The story of Charlie Munger, one of the world's best investors, and a young orthodox Jew he took under his wing.
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 Munger’s longtime home in Los Angeles’s Hancock Park neighborhood. Mayer presented Munger with a Hebrew volume containing the Five Books of Moses.
“I had read about him and thought he was Jewish,” 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.
“I was insecure,” he says. “My friends were going to college and I wasn’t.”
Mayer began spending time with Munger.
“He listened to my problems and talked about life principles and personal values,” Mayer says.
Munger told others that he appreciated Mayer’s intelligence and ambition. The famed investor supported Mayer as he weighed skipping college, saying Mayer could instead attend “Munger University.” So that’s what Mayer did.
“I watched him in action and learned from him, and he handed me books once in a while,” 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.
“I’m graduating you,” he said. Starting around 2017, the three men purchased nearly 10,000 “garden” 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 business—choosing 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 loans—even as other real-estate investors favored short-term debt that could be quickly refinanced—arguing that securing favorable interest rates and holding assets for years was the way to profit.
The moves panned out: Afton’s 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.
-From the The @WSJ and @GZuckerman
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