Charlie Munger Said If He Could Go Back 100 Years And Start Over, He’d Be A Trillionaire, Not Just A Billionaire —’I Basically Screwed Up’
- Personal Finance
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Charlie Munger played the hand he was dealt, but if you ask him, he didn’t play it quite well enough.
In what became his final interview before passing away at age 99, the billionaire vice chair of Berkshire Hathaway spoke with CNBC in November 2023, reflecting on a century of life, business, and missed opportunities. The special aired two days after his death on Nov. 28.
Despite a legendary investing career and a long partnership with Warren Buffett, Munger admitted he had regrets. “I’m not all that pleased,” he said. “I could of done a lot better if I had been a little smarter, a little quicker.”
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That line came during a story about knowing his limits. As a child in Omaha, Nebraska, Munger said he learned to avoid competing in areas where he lacked natural ability, particularly anything mechanical. “So I decided to stay the hell out of businesses where I would compete with people like Eddie Davis Jr. and Eddie Davis Sr. in their strong suit.”
That strategy helped shape his famed “circle of competency” framework — but even then, he wondered how much more he could have achieved.
“Well, no, but I might have had multiple trillions instead of multiple billions,” Munger said, when the CNBC host Becky Quick pushed back and suggested he had succeeded in everything. “Yes, I do think about it. I think about it. Yes, I think about it, about what I nearly missed by being just not quite smart enough or hardworking enough.”
“I Know I Would Be the Richest Man on Earth”
When asked directly what he would change if he could relive the last 100 years, Munger didn’t hesitate.
“Well, I’d go back and make some, of course. It’d be a cinch to go back and do it knowing what was gonna happen now,” he told CNBC. “I know I would be the richest man on Earth.”
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What did he miss? It wasn’t one fatal mistake — it was a matter of timing and momentum. “Well, I would’ve started earlier for one thing,” he said in the interview. “And I would’ve compounded longer. And I would’ve compounded better.”
“And of course I’d be – would’ve ended up richer if I was gonna live to be 100 years old,” he added. “And I constantly am aware of the facts that I basically screwed up. Given the hand I dealt, I could’ve done a lot better, quite easily done a lot better.”
That mix of self-awareness and brutal honesty defined much of Munger’s worldview. His advice was simple, but never sugarcoated: know your weaknesses, avoid stupidity, and start early.
But He Never Regretted Keeping The Same House
While Munger second-guessed missed opportunities to multiply wealth, there was one thing he never regretted: living simply.
Quick noted that he’d spent 70 years in the same house. “You could’ve moved and spent more,” she said.
“I know. But Warren’s lived—in his house for about 60 years. We’re similar,” Munger replied. “But you see, we’re both smart enough to have watched our friends who got rich build these really fancy houses. And I would say in practically every case, they make the person less happy, not happier.”
“In other words, having a basic house really helps you,” he continued. “Having a really fancy house, it’s good for entertaining 100 people at once. It’s a very expensive thing to do. And it doesn’t do you that much good.”
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He believed in cutting out the unnecessary — whether it was flashy purchases, emotional distractions, or risky investments. When Quick asked him what his secret was, he answered plainly: “I avoided the standard ways of failing.”
“You teach me the wrong way to play poker and I will avoid it,” Munger said. “You teach me the wrong way to do something else, I will avoid it.”
That mindset — cautious, deliberate, unfazed by hype — may not have made him the richest man on Earth. But it did make him one of the most respected. And in his eyes, the room for improvement never went away.
No Crystal Ball, Just Better Decisions
Financial regrets don’t require a trillion-dollar what-if. Even Munger — with decades of compounding, discipline, and Buffett on speed dial — looked back and wished he’d started earlier, compounded harder, and done more with the hand he was dealt.
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