In the words of the wise Charlie Munger:

"Envy is a really stupid sin because it's the only one you could never possibly have any fun at"

Charlie Munger on Delayed Gratification:

I've also got the money-sense gene. The first 13 years I practiced law, my income from practicing law was $300,000 total.

At the end of that 13 years, what did I have?

1/

A house. Two cars. And $300,000 of liquid assets. Everyone else'd have spent that slender income, not invested it shrewdly, and so forth.

I just think it was, to me, it was as natural as breathing, and of course I knew how compound interest worked!

2/

I knew when I saved $10 I was really saving $100 or $1,000 ,because of the future growth of the $10.

It just took a little wait. And when I quit law practice it was because I wanted to work for myself instead of my clients, because I knew I could do better than they did.

3/

You only get a few opportunities, and you have to grab them aggressively when they come because even in the most favored life, they're really rare.

I always feel that the opportunities are rare. I only get a few and then I have to seize them aggressively.

4/

Now that lesson I just talked about, it is taught in no business school I know of. But…everybody who has any sense ought to know [that] at the start of life, and practically nobody does.

I just described reality the way it really is.

5/

@JDP223 @ekmokaya "The Snowball"

Ben Graham managed to compound money at 20%/year for 20 years at his partnership following a value investing strategy

In 1948 he acquired 50% stake in GEICO. It had to be distributed to his investors

They almost didn't make the investment due to some accounting questions 1/

Ben Graham paid $712,500 for 50% of GEICO in 1948. He put 25% of his investment assets in GEICO.

This investment did so well that the price of its shares advanced to two hundred times or more than the price of the half-interest by 1971/1972 2/

Ironically, the aggregate of profits accruing from this single investment decision far exceeded the sum of all the others realized through 20 years of operations in the partners specialized fields, involving much investigation, endless pondering&countless individual decisions 3/

Are there morals to this story of value to the intelligent investor?

An obvious one is that there are several different ways to make and keep money on Wall Street 4/

Another, not so obvious, is that one lucky break, or one supremely shrewd decision may count for more than a lifetime of journeyman efforts.

But behind the luck, or the crucial decision, there must usually exist a background of preparation and disciplines capacity. 5/

Charlie Munger has a net worth of $2.5 billion

He owns 50k shares of Daily Journal $DJCO, a 3.6% stake valued at $18M

Daily Journal has a portfolio worth $259M, which includes $72M worth of $BABA stock

If $BABA or $DJCO went to zero the total loss to Munger would be negligible

Smart-sounding reasons to sell as the market rose:

h/t @morganhousel

Feelings of inferiority gnaw at them; the thought of your success only heightens their feelings of stagnation.

It is never prudent to prattle on about yourself or call too much attention to your actions.

You stir up enough envy among your peers to induce treachery and backstabbing.

Be careful in trumpeting your own achievements, and always talk less about yourself than about others.

Appearing better than others is always dangerous,

but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses.

Envy creates silent enemies.

At 98, Munger is as sharp as ever.

His recent 2-hour sharing at $DJCO was 🔥

Talked about $BABA, $COST, $ATVI, crypto, interest rates, envy, antitrust, the great resignation, growth vs value investing and MORE.

Here are my notes:

1. Let's get the white elephant out of the room and talk:

$BABA

Why invest in China? And why Alibaba?

To find out more about $BABA without going through 10 years of annual report, check out my deep-dive here.

More than 20,000 people have viewed it in 7

2. It's no secret that Munger has a contempt for crypto

While there are legitimate use cases (IMO), Munger hates the negative spillover it brings.

3. On whether there'll be a major interest rate increase

Japan managed to maintain low interest rates and reduce their debt without compromising their living standards.

But we're not sure if the U.S. can pull off the same trick.

Here's why:

Only a minority can succeed at the game of life, and that minority inevitably arouses the envy of those around them.

Once success happens your way, however, the people to fear the most are those in your own circle, the friends and acquaintances you have left behind.