It’s hard to believe, but this week marks one year since Charlie Munger’s death. The investing legend lived a rich life to 99, leaving fingerprints all over the investing community.

So today, we'll share some of Munger’s most timeless life and investing lessons, all worth revisiting over and over. Reply to this email to let us know which lessons speak to you the most.

Also: Did you know Warren Buffett playfully referred to Munger as “The Abominable No-Man” because Munger so frequently turned down potential investments?

All this, and more, in just 5 minutes to read.

— Matthew

Quote of the Day

"I wake up in the morning asking myself, what can I do today? How can I help the world today?"

— Julia Butterfly Hill

Together With DUNN Capital

50 Years of Success Built on Discipline

In 1974, physicist Bill Dunn did something extraordinary. While the financial world focused on predicting the future, he took a different path—one grounded in data, discipline, and a systematic approach to investing.

Fast forward 50 years, and DUNN Capital is still thriving—through every bull market, bear market, and global crisis.

What’s the secret? There’s no crystal ball here. Just a disciplined, time-tested strategy that’s allowed them to navigate the ups and downs of global markets for decades—without losing sight of our core values.

Now, they’re celebrating 50 years of success, and they want to share with you the story behind it all.

Download our FREE eBook and Discover:

• How DUNN Capital built a $1.4 billion legacy using a scientific approach to trend-following

• The key moments in our 50-year journey—through market highs and lows—that shaped our strategies

• Why they only succeed when our clients succeed (our compensation model aligns with your financial success)

Accredited Investor? Confirm your status to access the eBook and watch an exclusive video about DUNN Capital’s journey from a bold idea to one of the most respected systematic trading firms.

What Else We’re Into

📺 WATCH: TGI Fridays: How the American icon became a shell of itself

🎧 LISTEN: You can be a stock market genius with Roger Fan and Clay Finck

📖 READ: You only have to get rich once, by Jack Raines

Trivia

Reflecting on the Great Charlie Munger

Warren Buffett's right-hand man at Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger, wasn't just one of the world's most successful investors—he was a modern-day philosopher whose wisdom transcended finance.

Until his passing in late 2023 at age 99, Munger offered timeless insights about life, learning, and decision-making with a rare combination of wit, clarity, and brutal honesty that made his words resonate far beyond Wall Street.

What made Munger extraordinary wasn't his investment acumen but his systematic approach to wisdom itself. He was a voracious reader (book always in hand) who drew insights from multiple disciplines—psychology, history, physics, biology—creating a "latticework of mental models" to understand the world better. While many successful people guard their secrets, Munger took the opposite approach, openly sharing his principles for better thinking and decision-making through speeches, interviews, and shareholder meetings.

His quotes, often delivered with characteristic dry humor, cut through complexity to reveal fundamental truths about human nature, success, and the art of living well.

They serve not just as guidance for investors, but as a practical philosophy for anyone seeking to make better decisions and live a more thoughtful life. Here are some of his most impactful insights, compiled below:

“I sought good judgment mostly by collecting instances of bad judgment, then pondering ways to avoid such outcomes.”

“I think a life properly lived is just learn, learn, learn all the time.”

"The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want."

"No wise pilot, no matter how great his talent and experience, fails to use a checklist."

"If you're going to be an investor, you're going to make some investments where you don't have all the experience you need. But if you keep trying to get a little better over time, you'll start to make fewer mistakes."

"Live within your income and save so that you can invest. Learn what you need to learn."

"If all you succeed in doing in life is getting rich by buying little pieces of paper, it's a failed life. Life is more than being shrewd in wealth accumulation."

"Life will have terrible blows in it, horrible blows, unfair blows. And some people recover and others don't. And there I think the attitude of Epictetus is the best. He said that every missed chance in life was an opportunity to behave well, every missed chance in life was an opportunity to learn something, and that your duty was not to be submerged in self-pity, but to utilize the terrible blow in constructive fashion."

"Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets—and can be lost in a heartbeat."

“You should never, when faced with one unbelievable tragedy, let one tragedy increase into two or three because of a failure of will.”

“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Systematically you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. Nevertheless, you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day – if you live long enough – most people get what they deserve.”

“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”

“Take a simple idea, and take it seriously.”

“I see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help.”

“I didn’t get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.”

“I want to think about things where I have an advantage over others. I don’t want to play a game where people have an advantage over me. I don’t play in a game where other people are wise and I am stupid. I look for a game where I am wise, and they are stupid. And believe me, it works better. God bless our stupid competitors. They make us rich.”

“I am not smart enough to make decisions with no time to think. I make actual decisions very rapidly, but that’s because I have spent so much time preparing ourselves by quietly reading.”

"It's not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid."

"If you don't keep learning, other people will pass you by."

"There is no better teacher than history in determining the future... There are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book."

"In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn't read all the time – none, zero."

"People calculate too much and think too little."

"Three rules for a career: 1) Don't sell anything you wouldn't buy yourself; 2) Don't work for anyone you don't respect and admire; and 3) Work only with people you enjoy."

"Knowing what you don't know is more useful than being brilliant."

"Show me the incentives, and I will show you the outcome."

"The world is not driven by greed. It's driven by envy."

"The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting."

Dive deeper

For more, read Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger or Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor.

See you next time!

Enjoy reading this newsletter? Forward it to a friend.

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Use the promo code STOCKS15 at checkout for 15% off our popular course “How To Get Started With Stocks.”

Partner with us.

Follow us on Twitter.

Keep an eye on your inbox for our newsletters on weekdays around 6pm EST and on weekends. If you have any feedback for us, simply respond to this email.

You can also leave your comments/suggestions/feedback anonymously here.