can do things like they do in Italy when they have trouble with the mail. It piles up and irritates the postal employees. They just throw away a few cartloads and everything flows smoothly.”

“The general system for money management requires people to pretend that they can do something that they can't do, and to pretend to like it when they really don't. I think that's a terrible way to spend your life, but it's very well paid.”

“I can't give you a formulaic approach because I don't use one. If you want a formula, you should go back to graduate school. They'll give you lots of formulas that won't work.”

“As Samuel Johnson said famously, ‘I can give you an argument, but I can't give you an understanding.’"

“It's perfectly obvious, at least to me, that to say that derivative accounting in America is a sewer is an insult to sewage.”

“Competency is a relative concept. And what a lot of us need, including the one speaking when I needed to get ahead, was to compete against idiots. And luckily, there's a large supply."

“I don't like multi-tasking. I see these people doing three things at once and I think, what a terrible way that is to think.”

“I like cryptocurrency currencies a lot less than you do. And I think that professional traders who go into trading cryptocurrencies, it's just disgusting. It's like somebody else is trading turds and you decide ‘I can't be left out.'"

“Once I asked a man who just left a large investment bank and I said, ‘How's your firm make its money?’ He said, 'Off the top, off the bottom, off both sides and in the middle.'"

“Well, I would rather throw a viper down my shirt front than hire a compensation consultant.”

“I think I'm offended enough.”

 

You need to be a member of 1Eyed Eel to add comments!

Join 1Eyed Eel

Votes: 0
Email me when people reply –

Replies

                  • You guys seen the old Fryers Club Roasts?

                  • She features in the roast that Krupty put up....legend comedian that everyone wanted to take the piss out of.

            • We know what drum you hold the beat to when you go to bed at night Seth.LOL

              I always remember Ava Gardner being interviewed after the film made in Mellbourne, "On the Beach" in 1959.....I was quiet young then so I must have read in a later book.....but her quote always stuck in my mind when she said if the end of the world was going to happen it would be most appropriately Melbourne, implying it was the arsehole of the world!

          • Thanks Pops I will put them on my watch list.I like historical war  films. This one is interesting Munich The Edge of War. The politics of war  and deception

             

        • Thought you would enjoy it Tad,

          I also stuffed the rest of the post trying to correct the date from 1983 to 1883 an old style western prequell to Kevin Costner's Yellowstone. Stars Sam Elliott.

          Also recommend Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos (Kidman) is brilliant in it.

          Finally another show I really enjoyed was "Finch" a Tom hanks film about a guy dying and building a robot to look after his dog.....I cried unashamably at the end............. I read a review that said it lacked originality LOL

  • Charlie and Warren are legends, No doubt. From 1964 to 2020, Berkshire's stock delivered a compound annual growth rate of 20%. In comparison, the S&P 500 Index generated an annualized gain of 10.2% -- including dividends.

     Things are changing rapidly. If someone bragged they made 20% pa to the average Defi Degen they would be pretty unimpressed. That represents an OK week for the competent.

This reply was deleted.

Latest comments

Prof. Daz replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"It's an interesting contrast, because in a desert climate like Cairo the freezing nights are because the dry air does not trap heat so there is a mass cooling effect, whereas in a deep canyon like the Grand Canyon the air is dense and under pressure…"
1 minute ago
Hell On Eels replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"Daz, I don't think our supporter base will die off as some predict, and the doomsters might forsee. It's generational deep over 50 years or so.
But over the next few decades as today's kids mature, the Panthers will probably have the largest…"
1 minute ago
The Badger replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"And there lies, what from the outside, appears to be the board's priority aim ...make money from the football club. 
On field results are a secondary consideration, if it is one at all. "
14 minutes ago
Prof. Daz replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"There was an article a year or two ago which ranked supporter-bases for teams and the Eels did well for memberships, and for average crowd attendances. That kind of suggests, as JC hints at, that the Eels enjoy a loyal base.
But the Eels…"
19 minutes ago
Longfin Eel replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"You've got to wonder how sustainable that is. When you get to a stage where no fans remember winning a grand final, will Parra still have such a big fan base? In any event, Parra knows that they must be successful despite what the NRL throws at us…"
36 minutes ago
Prof. Daz replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"NOS, was that $30 for an entire jug?"
36 minutes ago
Prof. Daz replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"El Salvador is cool, Mitchy, with awesome coffee. There is a (dormant) volcano just north of San Salvador where you tour cafes serving coffee made from beans produced in the mountains to the west. Basically over-caffeinating on the jungle slopes of…"
43 minutes ago
LB replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"Wow that's incredible. Bit like when my mum went to Cairo, said in the daytime it was sweltering, shorts and shirts. At night it was freezing, beanie and scarfs."
43 minutes ago
LB replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"Yeah try and catch them at Levi Stadium, or an away game elsewhere.
Places like Dallas, New York, LA etc cost you an arm and a leg."
44 minutes ago
LB replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"Well I did New Year's Eve in New York, -15c.
Got on a plane to Tampa, straight to the stadium, 26c degrees.
Beautiful weather. When I bought beers, the people there couldn't believe i was from Australia and said this weather must feel like home
I…"
46 minutes ago
JC replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"The NRL worked out the eels doing great doesn't add any value, we are already one of the most watched teams and our fans are die hard loyal, on the flip side there is no harm to their brand if the eels do bad as we have one of if not the most loyal…"
48 minutes ago
JC replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"49ers baby, don't care where. I'm going to the Melbourne game."
52 minutes ago
JC replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"No, I'm going to see my 9ers v rams in Melbourne but would love to go to a game in the states. A work buddy went to Dallas last year (cowboys fan) and seen the cowboys v giants i think it was, high scoring game that went to overtime, said it was…"
54 minutes ago
Prof. Daz replied to ParramattaLurker's discussion Eels v Titans - Vegas 2027 CONFIRMED
"LB, I was in it (grand canyon). Hiked down some trail from the from north rim after watching the sun come up. Did not hit bottom, was too far and getting hotter as I descended. But hit bottom in Bryce Canyon, a few hours north in Utah. It was…"
1 hour ago
Parrafan101 replied to Roy tannous's discussion Dylan walker offered to super league clubs🥺
"Hopgood should be our 13, he can ball play similar to Yeo. But we have some ass forwards and second rowers that mader it hard for him to really transfer that ball across to Moses."
1 hour ago
macybrown replied to Roy tannous's discussion Dylan walker offered to super league clubs🥺
"Sure he has had a couple of soft weeks but surprised by this. Our recruiters must be a bit more positive about signing versatile  new blood than I am actually. "
1 hour ago
More…

Keaon done deal

As of Thursday, December 11, 2025, South Sydney Rabbitohs forwardKeaon Koloamatangi has reportedly agreed to a deal with the Parramatta Eels, but it is not yet officially announced by the clubs.  Soon to be announced.

Read more…
14 Replies · Reply by Poppa Jan 9
Views: 2435

 

<script src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
<!-- Sidebar -->
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<script>// <![CDATA[
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
// ]]></script>