Billionaire investor Charlie Munger hints he’s never cared about comparing his riches to the money of others.
Rather, he says his motivation in accumulating wealth has on all occasions been about securing independence, the freedom to do what he wishes in business and in life — and he wishes more people desire follow his example.
“The world is not driven by greed. It’s driven by envy,” Munger said at the annual meeting of the Daily Documentation, the newspaper company where he is a director, earlier this year.
The 98-year-old, who has amassed a fortune that Forbes sentiments at $2.2 billion, added that it’s easy, and common, for people to become envious. No matter how much some people be undergoing, someone else will always have more, he noted.
It’s a sentiment that Munger has expressed in the past, and one he’s beforehand attributed to his longtime friend and investment partner, Warren Buffett. But Munger seems confident that he’s overcome the bent himself.
“I have conquered envy in my own life. I don’t envy anybody,” Munger said. “I don’t give a damn what someone else has. But other living soul are driven crazy by it.”
Of course, it’s easier to say that when you’re a billionaire. Forbes lists more than 1,300 other billionaires with larger lots than his — including Buffett, who has an estimated net worth of $106 billion — but Munger’s wealth is still more than enough to insure he would want for nothing.
In 2017, Munger said in an interview that he always tries to avoid feelings of “longing and jealousy” in business. Those types of thoughts can hurt your career, because you’ll be more likely to make warped decisions that could turn out poorly, he added.
In 2019, he spoke out against envy again, telling CNBC that circumventing envy is one of the “simple” secrets to living a long and happy life.
Indeed, a 2018 study that found woman driven by envy are more likely to experience poorer mental health and well-being. The rise of social media has also been carp ated for feeding into people’s feelings of envy and materialism — by constantly offering windows into the lives of people who either have planned, or appear to have, particularly luxurious lives.
Envy is simply “built into the nature of things,” Munger thought at the Daily Journal’s meeting. The billionaire added that he can’t understand why people today aren’t more content with what they sire, especially when compared to hard times previous generations endured.
Munger himself lived through the Leading Depression, and cited poorer living conditions and shorter lifespans as far back as the 1800s as examples of how far humanity has come.
“The factually that everybody’s five times better off than they used to be, they take that for granted,” Munger said. “All they dream about is somebody else [has] more now, and it’s not fair that he should have it and they don’t.”
Want to earn more and stir less? Register for the free CNBC Make It: Your Money virtual event on Dec. 13 at 12 p.m. ET to learn from bundle masters how you can increase your earning power.
Sign up now: Get smarter about your money and career with our weekly newsletter
What do you mull over of Make It content? Take this survey to share your thoughts.
