Warren Buffett Reveals Why Charlie Munger is His Most Trusted Advisor | Berkshire Hathaway 2024

[Transcript]

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good morning, my name is Sebastian Sartor. I’m from Munich, Germany. Berkshire Hathaway is a very respected company in Germany. And my question is, who are your most trusted advisors today? Is it Ted and Todd? Is it Greg and Ajit? Is it your wife, your children? And what do you value about them? Thank you.

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, it depends whether they’re advising me on money or on other things. (Laughter) I trust my children and my wife totally, but that doesn’t mean I ask them what stocks to buy. (Laughter) In terms of managing money, there wasn’t anybody better in the world to talk to for many, many decades than Charlie. And that doesn’t mean I didn’t talk to other people. But if I didn’t think I could do it myself, I wouldn’t have done it. So to some extent, I talked to myself on investments, and I think my children have gotten a whole lot wiser over the years. And so I listened to them on a lot of things.

I’ll listen to my daughter on who to vote for locally, because she knows a lot more about that than I do. And I’ll listen to my wife on a lot of things and I won’t get into details. (Laughter) So it is important. If you don’t live a life where you surround yourself and limit yourself to people you trust, it won’t be much fun. I mean, I literally have been in the position ever since I was in my twenties of being able to have people I trusted around me. And I’ve made mistakes occasionally, but they filter out over time. You learn.

And when I found Charlie, for example, in all kinds of matters, not just investment, you know, I knew I’d have somebody that, well, I’ll put it this way. You can think about this, Charlie in all the years we worked together, not only never once lied to me, ever, but he didn’t even shape things so that he told half lies or quarter lies to sort of stack the deck in the direction he wanted to go. He absolutely considered, total, of utmost importance that he never lied.

Now, that occasionally got him in trouble at dinner parties or something. If he said to the woman, I really prefer the way you used to do your hair, the way that somebody over across the room does. (Laughter) But in terms of having a partner, I simply cannot think of a conversation I ever had with Charlie that in the least he misled me or shaped it his way or anything of the sort. So when you get that in your life, you know, you cherish those people and you sort of forget about the rest. Okay. (Applause)
 

Source: https://buffett.cnbc.com/2024-berkshire-hathaway-annual-meeting/

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