Only at 99 years old: A billionaire's 70-year verified "life's lightning rod guide"

Did you know? The smartest people often fail at the most inconspicuous places.

Charlie Munger has spent nearly a century illustrating this truth. From the stormy night in 1953 to remaining active on the front lines of investing in 2022, this chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and his team have summarized three “traps” that 99% of people have fallen into.

The collapse of life always begins with a small crack

In 1950s Los Angeles, a 29-year-old young lawyer was rebuilding his life. He had a house, a career, a wife, and children—all seemed to be on track. Until that call from the school.

Teddy’s urn made him realize for the first time what “nothing to lose” truly meant. To pay medical bills, he mortgaged his house. The check deposit time couldn’t alleviate the fact that financial freedom couldn’t save a young life. More cruelly, his wife chose to leave amid the shared trauma.

That year, he almost lost everything—going from “property-owning class” to “a guest on the office sofa.”

But this disaster taught him the most important lesson: Life never suddenly destroys you; it just piles up the overlooked vulnerabilities into a mountain.

Three invisible killers are stealing your future

Over the next 70 years, Munger observed countless “success stories” and “failures.” He found that what truly determines the course of life is not talent or luck, but three choices:

First line of defense: Recognize the true nature of debt

Debt is not a tool; it is a trap under the guise of a tool.

During the Great Depression, he saw people mortgaging properties to speculate in stocks; a 10% decline was enough to make them jump from rooftops. During Hong Kong’s market crash in 1997, he watched those using fivefold leverage to buy luxury homes lose everything in a 60% drop.

Numbers speak: if you have 100 dollars and lose 50, you can recover; but if you borrow 100 and invest 200, losing 50 means you not only lose your own 100 but also owe others 50. This is not “loss”; it’s a “systemic collapse”.

From bankruptcy to rebirth, Munger set a strict rule for himself: never owe a debt that cannot be repaid. He drove a 20-year-old car and lived in a 30-year-old apartment until old age. Others call him “stingy,” but he laughs and says: “Only those free of debt are truly free.”

Second line of defense: Stop wasting energy in emotional turmoil

In the first year after his divorce, Munger was trapped in a vortex of “why.” Distracted at work, unable to focus on investment reports—every self-reflection was an ineffective drain of energy.

He later realized that all that “drama” was just emotional vampires: arguing with colleagues over trivial gossip, obsessing over exes’ social circles, dredging up old grudges at family gatherings.

He saw a genius partner spend three years fighting a “divorce” lawsuit because of conflicts with a teammate. When he finally won the case, the industry’s boom had already passed. He won the “logic” but lost in life.

Since then, Munger learned to cut decisively: block those who drain him; give up immediately on things that waste his time. It’s not cold-hearted; it’s respect for a limited life.

The difference between winners and losers is really “energy allocation”—one invests time in things that compound, the other wastes energy in muddy waters that only get messier.

Third line of defense: Stay away from people who drag you into pits

Munger’s “fools” are not idiots, but “people who are clueless”:

Making wrong decisions and refusing to admit it, then dragging you down with them; mistaking “busywork” for effort, working overtime daily but not understanding basic logic; being led by emotions—jealousy of peers today, greed for big gains tomorrow.

Before age 29, he partnered with a “speculative” friend in investments. The other kept urging him to “borrow high-interest loans to buy stocks,” until that friend was jailed for fraud. Only then did he realize how close he was to falling in too. One step later, he would have been in it too.

Later, when choosing partners, Munger used an “desert island test”: if I and this person were stranded on an island, could we survive?

He didn’t care how high their IQ was, as long as they could admit mistakes, stay rational, and avoid emotional internal conflicts. His decades-long partnership with Buffett is because “we never waste energy on irrelevant matters, admit mistakes when wrong, and persist when right.”

You can’t wake someone pretending to sleep, nor can you drag someone into a pit who wants to jump. The smartest choice is to turn around and walk away, leaving your mental space for worthy things.

The ultimate secret: being able to “endure” is more precious than being smart

In 2022, 98-year-old Munger was asked at the shareholders’ meeting, “What is the secret to success?” He smiled and only said one word: Resilience.

On that despairing summer night in 1953, he finished his last cigarette and returned to his office. The next morning, he took on a divorce case that paid only $50. His simple thought was: “Earn this 50 dollars first, then the next 50.”

Ten years to rebuild his law firm, ten years to acquire Berkshire Hathaway with Buffett, and in the decades that followed, he experienced stock market crashes, partner retirements, and countless moments where “it looked like he would lose.” But he never thought of giving up.

Now, at 99, he still reads five books a day, discusses investments with Buffett into late hours, and has childhood drawings of Teddy on his bookshelf—things that life could not take away.

Life is like a marathon; it’s not about who runs the fastest, but who can reach the finish line.

Avoid debt, stay away from internal conflicts, choose the right companions, and then move forward step by step. Time will turn all “suffering” into sweet memories. This is the greatest gift of a 99-year life.