š ASB Partners Nuggets 11.28.25
This is a short weekly email that covers a few things Iāve found interesting during the week.
Interesting Links/Reads
Many links are sourced from Marginal Revolution (bold and italics are my own to highlight what I found particularly interesting)
Charlie Mungerās final years (WSJ).
Munger made another unusual late-in-life wager. It began in 2005, when Munger was 81 years old and a 17-year-old neighbor, Avi Mayer, knocked on the door of Mungerās longtime home in Los Angelesās Hancock Park neighborhood. Mayer presented Munger with a Hebrew volume containing the Five Books of Moses.
āI had read about him and thought he was Jewish,ā says Mayer, whose grandfather had recently died, leaving a hole in his life. (Munger was not Jewish.)
Mayer was having difficulties in school. He battled ADHD and was discouraged about his future.
āI was insecure,ā he says. āMy friends were going to college and I wasnāt.ā
Mayer began spending time with Munger.
āHe listened to my problems and talked about life principles and personal values,ā Mayer says.
Munger told others that he appreciated Mayerās intelligence and ambition. The famed investor supported Mayer as he weighed skipping college, saying Mayer could instead attend āMunger University.ā So thatās what Mayer did.
āI watched him in action and learned from him, and he handed me books once in a while,ā Mayer says. They became close and Munger arranged for kosher food to be delivered to his home so they could dine together.
When Mayer partnered with his childhood friend, Reuven Gradon, to invest in real estate, Munger studied their early moves. A few years later, he offered to back the young men and their company, Afton Properties. āIām graduating you,ā he said. Starting around 2017, the three men purchased nearly 10,000 āgardenā apartments in Southern California, becoming one of largest owners of these low-rise apartments in the state.
In the years before his death, Munger involved himself in almost every aspect of their businessāchoosing neighborhoods, assessing construction, even picking paint colors. He had special interest in landscaping details, insisting on low-density building complexes, deciding the company should spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to plant new trees, says Mayer, now 37.
Munger encouraged Mayer and Gradon to take long-term loansāeven as other real-estate investors favored short-term debt that could be quickly refinancedāarguing that securing favorable interest rates and holding assets for years was the way to profit.
The moves panned out: Aftonās holdings are now worth about $3 billion, according to a person close to the matter. Munger remained involved until the end, helping negotiate the purchase of a building in Santa Maria, Calif., a transaction that closed days after his death. It was across from a new Costco supercenter, making it extra special to Munger.
For decades, he barely looked at coal stocks, friends say, but in 2023, these companies grabbed his attention. Coal usage was in a long-term decline, and investors saw a bleak future for the industry. Yet many producers remained profitable, trading at inexpensive levels. Coal will remain necessary as global energy demand grows, Munger argued to friends and others.
āHe read an article that said coal was down the chute,ā Borthwick recalls. āHe said, āHorse feathers.ā ā
In May 2023, Munger purchased shares of coal miner Consol Energy. Later in the year, he bought shares of Alpha Metallurgical Resources, which produces coal for steel production. By the time of Mungerās death, Consol had doubled in value. Alpha had also surged. Together he scored paper gains of more than $50 million, friends say.
He chose to spend more time with friends, buoying his spirits. Each Tuesday, he met a half-dozen or so business associates and others for breakfast, usually at the Los Angeles Country Club. The group typically arrived at 7:30 a.m. and could go for hours. They discussed investments, traded barbs and shared jokes. Regulars included investors John Hawkins and John Conlin, Uber Chairman Ron Sugar, and later Bobby Kotick, the former Activision chief executive. Robert Bradway, Amgenās CEO, made occasional visits. Munger, at the head of the table, told stories and shared philosophies.
āHeād always say, āTake out Berkshireās top five investments and its returns are pretty middling,ā ā says Montgomery, a lesson to the group that success can come from just a few winning moves.
As a younger man, Munger could be cranky and acerbic; now, he was warm and reflective.
āAt my age, you make new friends, or you donāt have any friends,ā he told the group.
Podcast/Videos
šStory of Non Jewish man that relied on Shema/Torah to help him win $10mm in Beast Games
āI had a prayer book and I was saying the Shema and obviously the first verse of the Shema has 6 words in it.ā
I hope you enjoyed it.
Adam