Independence Is Everything — Munger Monday #46
“I had a considerable passion to get rich. Not because I wanted Ferraris. I wanted the independence. I desperately wanted it.”
👋 CMQ Investors,
Welcome to the 46th edition of Munger Monday. This is a weekly series created exclusively for CMQ Investing subscribers.
📘 Why It Matters: Most of us say we want to build wealth, but Charlie Munger challenges us to ask why. If the goal is status or stuff, we’ll likely spend our returns as fast as we earn them.
🌍 Real-World Example: In his first 13 years as a lawyer (1949 to 1962), Munger saved aggressively and invested the difference, accumulating $300,000 in liquid assets by age 38.
That nest egg gave him the freedom to leave law entirely and launch his own investment partnership, Wheeler, Munger & Company, in 1962.
He didn’t need permission or a safety net from anyone else.
From 1962 to 1975, Munger’s partnership generated compound annual returns of 19.8%, compared to 5% for the Dow. Independence didn’t just change his lifestyle. It unlocked his best work.
📅 Apply It This Week: Write down your honest answer to this question: if you had enough money to never work again, what would you spend your time doing? Now ask: is your current financial strategy actually moving you toward that, or toward a bigger house and a nicer car?
📝 Franco’s Notes:
I love this quote because it answers the question: What was Charlie Munger’s incentive? His outcomes trace right back to that.
This week’s quote reminds me of another one of my favorite Charlie Munger quotes: “A majority of life’s errors are caused by forgetting what one is really trying to do.”
Inversion: The fastest way to get rich isn’t earning more—it’s wanting less.
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