On the late night of Thanksgiving two years ago, prominent American investor Charlie Munger was admitted to a hospital in Montecito, California. He asked his family to leave the room, then made a final phone call to his close friend and investment partner Warren Buffet.
In his annual Thanksgiving letter this year, Buffet once again mentioned Munger, with whom he had worked for 64 years. They would talk on the phone every one or two weeks. Buffet lives in Omaha, Nebraska, while Munger resides in Los Angeles. Due to his hearing loss, they often had to shout to make each other hear.
Buffet wrote, “For over sixty years, his influence on me has been immense, the best teacher and guardian ‘big brother’. Our opinions were not always in agreement, but we’ve never really argued, he never said ‘I told you so’.”
Munger served in the military during World War II, later graduated from Harvard Law School, and joined Berkshire Hathaway as vice chairman in 1978.
A recent interview published in The Wall Street Journal recalled the unknown stories of Munger in the last years of his life. This nearly 100-year-old man, with assets worth billions, continued to boldly invest, build friendships, and face new challenges in his final years, unbound by money.
Even in his last year before passing away, Munger, who led a simple life, chose to stay at his old house in Los Angeles, refusing to install air conditioning even in the hot summer.
During the year leading to his passing, Munger made a bold bet on the coal industry, earning over $50 million. He also personally mentored a young neighbor in real estate investment, which was extraordinary for a nonagenarian.
“Until the day he died, his mind was still active,” said Munger’s stepson Hal Borthwick. “He never stopped learning.”
Friends said that for decades, Munger hardly paid attention to coal stocks, but in 2023, he began to take notice of these companies. Despite a long-term decline in coal consumption and dim prospects for the industry, many producers remained profitable, with their stock prices at low levels. Munger told friends and others that with global energy demand on the rise, coal would still be a necessity.
In May 2023, Munger bought shares of coal mining company Consol Energy. Later that year, he purchased shares of Alpha Metallurgical Resources, a coal producer for steelmaking. By the time of Munger’s passing, Consol had doubled in value, and Alpha’s stock price had significantly increased. Friends said that these two investments combined gave him over $50 million in realized gains.
In his later years, Munger made a remarkable decision. In 2005, when he was 81 and living in his old house in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, his 17-year-old neighbor Avi Mayer gathered the courage to knock on his door.
Mayer, who had ADHD and couldn’t attend school normally, felt hopeless about his future.
“I didn’t feel secure,” he said. “My friends were going to college, and I wasn’t.”
Mayer started spending time with Munger.
“He listened to my problems and talked about life principles and personal values,” Mayer said.
When Mayer considered giving up on college, Munger supported his decision and offered to mentor him. Munger told others that he admired Mayer’s wisdom and aspirations.
“I observed how he did things, learned from him, and occasionally, he gave me some books,” Mayer said.
Later, Mayer and his childhood friend Reuven Gradon worked together to invest in real estate. Years later, Munger volunteered to financially support the two young men and their small company Afton Properties.
“I’m getting you guys graduated,” Munger said.
Starting around 2017, the trio purchased nearly 10,000 “garden-style” apartments in Southern California, becoming one of the largest owners of such low-rise apartments in the state.
In the years before his passing, Munger was involved in all business decisions of the company, from selecting communities to evaluating buildings and even choosing paint colors. Mayer, now 37, said that Munger was particularly interested in landscape details, insisted on low-density building clusters, and required investing hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in planting new trees.
Munger encouraged Mayer and Gradon to apply for long-term loans. While other real estate investors favored short-term debt that could be refinanced quickly, Munger believed that locking in favorable interest rates and holding assets for many years was the path to profit.
According to a knowledgeable source, Afton Properties’ assets are currently valued at around $3 billion.
Munger had fond memories of the canned lunch meat he ate during his military service when he was younger. Once, his granddaughter Jackson made him a canned meat fried rice.
“He kept saying it’s different from what he remembered, the taste changed,” Jackson recalled. “I said, ‘Grandpa, it’s your taste buds changing.'”
“He liked Costco hot dogs,” Jackson said. “In the hospital, one of his last meals was an In-N-Out hamburger and a Diet Coke.”
Humorously, at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting in May 2025, the table in front of Buffet still had 2 cans of Coca-Cola and a box of See’s Candies – as usual.
Buffet smiled and said, although he’s 94, he’ll still drink Coke if he wants to and doesn’t do much exercise, just like Munger in that aspect.