Charlie Munger: Life, Net Worth Estimates and Lessons for Traders

Charlie Munger was Warren Buffett's partner and the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. He was born in Omaha on January 1, 1924, and died on November 28, 2023, at a California hospital, a month before his 100th birthday. On the day he died, Forbes estimated his fortune at $2.6 billion. He ran his own law firm and investment partnership before joining Berkshire's board in 1978.

This page keeps to what is dated and sourced: his life, the net worth estimates Forbes published year by year, the Berkshire shares he reported owning, the record of his partnership, and the rules from his checklist that a trader can use.

From Omaha to Los Angeles

Munger grew up in Omaha. In the summer of 1940 he worked at the grocery store of Buffett's grandfather for $2 for a 10-hour day, and in the 1930s he lived a block away from the house Buffett would buy in 1958. Buffett tells both details in his November 2025 letter; the two did not meet until a dinner party in 1959, when Munger was 35.

He left the University of Michigan to serve as an Army meteorologist in World War II, then graduated from Harvard Law School in 1948 and moved to California, where he made his home in Los Angeles. In 1962 he co-founded the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson and, the same year, the investment partnership Wheeler, Munger & Co. with Jack Wheeler. He closed the partnership in 1975 and became vice chairman of Berkshire three years later.

The partnership record, 1962 to 1975

Buffett published the partnership's yearly results in his 1984 talk "The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville". His point was concentration: Munger held very few securities, so his record was "much more volatile" and he "was willing to accept greater peaks and valleys of performance".

Those are the results of the whole partnership. The limited partners compounded 13.7% a year over the same 14 years.

Charlie Munger's net worth, estimate by estimate

The only regular series of estimates we found is Forbes's, and every figure below is a Forbes estimate at the date shown. The profile figures come from an archive capture of the Forbes profile dated August 28, 2026; the last figure comes from the Forbes article published the day he died.

The series climbs from $1.1 billion in March 2014 to $2.5 billion in April 2022, dips to $2.2 billion in April 2023, and ends at $2.6 billion on the day he died. There is no current net worth: the Forbes profile is marked Deceased, and Forbes published no estimate after that day.

How much of Berkshire did Charlie Munger own?

Berkshire's 2023 proxy statement lists his holding on March 8, 2023: 4,170 Class A shares and 643 Class B shares, 0.7% of the Class A shares and 0.3% of the company's economic interest. The same filing describes him as a director and vice chairman since 1978 and as chairman and chief executive of Wesco Financial from 1984 to 2011. Forbes also notes that he sat on the boards of Daily Journal Corp. and Costco.

Five Munger rules, turned into trading rules

The checklist in Poor Charlie's Almanack was written for long-term investors. The trading reading of each rule below is ours.

Poor Charlie's Almanack calls the last line one of his favorite quips. In a talk reprinted there, he added: "Every person is going to have a circle of competence. And it's going to be very hard to enlarge that circle." For the habits behind these rules, see our page on patience and discipline in trading.

How Berkshire is run after Munger and Buffett

Munger was 99 when he died. On May 4, 2025, Berkshire's board appointed Greg Abel president and chief executive, effective January 1, 2026, and Abel signed the letter on the 2025 results. On September 18, 2026, Berkshire announced that Warren Buffett had become Chairman Emeritus and remained a director, and that Howard G. Buffett had been elected chairman. The house where Buffett has lived since 1958, a block from Munger's childhood home, is the subject of our page on Warren Buffett's house in Omaha.

Other investors and traders are profiled in our famous traders section, including Cathie Wood of ARK Invest and Jesse Livermore, whose concentrated bets ended far worse.