9 Rules For Avoiding A Miserable Life According To Charlie Munger
Simple rules that separate a good life from a miserable one
I first fell in love with the late great Charlie Munger when he said
“Don’t do cocaine. Don’t race trains to the track. And avoid all AIDS situations.”
It’s a quote that set the tone for a relationship I developed with Munger despite obviously never meeting the man himself.
Munger, however, is probably best known as the partner in crime to the best investor of all time, Warren Buffett.
But he was so much more than just your average run-of-the-mill billionaire.
He was witty and wise, and easily one of the greatest minds of his generation.
Not only have I become wealthier in terms of dollar net-worth because of Uncle Charlie’s wisdom, but I’d say I’m also a happier and more fulfilled human being, too.
Here are 9 rules for a happier, wealthier life, according to the late but definitely great Charlie Munger.
1. Avoid Envy.
“Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. There’s a lot of pain and no fun.”
Envy is an extremely deadly sin.
It offers absolutely no purpose whatsoever, and all envy does is make its possessor miserable and bitter beyond belief.
It robs you of the ability to appreciate what you already have, because instead of focusing on your own progress, you become fixated on someone else’s.
Not only does envy bring you down, but it also holds you back enormously in life.
2. Never overspend your income.
“I don’t care what you want to buy — if you can’t afford it, don’t buy it.”
This is such a stupidly simple rule for life.
But at the same time, it’s something that goes out of the window with people today, as more than a third of people have little to no savings in their bank accounts.
They say that money doesn’t make you happy, and to a certain extent, that’s very much true.
However, not having enough money causes a boatload of stress and anxiety about life.
3. Be reliable.
“Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets — and can be lost in a heartbeat.”
The world is full of people who promise the world and deliver nothing.
Don’t be one of them people.
If you say you’re going to do something, do it, and don’t half-ass it either.
Deliver on what you’ve promised and then some. This is how you build a reliable and trustworthy reputation.
4. Deserve what you want.
“To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. The world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people.”
The world is never going to offer everything you ever wanted to you on a silver platter, ever.
To get what you want out of life, you need to work for it. You need to earn it. You need to deserve it.
5. Know what you don’t know.
“Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.”
Socrates once said something similar to this. He said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
Acknowledging what you do and don’t know is the dawning of wisdom, humility, and intelligence.
By admitting your current blind spots, you’re immediately opening yourself up to learning new things.
What you’re doing is confronting your ignorance.
And confronting your ignorance leads you to become a better, wiser, more intelligent human.
6. Manage your expectations.
“The first rule of a happy life is low expectations.”
Approaching life with lower expectations isn’t sad or morbid. It’s actually a very smart thing to do.
Lower expectations don’t mean having no expectations or drive in life.
What lowering expectations does is prepare you not to be as disappointed with life when things don’t turn out the way you wanted them to.
7. Never stop learning.
“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day-if you live long enough-like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve.”
If you spend your entire life trying to become a smidge better than what you were the day before, you’ll eventually achieve great things.
You don’t even have to be brilliant, but by getting 1% every day from now until your last, you can rest assured that brilliance will eventually arrive.
8. Think in reverse.
“All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.”
Start living life and solving problems from the bottom up rather than from the top down.
In effect, live life in reverse.
If you start by thinking about all the things that can go wrong before they go right, you’ll know exactly what to avoid at all costs and prevent catastrophes from happening further down the line.
9. Cultivate patience.
“The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting.”
You can be the most brilliant person on the planet.
However, if you don’t have the discipline to remain patient, you’ll cause yourself a hell of a lot of needless problems.
In the short term, the world might reward the most brilliant.
But in the long term, the world rewards those who are most patient and disciplined.
What do you think of Uncle Charlie’s rules for a happy life?