On Compensation
“A man does not deserve huge amounts of pay for creating tiny spreads on huge amounts of money. Any idiot can do it. And, as a matter of fact, many idiots do do it.” - Charlie Munger
On Wealth
“Someone will always be getting richer faster than you. This is not a tragedy.” - Charlie Munger
Determine value apart from price; progress apart from activity; wealth apart from size. - Charlie Munger
On Bad Mergers
“When you mix raisins with turds, they are still turds.” - Charlie Munger
On Intelligence
“If you have more than 120 or 130 I.Q. points, you can afford to give the rest away. You don’t need extraordinary intelligence to succeed as an investor.” - Warren Buffett, 2008 Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting
Your investor’s edge is not something you get from Wall Street experts. It’s something you already have. You can outperform the experts if you use your edge by investing in companies or industries you already understand. - Peter Lynch
I’m right, and you’re smart, and sooner or later you’ll see I’m right. - Charlie Munger
On Niche Markets
I find it quite useful to think of a free-market economy – or partly free market economy – as sort of the equivalent of an ecosystem. Just as animals flourish in niches, people who specialize in some narrow niche can do very well.
- Charlie Munger
On Integrity
Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets – and can be lost in a heartbeat. - Charlie Munger
I think track records are very important. If you start early trying to have a perfect one in some simple thing like honesty, you’re well on your way to success in this world. - Charlie Munger
On Taking Risks
We try more to profit from always remembering the obvious than from grasping the esoteric.
- Charlie Munger
On Valuation
Over the long term, it’s hard for a stock to earn a much better return that the business which underlies it earns. If the business earns six percent on capital over forty years and you hold it for that forty years, you’re not going to make much different than a six percent return – even if you originally buy it at a huge discount. Conversely, if a business earns eighteen percent on capital over twenty or thirty years, even if you pay an expensive looking price, you’ll end up with one hell of a result. - Charlie Munger
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. – Warren Buffett
On Work
Avoid working directly under somebody you don’t admire and don’t want to be like. - Charlie Munger
On Success
Intense interest in any subject is indispensable if you’re really going to excel in it. - Charlie Munger
On Irrational Exuberance
Too much of a good thing is a bad thing
Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well. - Warren Buffett
I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful. - Warren Buffett
On Security Analysis
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” - Thoreau
If you’re prepared to invest in a company, then you ought to be able to explain why in simple language that a fifth grader could understand, and quickly enough so the fifth grader won’t get bored. - Peter Lynch
If you don’t study any companies, you have the same success buying stocks as you do in a poker game if you bet without looking at your cards. - Peter Lynch
The worst thing you can do is invest in companies you know nothing about. Unfortunately, buying stocks on ignorance is still a popular American pastime. - Peter Lynch
The simpler it is, the better I like it. - Peter Lynch
For some reason, people take their cues from price action rather than from values. What doesn’t work is when you start doing things that you don’t understand or because they worked last week for somebody else. The dumbest reason in the world to buy a stock is because it’s going up. – Warren Buffett
I never buy anything unless I can fill out on a piece of paper my reasons. I may be wrong, but I would know the answer to that. “I’m paying $32 billion today for the Coca Cola Company because.” If you can’t answer that question, you shouldn’t buy it. If you can answer that question, and you do it a few times, you’ll make a lot of money. - Warren Buffett
Do a lot of reading. - Warren Buffett
On Capital Appreciation
In the long run, a portfolio of well chosen stocks and/or equity mutual funds will always outperform a portfolio of bonds or a money-market account. In the long run, a portfolio of poorly chosen stocks won’t outperform the money left under the mattress. - Peter Lynch
In the long run, it’s not just how much money you make that will determine your future prosperity. It’s how much of that money you put to work by saving it and investing it. - Peter Lynch
On Ups and Downs
I’m always fully invested. It’s a great feeling to be caught with your pants up. – Peter Lynch
Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50% without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market. - Warren Buffett
On Long Term Approach
Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years. – Warren Buffett
Our favorite holding period is forever. - Warren Buffett
Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre. - Warren Buffett
I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years. - Warren Buffett
On Diversification
Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing. - Warren Buffett
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