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Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

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Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway's visionary vice chairman and Warren Buffett's indispensable financial partner, has outperformed market indexes again and again, and he believes any investor can do the same. His notion of "elementary, worldly wisdom"―a set of interdisciplinary mental models involving economics, business, psychology, ethics, and management―allows him to keep his emotions out of his investments and avoid the common pitfalls of bad judgment.

Munger's system has steered his investments for forty years and has guided generations of successful investors. This book presents the essential steps of Munger's investing strategy, condensed here for the first time from interviews, speeches, writings, and shareholder letters, and paired with commentary from fund managers, value investors, and business-case historians. Derived from Ben Graham's value-investing system, Munger's approach is straightforward enough that ordinary investors can apply it to their portfolios. This book is not simply about investing. It is about cultivating mental models for your whole life, but especially for your investments.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published August 19, 2015

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Tren Griffin

3 books37 followers

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5 stars
974 (32%)
4 stars
1,223 (40%)
3 stars
644 (21%)
2 stars
120 (3%)
1 star
43 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 206 reviews
Profile Image for Arjun Subramanian.
4 reviews28 followers
December 25, 2016
This is a great book filled with the timeless wisdom and sharp wit of Charlie Munger. While it covers Munger and Graham’s value investing model, the book is really about temperament and lifelong learning. After reading it you will understand that Buffet and Charlie didn’t have a model for investing as much as they had a model for life. Patience, discipline, reading, thoughtfulness, learning from setbacks/mistakes, personal care of health/mind and stupidity avoidance are virtues he encourages you to practice daily. Investing is a happy place to apply them but you won’t find anyone successful at much of anything in the long run without them. This book may make you a better investor but it will absolutely teach you about some of the virtues you may want to cultivate in your life.

At the end of every book I read, I like to do a little exercise that tries to summarize the book in three sentences. If the book was really good, I would struggle greatly as I fight to decide what concepts merit mention in the allotted three sentences. If it was not, it would be easy to write. With this book I can say it was quite a struggle. There is just so much in here worth internalizing.


The book in three sentences

Practice these virtues daily: patience, discipline, reading, thoughtfulness, learning from setbacks/mistakes, personal care of health/mind and stupidity avoidance. Compounding and probability are critical concepts to internalize and are broadly applicable beyond financial matters. Buy stock at below intrinsic value, say no if you don’t know what that is, don’t invest in companies whose underlying business you do not understand and avoid the really big mistakes which can set you back significantly - drugs, alcohol, a bad spouse and excessive leverage.
Profile Image for Petr Bela.
115 reviews23 followers
October 27, 2017
The content is 5*, however, it's not very original, thus 2*.

This book is a collection of Munger's and Buffet's quotes (probably even citing Buffet more often than Munger), which the author uses to explain their life philosophy and the principles of value investing.

If you, by reading the title, think this book is Munger's biography, well, it's not. Read Poor Charlie's Almanac instead.

To read about value investing, get Graham's The Intelligent Investor.

The only positive of this book is that it's relatively short, and thus you can use it to quickly refresh the rules of value investing that are reiterated multiple times throughout the book:
1. Treat a share of stock as a proportional ownership of a business.
2. Buy at a significant discount to intrinsic value to create a margin of safety.
3. Make a bipolar Mr. Market your servant rather your master.
4. Be rational, objective and dispassionate.

Other notable quotes:
- It's not greed that drives the world, but envy. (Applied to investing, people often believe they must get rich on a stock just because someone else has.)
- There's always going to be someone who makes more money.
- It's better to wear out from work than rust out from inactivity.
- If you cannot write it down, you haven't thought it through.
Profile Image for Michael Payne.
63 reviews75 followers
October 8, 2015
This book is carried not by the author or writing style, but earns 4 solid stars for the wisdom of Charlie Munger that reverberates beyond the syntax of the prose. Charlie's maxims echo the wisdom of Ben Franklin on how to achieve success through integrity, reputation, thrift, hard-work, constant learning and reading. These virtues seem so simple as to be obvious, yet they are so rarely exemplified over a lifetime of practice.

Charlie's greatest advice is to learn from others, an insight shared by Isaac Newton who is said to have stood on the shoulders of giants so that he might see further.

If you are looking for a recipe for success in investing and life, Charlie offers a plain spoken candor. Here is is that recipe, the secret sauce, the simple road to riches . . . Charlie Munger delineates the path to wisdom, "In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time -- none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren reads--and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out.”

Warren by his own account spends 80% of his working days reading (http://theweek.com/articles/460783/wa...). How many of us take those words to heart and read 4, 5, 6 hours a day?

Read this book and you will be a few hours closer to a vantage point that took Charlie and Warren some 70, 80, 90 years of lifelong learning to achieve so that they clearly stand on the shoulders of giants and see further than any other set of living investors with a track-record to prove it.
Profile Image for Phakin.
470 reviews158 followers
March 27, 2021
ออกแนวหนังสือรวมโควตชาร์ลี มังเกอร์มากไปหน่อย เนื้อหาหรือวิธีคิดจริงๆ ก็ไม่ได้ฉีกไปจากหนังสือวิธีคิดทางการเงินเล่มอื่นๆ ถ้าเพิ่งเคยอ่านหนังสือแนวนี้ครั้งแรกๆ คงน่าจะชอบ แต่ถ้าเคยอ่านอย่างอื่นมาแล้วคงเซ็งๆ นิดหน่อย คือประเด็นมันดีเลย แต่การโควตคำพูดเรียงติดๆ กันสามอันทุกๆ สองหน้านี่ไม่ไหว อ่านแล้วรู้สึกว่ามันจะอะไรขนาดนั้นกันนะ
Profile Image for Milan.
292 reviews2 followers
February 26, 2016
This book mainly tries to describe Charlie Munger's Mental Models. There are no new insights provided in the book. The author has taken the various quotes of Munger and other investors and tried to explain it in his own words, sometimes poorly. If you have already read Poor Charlie's Almanack, the author is just trying to write a shortened version of that amazing book.

The use of the term "Graham value investors" again and again is quite irritating. Mr. Tren Griffin thinks that he represents the thinking of all the value investors of the world. His writing comes off as condescending at times. He is better off writing on his blog than writing a book on investing and that too on a person, no less than Charlie Munger.
Profile Image for Scott Loftesness.
21 reviews19 followers
August 24, 2015
Griffin's book highlights the investing style of Charlie Munger - and, to a lesser extent, Warren Buffett.

He uses lots and lots of quotes to illustrate his points - at first they're interesting and useful but, after a while, they're much less so.

His two chapters at the end about the Graham style and valuation are useful on their own.
19 reviews69 followers
December 9, 2015
I previously read this book and found it to be ok. When I heard the same book in audible slowly, I realized there is lot more which I missed earlier
5 reviews
June 8, 2020
A book that is definitely worth revisiting soon - an extremely concise book highlighting the fundamentals as a value investor
Profile Image for Faye.
22 reviews
March 28, 2016
The book is called Charlie Munger, however, 70%, if not more of the content is about Warren and Charlie (Warren first, Charlie second). This is okay since the two tycoons have extremely tight working relationship and it is hard to separate them unless the sole purpose is to distinguish the two.

The investing philosophy of Charlie is the juice of the book. However, the author seems to have blended some of his own investment thoughts into the book, although benign, diluted the good juice to some degree.

I love Charlie Munger's quotes throughout the book. Maybe it's because Charlie shies away from the publicity, the lack of personal touch in the book fails to glue the book together to make it great.
Profile Image for Hariharan Ragunathan.
36 reviews2 followers
December 28, 2015
If you have read Poor Charlie's Almanack & Intelligent investor, then you can skip this book. But if you have not, this book could be a short summary to read before you read of Munger's Alamanack & Graham's Intelligent investor. In a short 150 page book, Griffin summarize the principles of value investing and also the psychological bias investors have, and some checklist to overcome some of them. A 1-2 pager on Bogle's index fund investor is also covered. Overall a quick read to understand basics of value investing.
Profile Image for Juan Flores.
50 reviews8 followers
January 13, 2023
Great book. It’ll lead you to learn more about one of the most successful value investors of all time. Learning about investment judgement will always help you become a better investor, as the mistakes in this area are infinite. Essentially, value investing is the way to beat the market… beating it 1-2 years might be luck for many managers out there but in order to consistently do it, especially in the long term, you can’t go to growth investing. At the end of the day, what is important is to overperform the market when it’s down, rather than when it’s a space rocket. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve their investing skills.

Gran libro. Te va a lleva a aprender más sobre uno de los inversores de value investing más exitosos de todos los tiempos. Aprender sobre el juicio de inversión siempre ayudará a convertirse en un mejor inversionista, ya que los errores en esta área son infinitos. Esencialmente, value investing es la forma de ganarle al mercado... ganarle 1 o 2 años puede ser una suerte para muchos gerentes, pero para hacerlo de manera consistente, especialmente a largo plazo, no puede ir al growth investing. Al final del día, lo importante es obtener un rendimiento superior al del mercado cuando está a la baja, en lugar de cuando es un cohete espacial. Recomiendo este libro a cualquier persona que quiera mejorar sus habilidades de inversión.
Profile Image for Andrei Savu.
52 reviews54 followers
January 21, 2018
Dense. Solid. A very useful read on business fundamentals and how to use them to make investment decisions. It's a very good read for anyone considering to be an active investor vs. taking a passive approach. The effort needed to build a good portfolio of a small number of securities is very significant and something requires a lot of time - a complex path to take. I think this book is also a very useful read for business owners because it has some good information on how to approach capital allocation, design a proper system of incentives and develop moats that will provide a long-term competitive advantage.
Profile Image for Mourisham Jose.
67 reviews3 followers
November 6, 2018
A good intro book on Charlie Munger and his so called concept ie Mungerism, wordly wisdom or latticework of mental models. Also like the notes and bibliography for further reading. If you want to dwell more into the concept, Seeking Wisdom From Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin would be a great slow read (Charlie read the original manuscript himself). The only catch is the latter is no longer in publication hence quite expensive. But nonetheless, good addition to personal library.
Profile Image for Jennifer Chaney.
50 reviews1 follower
August 13, 2021
Kept in mind that these are two older men (It's about Munger, but Buffett being his bff is frequently referenced)..loved the insights. Brilliant men during their time. The way they think and invested was inarguably great. I have been trying to parallel some of their ideas to the current cryptocurrency market and find it very interesting. I loved the quotes sighting location throughout the book.
20 reviews7 followers
January 8, 2018
It's a short breezy read packing in more wisdom per page than most books. Read it as an introduction to Charlie Munger's investment philosophy.
Profile Image for Nick Thorne.
36 reviews2 followers
April 2, 2020
Tren does a great job of breaking down Charlie’s psychological and philosophical lessons. I enjoyed this section the most.
Profile Image for Brendan Sudol.
90 reviews14 followers
February 27, 2020
Munger is the man. Some highlights:

“Nothing has served me better in my long life than continuous learning. I went through life constantly practicing (because if you don’t practice it, you lose it) the multidisciplinary approach and I can’t tell you what that’s done for me. It’s made life more fun, it’s made me more constructive, it’s made me more helpful to others, and it’s made me enormously rich.”

“An example of a really responsible system is the system the Romans used when they built an arch. The guy who created the arch stood under it as the scaffolding was removed. It’s like packing your own parachute.”

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time—none, zero.”

“Learning from the success and failure of others is the fastest way to get smarter and wiser without a lot of pain.”
Profile Image for إسلام جمال.
Author 9 books2,043 followers
March 29, 2021
Brilliant Book

Charlie Munger is learning machine, uses simple ideas to live better and invest better.

Forgetting your mistakes is a terrible error if you are trying to improve your cognition, Reality does not remind you!
Profile Image for Darren.
1,193 reviews55 followers
September 7, 2015
Anyone who is even remotely active and concerned with investing will know of Charlie. For those whom the name means nothing, this book will more than capably fill in the gaps and dispense a lot of wisdom along the way.

Charlie Munger is today the sidekick of Warren Buffett, part of the top leadership double-act at Berkshire Hathaway (his official title is vice-chairman) and he has been giving sage-like investment advice for over four decades. Munger has his strategies, his focus and his viewpoint and this book gives the reader a taste of Munger and shows a bit of what makes him tick. The “essential steps” of Munger’s investing strategies are presented, condensed for the first time from interviews, speeches, writings and shareholder letters, bolstered by commentary from investors, historians, academics and businesspeople. Whilst the investor will learn a lot, it is not just a book about making your riches by trading stocks – there is a lot of crossover that can be used elsewhere in life, both professional and personal.

The book can be a bit of a challenging read for some and perhaps it could have been polished a little more to give it greater, widespread appeal yet it does contain a heck of a lot of information and if you can get over the overload and begin to process the data, potentially limitless benefits can follow. Again, make no mistake; this is not a “get rich quick, stock picking for beginners”-type book but a careful, detailed, academically biased book that has a lot going for it. For those who like to dig even deeper, the book is awash with bibliographic references and notes that guide the reader along.

With a book like this, sometimes you can be forgiven for wanting even more when it is giving so much, without it being a fault of the book from the get-go. It provided an engaging, informative and stunning look at a person who is, for many, part of a cult-like double act. Unless Institutional Investor magazine is being a little naughty, they recently informed their readers that you can even get underwear, yes, underwear, emblazoned with the faces (spelling checked) of Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet! (Their company owns Fruit of the Loom). That sort of “product placement availability” starts to evoke cult-like status.

Charlie Munger is 91 years old and yet he seems to be still steaming along like an express train and as this book and countless media comments attest, he is still sharp as the sharpest tack in the box. Why not check this book out, discover a bit of the Munger magic and see what else happens?

Autamme.com
9 reviews
November 29, 2015
Tren Griffin is a strategist at Microsoft in addition to being a public figure known for his value investing principles and admiration of Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger. While this book is titled as if it were a biography, it's more of a summary of Munger's investing philosophy.

Others have criticized this book as being too light on original content and too full of quotations. Those are fair criticisms but they ignore the main positive of Tren's writing style: Tren thinks from first principles and doesn't mind hammering those home. Mastering the basics in any subject is both hard and incredibly valuable, especially in investing. Tren lays these out simply and methodically.

The book is a very quick read and probably better as a reference, so I bought the Kindle version for the latter purpose. And while it's light on quantitative information (the section on "Berkshire Math" contains no math) it's very helpful as a checklist when thinking about an investment.

9 reviews
November 18, 2015
Charlie munger the famous partner of Warren Buffett ( he is the Charlie in the line "Charlie and I") is an institution in himself. He is the man who tilted Warren focus from cigar butt investment to forever holding period investment. Writer has picked up different statement given by Charlie at different forums and tried to present it in a way which explains Munger understanding about investment in particular and life in general. A wonderful read if you want to gain better prospective about life and investment. This book is full of wisdom, will help in decision making, understanding human psychology. It will also help you in understanding Ben Graham value investing system.All in all worth reading and rereading. Charlie Munger family describes him best by saying "He is a book with a couple of legs sticking out"
Profile Image for Joey Kittel.
14 reviews41 followers
October 7, 2016
This book is just so damn good. Smart reading: this book goes into the 4 principles of the Graham Value Investing Model which are 1.) treat a share of a stock as a proportional ownership of the business. 2.) buy at a significant discount to instinct value to create a margin of safety. 3.) make "mr market" your servant rather than your master. 4.) always he rational, objective and dispassionate. I like a lot of what is said in this book including the part about the psychology of human mid judgement. The chapter about the right stuff is also gold. If you can implement things like Patience, discipline, long term orientation, studiousness.. That will greatly increase your chances of being a successful investor. Oh and another part I loved was "try not to be stupid!" This book is filled with so much gold. I will be reading it and re-reading it for years to come.
Profile Image for Charles.
49 reviews5 followers
March 6, 2016
The book discusses the Graham value investing system and its principles, i.e. valuing shares like proportional interest in a business, having a margin of safety when purchasing shares, realizing that the market is bipolar and that it's very hard to know when assets are depressed in the short term, and making rational decisions. It's a great starting point for learning the system of investing, which is used by Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger at Berkshire Hathaway. A book could be written about each of the principles in the book, but the author does a great job of scouring Berkshire annual letters for great nuggets. The author uses a lot of principles discussed by Nassim Taleb and Daniel Kahneman and interweaves them with quotes by Buffet and Munger. Entertaining and fun book to read.
1,762 reviews54 followers
November 27, 2015
I received this book, for free, in exchange for an honest review.

I haven't read too many financial books so it is hard to tell how much of the information contained here is novel.
That being said there were more useful/actionable ideas than I would expect to find in most books.
The book also has some useful psychological advice.

This book is better than a finance management book I was given. The other book was said to be the best book to help people learn about investing. I found this book much more useful.
Profile Image for Nicholas Teague.
69 reviews15 followers
March 23, 2016
Channels Munger in excellent fashion through myriad quotes of his and other notable investors. Ranks up there with Marc Andreessen's for the take on Munger's Psychology of Human Misjudgment talk. Munger and Buffett never wrote a Securities Analysis textbook like Graham, so we are left to sort through their public talks and investor letters for insights into their special take on value investing, and that is what Griffin has done here. If you enjoy the author's posts at 25iq.com this book is definitely worth a read and vice versa.
78 reviews1,657 followers
May 18, 2019
This author's writing style is just awful.

The format of the book is a TON of quotes from Munger and other related value investors, followed by Tren's commentary... which is just a total waste of time. It's like it was written by a robot, and it basically just repeats what was already said in the quote.

Plenty of the quotes are interesting, and this is a very skimmable book - like say you are killing 15 minutes at the library while your kids are playing with the fake produce. But don't waste 5 cents on late fees for this stinker.
Profile Image for JG.
102 reviews
September 7, 2015
A good summary and explanation about what Munger have said in speeches, letters and comments.

If you have already read Poor Charlie's Almanack, then this book will be a short repetition. But if you are new to Munger, you'll find it's a good start.

The book is mainly about Munger's description of Mental Models and cognitive bias. It's a shame it doesn't say much about Munger's life and biography.
340 reviews15 followers
March 16, 2016
This is a great Charlie Munger book.
I love the beginning where he answers a question I used to have - what's so great about the guy?
Because he seems to be a talker.

But CM's love for learning, changing, and the great need to have a multi-disciplinary approach to life is showcased well in the book.
Furthermore - ridiculous follies of humans related to psychology are just so difficult to conquer.

It's a great tool to have - cognizance of our ineptitude.

Great insight.
Read at leisure.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 206 reviews

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