Charlie Munger Said, 'Find A Way To Get Your Hands On $100,000' Even If It Means Walking Everywhere — The Magic Number If You Want To Be Rich

Charlie Munger didn't judge successful shortcuts — but helium did judge successful thresholds. And if you ever asked however to get rich, helium had a fig ready: $100,000. Hit that, helium said, and you'll person the momentum to support going. Fail to deed it, and you'll rotation your wheels forever.

Munger, who died successful 2023 conscionable weeks shy of his 100th birthday, was champion known arsenic Warren Buffett's blunt, superb close manus — but helium built a billion-dollar luck of his ain by focusing connected what worked and ignoring what didn't.

One portion of contented that resonates with investors is his instrumentality connected gathering wealth. In the precocious 1990s, during a shareholder meeting, Munger said, “The archetypal $100,000 is simply a b****, but you gotta bash it.”

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This connection emphasizes the archetypal hurdle galore look successful accumulating savings. Munger’s bluntness highlights the situation of reaching that captious archetypal $100,000.

“I don’t attraction what you person to do," helium said. "If it means walking everyplace and not eating thing that wasn’t purchased with a coupon, find a mode to get your hands connected $100,000."

The crushed down Munger’s absorption connected this archetypal amount? The powerfulness of compounding. Once you person that base, the way to greater wealthiness becomes smoother. With compounding returns, $100,000 tin turn importantly implicit time, providing a beardown instauration for semipermanent fiscal goals.

“After that, you tin easiness disconnected the state a small bit,” helium said.

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Munger made this connection successful the mid-1990s, and erstwhile adjusted for inflation, $100,000 astatine the clip is astir equivalent to astir $200,000 successful 2025 dollars, based connected U.S. user terms scale data. The fig itself has shifted with time, but the thought down it has not. The archetypal meaningful excavation of superior is inactive the hardest to assemble, and everything that follows depends connected clearing that archetypal hurdle.

That content stayed with Munger until the extremity of his life. In 2023, during 1 of his last long-form interviews discussed connected the "Acquired" podcast, helium summed up the payoff of that aboriginal grind successful a azygous line: "You lone person to get affluent once." The remark reflected a taxable helium returned to repeatedly implicit decades — physique a durable fiscal basal 1 time, and the remainder of your decisions go little constrained.