Munger treated the choice of a life partner with the same long-term, rational seriousness he brought to a fifty-year investment.
Munger believed few decisions compound more than the choice of a partner — and that the surest way to attract the right one is to spend your life becoming the kind of person who deserves them.
Treat the decision with the same seriousness Munger applied to a major investment — not impulse, but judgment.
Reliability, honesty, and shared values, practiced consistently, deepen the partnership year over year.
Like a good business held for the long run, the returns on choosing well arrive slowly, then all at once.
After his first marriage ended, Munger remarried in 1956 to Nancy Barry Munger. The two built a large blended family together and remained partners until her death in 2010.
In talks to university students over the years, Warren Buffett has repeatedly said that who you choose to marry is one of the most important decisions of your life — echoing the long-term, rational thinking he and Munger applied to business.
Munger applied the same discipline of self-improvement he used in his investing career to the search for a life partner, arguing that the surest path to a good spouse is to become the kind of person a good spouse would choose.
Prioritize character and reliability over charm in the early stages of choosing a partner.
Look for someone whose habits of mind you'd want to think alongside for fifty years, not fifty days.
Apply the same rational, long-term thinking to this decision that you would apply to a major investment.
Focus as much on becoming a good partner as on finding one.
Choose someone who makes you more disciplined and more yourself, not less.
Treat the relationship, once chosen, with the same commitment to reliability you'd want from a business partner.
Choosing well, Munger believed, was not a matter of luck but of aligning yourself — through years of self-improvement — with the kind of partner worth choosing.