40 Facts About Charlie Munger

Charles Thomas Munger was an American businessman, investor, attorney and philanthropist.

Charlie Munger was vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate controlled by Warren Buffett, from 1978 until his death in 2023.

Charles Thomas Charlie Munger was born on January 1,1924, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Florence "Toody" and Alfred Case Charlie Munger, a lawyer.

Charlie Munger's grandfather, Thomas Charles Munger, was a state representative and later a US district court judge appointed by Theodore Roosevelt.

Charlie Munger enrolled in the University of Michigan, where he studied mathematics.

Bill, Charlie Munger took a number of advanced courses through several universities.

When he applied to his father's alma mater, Harvard Law School, the dean of admissions rejected him because Charlie Munger had not completed an undergraduate degree.

Charlie Munger maintained that treating the shares of a company like baseball cards is a losing strategy because it requires one to predict the behavior of often irrational and emotional human beings.

Charlie Munger then gave up the practice of law to concentrate on managing investments and later partnered with Otis Booth in real estate development.

In 1962, Charlie Munger partnered with Jack Wheeler to form Wheeler, Charlie Munger, and Company, an investment firm with a seat on the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange.

Charlie Munger was previously the chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.

Charlie Munger believed that holding a concentrated number of stocks that he knew extremely well would in the long term produce superior returns.

Charlie Munger's meetings were nearly as legendary in the investment community as those he co-hosted with Buffett in Omaha.

Such meetings were often perfunctory, but Charlie Munger interacted with the other Wesco shareholders at considerable length, sometimes speculating about what Benjamin Franklin would do in a given situation.

Charlie Munger appreciated modesty stating, "don't have a lot of envy" and "don't overspend your income".

Charlie Munger used the term "Lollapalooza effect" for multiple biases, tendencies or mental models acting in compound with each other at the same time in the same direction.

Charlie Munger was critical of cryptocurrencies, referring to Bitcoin in particular as "noxious poison".

Charlie Munger compared Robinhood to gambling, saying that its success is due to "people who know how to take advantage essentially of the gambling instincts of, not only American public, worldwide public" and further explained why he thinks individual investments without commission is tantamount to gambling.

At the time of his death, Charlie Munger had an estimated net worth of $2.6 billion and was ranked as the 1,182nd richest person in the world, according to Forbes.

Charlie Munger was a major benefactor of the University of Michigan.

In 2007, Munger made a $3 million gift to the University of Michigan Law School for lighting improvements in Hutchins Hall and the William W Cook Legal Research Building, including the noted Reading Room.

In 2011, Charlie Munger made another gift to the Law School, contributing $20 million for renovations to the Lawyers Club housing complex, which covered the majority of the $39 million cost.

On December 28,2011, Charlie Munger donated 10 shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock to the University of Michigan.

Munger and his late wife Nancy B Munger were major benefactors of Stanford University.

In 2023, Munger made a gift of stock worth $40 million to the Henry E Huntington Library and Art Museum in San Marino, California.

Charlie Munger gave 77 Class A Berkshire Hathaway shares valued at more than $40.3 million to the Huntington, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Charlie Munger donated to universities on the precondition that the universities follow his architectural blueprints exactly.

Charlie Munger was a trustee of the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles for more than 40 years, and previously served as chair of the board of trustees.

In 2006, Charlie Munger donated 100 shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock, then valued at $9.2 million, to the school toward a building campaign at Harvard-Westlake's middle school campus.

In 2009, Charlie Munger donated eight shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock, worth nearly $800,000, to Harvard-Westlake.

Charlie Munger designed the residence, which houses 600 single bedrooms, most of which are windowless in order to accommodate a greater number of single-occupant bedrooms.

In October 2014, Charlie Munger announced that he would donate $65 million to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In 1945, while studying at Caltech, Munger married Nancy Huggins, daughter of Frederick R Huggins and Edith M Huggins.

Charlie Munger was a Pasadena native who had been Munger's sister's roommate at Scripps College.

Charlie Munger had two stepchildren from his second marriage: William Harold Borthwick and David Borthwick.

Charlie Munger was a Republican and provided his opinions on a number of political topics including the policies of the Trump administration.

Charlie Munger repeated his sentiments in another interview, praising Singapore's single-payer system in contrast to the US "insane" system which is a "national disgrace".

When doctors told him he had developed sympathetic ophthalmia, which could lead to blindness in his remaining eye, Charlie Munger started taking braille lessons.

Charlie Munger died at a hospital in Santa Barbara, California, on November 28,2023, at the age of 99,34 days shy of his 100th birthday.

Charlie Munger never sought to take credit for his role as creator but instead let me take the bows and receive the accolades.