At age 99, most people are slowing down. Charlie Munger was doubling down on coal.
According to The Wall Street Journal’s in-depth profile on Thursday, “The Untold Story of Charlie Munger’s Final Years,” the Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman made a surprising investment in 2023 that surprised even his closest friends. After staying away from coal for six decades, Munger suddenly jumped in with both feet and walked away with more than $50 million in paper profits.
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The move came from the same library he had worked in for decades: a room without air conditioning, where his friends once brought ice and electric fans during a heat wave to keep him comfortable. Sitting in a recliner, surrounded by green Value Line binders, Munger still had the same keen eye for value for which he had become known throughout his legendary investing career.
Munger found an article that said coal “has gone down the slide,” the Journal reported. He didn’t believe it. “Horse feathers,” he said to his stepson, Hal Borthwick. While the industry had experienced a long-term decline, Munger believed that many coal producers remained highly profitable and deeply undervalued, especially those that produced metallurgical coal, which remains critical to global steel production.
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Thus, in May 2023, Munger bought shares of Consol Energy. Later that year, it added Alpha Metallurgical Resources to the mix. By the time of his death in late November 2023, just weeks before his 100th birthday, Consol shares had doubled and Alpha had also skyrocketed. Friends close to Munger said the combined paper profits from the two positions exceeded $50 million.
“He made a very big bet and it turned out very well,” Borthwick told The Journal.
The coal trade was no accident. While Munger was no longer deeply involved in Berkshire’s day-to-day operations (despite having a $2.2 billion stake), he was far from retiring. According to the Journal, he spoke with Warren Buffett every week or two. Both men were hard of hearing, making the calls more dramatic than discreet.
“They were yelling at each other,” he said. Whitney Jacksonwife of Munger’s grandson. “It was probably supposed to be confidential, but anyone within a mile radius could hear them.”
In his later years, Munger also devoted energy to other ventures. He remained a devoted member of Costco’s board of directors, where his stake was reportedly worth $100 million. He invested in smaller companies in Boston and Melbourne, Australia, and backed a hedge fund manager. Li Lu‘s Capital of the Himalayas—often nicknamed the “Chinese Warren Buffett.”
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In an interview with Business Insider published earlier this year, Li said Munger’s coal trades weren’t just brave: They were deliberate. “I could still go against the market consensus and live to see these stocks double,” Li said, adding that the position remained in the Munger family’s portfolio and was still performing well. He emphasized that Munger insisted on having unusually high odds (about 80% chance of success) before making a move, a standard that separated him from more aggressive risk takers. Even in his senior year, Munger applied the same principles that built his fortune.
During Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in 2015, he commented, “If people didn’t make mistakes so often, we wouldn’t be so rich.” That mentality didn’t go away with age. Even at 99, he remained alert to moments when markets misjudged reality and acted accordingly. His latest investment in coal wasn’t a matter of nostalgia or luck; It was a sharp reminder that in a world that is quick to discard things, there is still room for those willing to look twice, think independently, and trust their own mathematics.
And at 99, Munger still had the conviction (and clarity) to command the attention of the crowd, buy when others folded, and emerge with a win that most investors half his age would envy.
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This article Charlie Munger Made More Than $50 Million Betting on Coal at Age 99, After Avoiding It for 60 Years and Calling Panic “Horse Feathers” originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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