The beauty of living to 99 is getting the chance to enjoy the fruits of compound returns. Charlie Munger died just short of reaching the century mark. Munger is best known as Warren Buffett’s curmudgeonly sidekick. The Oracle of Omaha himself has never been shy to attribute the success of Berkshire Hathaway to Munger’s wisdom and acumen.
Munger was not solely obsessed with buying companies that traded cheaply, an approach espoused by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, the famed long-ago scholars who influenced a young Buffett. He believed good companies always triumphed over time and thus did not need to be purchased at bargain basement prices.
In this year’s shareholder letter, Buffett discussed Berkshire’s ongoing winnings from American Express and Coca-Cola, both big blue-chip bets made in the 1990s.