Charlie Munger, The Complete Investor - Bookclub #56

About the Author

Tren Griffin works at Microsoft. He graduated from Boston College.
Tren was previously a Partner at Eagle River, a private equity firm. His Twitter is looked to as that of a "tech/business guru" (he quotes Warren Buffett a lot..)
Tren started beef with Martin Shkreli on Twitter just before the FBI arrested Shkreli.

A little bit about the book

Charles Thomas Munger

Seeing as the book is about Charlie Munger, I will describe who he is in short:
Charles Thomas Munger is a businessperson who has been at the helm of 6 different companies. He is 94 years old and occupies the position of Chairman of Daily Journal Corp. and Chairman for Blue Chip Stamps.

He is also on the board of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (working alongside friend and admirer Warren Buffett), Costco Wholesale Corp. and Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp. and Chairman of Good Samaritan Hospital (Los Angeles).

Warren Buffett credits much of his investing success to Charlie Munger because he convinced him to differentiate his investing from traditional Benjamin Graham style to a more conscientious style in which they look at the specifics of the company and only invest in really, really great companies who are trading at a depreciated price.

In the past Mr. Munger was Real Estate Attorney at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer for Capital Cities, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Capital Cities, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Wesco Financial Corp. and Vice Chairman at Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (Investment Management).

He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and a graduate degree from Harvard Law School.

The Book

Charlie Munger, the complete investor is a book that details the legendary investor and arguably the modern renaissance man's advice for new and old investors. It runs through his principles for investing and how he relates them to his everyday life. It is a really easy read, reiterating that to do the type of investing that Munger and Buffett do, you don't need to have all the technical knowledge about trading, all you need is self-discipline, patience and a passion for reading about the world and different companies.

Furthermore, there is a portion of the book which speaks about who Charlie is, where he has come from and what his relationships are like with those around him. But the most important part of the book that I read was that they speak about as the complete investor but this is not specifically about financial investing - it is also investing in life, in family, in relationships, in your health and in everything that makes up life for you.

The elementary wisdom notion in the book relates to my claim that Charlie Munger is the modern renaissance man - it describes that we should all have a set of interdisciplinary mental models involving business, psychology, politics, ethics, management and economics. Having a good understanding of all of these areas allows him to keep his emotions out of his investments and avoid making mistakes or poor judgement calls in life.

I have found that by forming mental models in a similar way that Charlie Munger does, it allows you to enjoy your life, not to take things to seriously and to realise your goals and aspirations.

Great book, I will continue to read and re-read it for the rest of my life.

Prosoché, Prokopé & Phila

Adam x