“Manage affairs before they’re in a mess.” This quote from Lao Tzu, reputed author of the Tao Te Ching, might easily have come from investor Charlie Munger. It is replete with the kind of blunt common sense that’s so easy to overlook – just like one of Charlie’s oft-reported “Mungerisms”.
Munger has stayed further out of the limelight than his more famous Berkshire Hathaway business partner, billionaire Warren Buffett, the US investment firm they've steered successfully for decades.
Like Buffett, though, Munger has many wise sayings about investing. If the average investor could sit down next to Charlie and ask him in person for some financial tips, what might he say?
In good company
We think Munger might maintain, for instance, that people should do their own reading and research – and draw their own conclusions – before buying shares or otherwise investing, instead of simply following the herd.
Like Buffett, Munger places a premium on knowing who is involved in a project when it comes to investing. Do the folk involved in an investment have the right skills and experience? And if those in the lead have little to lose, they may expend less effort on ensuring success.
Here are five of our favourite quotes from Charlie Munger over the years.
Do you agree with our choices and do you follow his lead? Let us know at www.ezonomics.com/contactus or @ezonomics.
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