The most effective joke and knowledge from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger on the Berkshire Hathaway annual assembly

Berkshire HathawaySaturday’s annual shareholder meeting included dozens of questions on topics including investment strategy, artificial intelligence and politics for the legendary investors at the conglomerate’s helm: Chairman Warren Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger

But it wasn’t all purely business. Buffett and Munger — who are 92 and 99, respectively — cracked jokes and shared wisdom from decades in the investing world during the more than five hours they spent answering questions.

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Tens of thousands who gathered at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska were laughed at on several occasions by quips from the 90-year-olds.

Stockholders watch Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger during the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday, May 6, 2023, in Omaha, Neb.

Rebecca H Gratz | AP

Here are some of the best moments from The Oracle of Omaha and Munger:

King Charles and King Charlie

Buffett referred to the coronation of King Charles III, which was also planned for Saturday. in England when he introduced Munger. According to NBC News, Charles was the 40th monarch to be crowned at Westminster Abbey in a tradition dating back to 1066.

Waking up this morning I realized we had a competition show somewhere in the UK… They were celebrating a King Charles and we have our own King Charles today.

More people do “stupid things”

Munger said that value investors should be prepared to see lower returns as competition increases. But Buffett said there are still opportunities because so many people have a short-term view and often do stupid things in a panic.

What gives you opportunities is other people doing stupid things… In the 58 years that we’ve run Berkshire, I think the number of people doing stupid things has increased a lot, and they’re doing big, stupid things Things.

‘degradation’

Munger said it’s “crazy” to teach that you need to diversify when investing in common stocks.

One of the crazy things that modern college education teaches is that tremendous diversification is absolutely mandatory when investing in common stocks… That’s a crazy idea. It’s not that easy to have a huge abundance of good opportunities that can be easily identified. And if you only have three, I’d rather be on my best ideas than my worst.

And he said investors should know themselves and their strengths.

We’re not that smart, but we kind of know where the edge of our smarts is… That’s a very important part of practical intelligence. … If you know your own skills fairly well, you should ignore most of our experts’ ideas about what I call “degrading” portfolios.

‘Hold the God— Supply’

Munger had one simple piece of advice when it came to a Berkshire Hathaway estate. And he didn’t mince words when he shared it.

Well, at Berkshire, we have a simple estate planning problem. Just keep the god—share.

Write your obituary and live by it

Buffett gave advice on how to live life and how to spend and invest in ways that aren’t harmful.

You should write your obituary and then try to figure out how to do it justice. This is something you’ll get smarter at as you keep going. …you just want to make sure you don’t make mistakes that take you out of the game or are close to taking you out of your game. You should never have a night of worrying about investing, assuming you have money to invest at all. … Spend a little less than you earn and you can spend a little more than you earn. … Then you’re in debt, and chances are you’ll never get out of debt. I’ll make an exception for a mortgage on your house.

Not smarter, but smarter

Buffett said that investors don’t need to be experts on the technical aspects of companies when they can understand the fundamentals and commit to always learning.

We are interested in owning a wonderful company forever. … We’re learning a lot as we go on. … We are constantly learning how consumers behave. I will not be able to learn the technical aspects of companies. It would be nice if I knew, but it’s not essential. … We have a business at Apple … I don’t understand the phone at all, but I understand consumer behavior. … We are constantly learning from all of our businesses. …We don’t get smarter over time, but we…get a little smarter by following it over time.