Charlie

In one of his last interviews Munger explained why he didn´t want to live in a very large fancy house: ″[Buffett and I] are both smart enough to have watched our friends who got rich build these really fancy houses,” Munger said. “And I would say in practically every case, they make the person less happy, not happier.” A “basic house” has utility, said Munger, noting that a larger home could help you entertain more people — but that’s about it. “It’s a very expensive thing to do, and it doesn’t do you that much good.” Another drawback to owning a mega-mansion, he added: Such an ostentatious display of wealth could spoil his kids by encouraging them to “live grandly.” Munger had nine children across two marriages, including two step-sons and a son who died of leukemia at age 9. ″[Buffett and I] both considered bigger and better houses,” Munger said. “I had a huge number of children, so it was justifiable even. And I still decided not to live a life where I look like the Duke of Westchester or something. And I was going to avoid it. I did it on purpose ... I didn’t think it would be good for the children.” Expenses, Envy and Ego goes up and it's not good for the children. First you shape/chose your house (environment) and then it shapes you. The same goes probably for big expensive cars. I always considered a larger house, but it sounds like a No-Brainer to avoid it. Feeling happy in my mid-sized house. Anyone with the same observations?

ASTA, my wife and me made a sabbatical year one year ago. We made holidays nearly every month. That I can highly recommend. But be careful not to get an after sabbatical year depression.

Fuerteventura, Spain. Riding waves with my kids. Enyoing the warm weather with great beaches. It doesnt get much better than this.

Eng12345 Save the Money, the Book wasnt that good.

Merry Christmas to everyone and thanks to Sanjeev for this wonderful message board!!!

I have find it useful that periodically you look at your portfolio and like Jack Welch did it with people (10-20% of the people) you kick the weakest companies out of your portfolio and invest it in better companies. Anybody else doing something like this?

Approximately 500% on Berkshire Hathaway shares. Buffett said he would be doing share repurchases and Munger said the shares were cheap. It doesn´t get much simpler than this.

Bought some Occidental shares for my parents, from the proceeds of selling Ali Baba (ouch!) With Berkshire and Fairfax as big partners I think the risk/reward equation looks better and it´s safer. Jack Ma made me nervous.

kiwing100 Great interview!!! Thank you for sharing!!! Cheers!

"I’ve always felt bad for people who are so consumed with their image and how they are perceived by others. Such a shallow way to live. Ray seems like the king of the category." One of the best Charlie Munger quotes I´ve ever read is about the stock picking industry: "If you stop to think about it, civilized man has always had soothsayers and shamans and faith healers and God knows what all. The stock picking industry is four or five percent super rational disciplined people. The rest of them are sort of like faith healers or shamans. That´s the way it is, I´m afraid. It´s nice that they keep an image of being constructive, sensible people when they´re really would-be faith healers. It keeps the self-respect up."

Rest in peace Charlie Munger, "When there is no reason not to do it, than do it." „It´s all about having a series of models in your head and running reality against the models...." “You array knowledge on a bunch of models that are basically answers to the question why, why, why.“ „You have to know how the models interact.“ “Acquire worldly wisdom and adjust your behavior accordingly.“ "If you are good at reading and thinking, you don´t have to do much else." "You should be so lucky." (to the Berkshire Shareholders)

Rest in peace, Charlie Munger. You were my hero and role model and changed my life. We will dearly miss you.

"Fantastic letter from Buffett on the eve of Thanksgiving! We are lucky to have the running Berkshire. Wonderful human being too. https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/nov2123.pdf" +1

Munger in a recent interview: Andrew: What do you think about the predictability of… there were a number of companies back when you started where you could have said this business will be the same in 10 years? Do you think that number is the same today, or do you think it's much higher than that? Charlie: I think most places have a lot of change and threat in their future. Ben: Do you think most places had a lot of change and threat in their future even 50 years ago, and this story is over-blown? Charlie: There’s a difference with some of what I call a specialized industrial company, and Berkshire has a lot of them. We have a lot of companies that are quite insulated from really tough competition, just because they've been so long, and they’re so good at what they do and have a good reputation, high value, and so on.

"It should be noted, though, that Berkshire’s operating subsidiaries outside of Insurance are not performing particularly well. They are profitable, but a not shooting the lights out. This is partially due to economic weakness, partially due to their particular mix of industries. Business is hard - they ain’t all Apples and Googles" The flowers will grow, the weed will get cut.

"It's not an elephant dancing, it's a crowd of elephants, dancing! " Yeah it is a crowd of very profitable elephants dancing, but when I sometimes hear people argue that Berkshire is too big to grow, I always think of a Munger quote of the annual meeting 10 years ago: "If your system is decentralization to the point of abdication, what difference does it make how many subsidiaries you have?"

Berkshire Operating Profit Surged to Record $10.8 Billion in Latest Quarter https://www.barrons.com/articles/berkshire-hathaway-earnings-stock-price-8f61fc76?siteid=yhoof2 Cheers!

I bought some Berkshire b shares today. The statistical weak month of October is ending (some equity strategies start investing in November), Berkshire is quite cheap on a P/B basis and Q3 will be released soon, so that will probably decrease P/B further.

Anyone who read this book? https://www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/B0CHWNZNFV/ref=sr_1_5?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=3JOEIFXUDHY7U&keywords=outlive&qid=1696877624&sprefix=outlive%2Caps%2C171&sr=8-5 It looks like a very good practical workbook of the book "Outlive". I just ordered it.

Great book! Thank you for recommending. I liked especially the part about emotional health.

Some years ago Munger told his relatives at an annual meeting that they shouldn´t be so dumb to sell their Berkshire shares. I think that is the mantra of a lot of Berkshire billionaires and millionaires.

Barron´s take on the second quarter: https://www.barrons.com/articles/berkshire-hathaway-earnings-warren-buffett-34659069?mod=md_stockoverview_news Cheers!

I like the Apple chart : Buffett began buying in Q1 2016.

Look at/think about the track record of Ajit Jain. That's probably all you need to consider. (Buffett or Munger said that Track record is everything)

Rhodos, Greece. The landscape, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, the weather and the mediterranean diet with red wine are fantastic.