I want to be Charlie Munger (OK, Warren Buffett would also do)

Hi everyone. This is, finally, my first post here and it's going to be a tough (meaning maybe long and complex to express what I want to) one.

I ask you here your advice and feedback regarding my unconventional profile and, moreover, unconventional ambitions with regards to the former.

I am a 37 yo European MD (physician) who holds a coveted surgical specialization. My professional career has mainly consisted in practicing said medical specialization and performing surgery on that field. I also hold a Global MBA from a(n arguably, from what I can read here) target US business school, with concentrations in "Finance" and "Health Sector Management". I additionally hold a number of other degrees and pieces of education relating to medicine and my specialization. I speak Spanish, English and French, the later two with varying degrees of fluency depending on my exposure to the language at a given time.

Growing up I was always interested in finance, "hard" sciences (meaning numbers and physics) and technology. Thanks to "a series of unfortunate events" (family issues, values, circumstances and finances, geographical location, etc) and even if I was found to be very skilled for all of those my exposure to them was quite limited. I finally, and unexpectedly, chose medicine due to the influence of an at the time very close friend and his father.

I can't complain as in spite of everything I had and continue to have a relatively nice and successful career. I consider myself good at what I do, most of my patients and colleagues seem to think the same, I really like some parts of my job and manage to more or less tolerate the rest. However, I continue to feel I was not meant to be neither a physician nor an employee (which, by the way, I no longer am for the most part). Also, I have a hard time HAVING TO deal with tons of random people (“the public”) on a daily basis. I am really not done for it and it takes a toll on me. More often than not I find myself not happy about spending my time and energy like that.

Which brings me to my question and dilemma. I would really like to work in finance, in something investments related. Ideally I would like to reach a status where I am (financially) independent and I live out of investing preferably my own (+/- others’) money. Hence the reference to Charlie Munger as I read being autonomous and independent was the main motivator for him to walk away from law practice into an investor’s career. I feel that even if I have no formal professional experience in the field, the mixture of my characteristics, abilities, experience and personality could make a good investor of me. While I’m aware of the risks and that I haven’t yet shown to be a genius, I think that I could come out with strategies similar to those of Michael Burry (with the 2007 real estate crash), Buffet (with his options’ trades), or Gotham City Research (with his shorts on companies that fake it) and the likes. I in fact found myself sometimes reading about strategies (Buffet’s with options for instance) that I had already thought about. Globally I am more thinking about trying to add a bit of alpha to market returns consistently and over the long term than making outrageous returns over the short term with extra risky bets. However, today I don’t have neither the time, nor the energy nor the circumstances (I live in one of the countries, if not THE country, that most heavily taxes capital gains in the world) to devote to the development and implementation of those investment strategies.

I am moving (again) to another more tax friendly country in the months to come. I have some assets that don’t suffice to allow for me (and my family of which I am the supporter) to expect to reasonable live of them as an investor but may well provide some buffer for life and professional experimentation.

So I find myself with several main options at this point. The obvious less resistance path is to continue to do what I do and know how to (being a physician specialist and a surgeon) while continuing to manage my assets in parallel for the rest of my career. A second option is continuing to practice medicine but with a greater involvement in my portfolio and with a goal of substituting one thing for the other over the mid term (5 to 15-20 years). A final option, which seems to be the riskier and less rational but also the most appealing and with the greater potential, is to try to more or less abruptly transition to what I would best like to do and quit medicine altogether.

Three years ago, upon finishing my MBA I reached the final stages of the recruiting process for one of the biggest, if not the biggest, hedge fund in the US just to be informed that the new CEO had decided to stop foreign talent recruiting after having been waiting for the announced plane tickets for in-house interviewing. Before, during and after that I have been “trapped” by me demanding and in demand career.

So now I wonder whether there might be at all positions in the investment´s world where I could fit in and be of value while I continue to learn and grow my net worth. While a high paycheck is always welcome I privilege the quality of the people and the learning experience as well as a certain balance as I have small kids that I would like to see grow. Yes, I know I might be asking for too much, but here’s where I stand now.

I’ll take your kind advice and opinions and will do my best to answer your questions were you to have any. Thanks in advance.

 
Best Response

Your mantra that with all of the degrees and accolades within your life as a sign you can achieve above average performance immediately reminded me of a passage somewhere within The Intelligent Investor where graham mentions the doctor who because they believe they have superior intellect also believe they will be a great investor.

You seem relatively old to be wanting to start a career in a field where your track record is your best asset. You made no mention of your own returns other than to say that you had read previous ideas from some of the best investors in the world claiming that you replicate those results.

Maybe you came on here in the hopes of someone telling you to follow your dreams and go for it in which case you have likely already made up your mind and are more likely to hear a positive response over a negative one. I will not be that positive response, you have committed your life to said profession and are very well off because of it. Why risk the possibility that you may not have the skills necessary to be successful in a completely different field for the idea of doing what you "dream" of doing?

Cut your spending habits, practice investing a slice of your pie within your free time and accumulate your wealth. If you do well enough maybe in 10 years at your salary you will have the means to retire and then you can do your "dream" profession without all the risk involved of quitting your career and being extremely short sighted.

Best of luck with whatever your choice.

 
littleredman:

Your mantra that with all of the degrees and accolades within your life as a sign you can achieve above average performance immediately reminded me of a passage somewhere within The Intelligent Investor where graham mentions the doctor who because they believe they have superior intellect also believe they will be a great investor.

You seem relatively old to be wanting to start a career in a field where your track record is your best asset. You made no mention of your own returns other than to say that you had read previous ideas from some of the best investors in the world claiming that you replicate those results.

Maybe you came on here in the hopes of someone telling you to follow your dreams and go for it in which case you have likely already made up your mind and are more likely to hear a positive response over a negative one. I will not be that positive response, you have committed your life to said profession and are very well off because of it. Why risk the possibility that you may not have the skills necessary to be successful in a completely different field for the idea of doing what you "dream" of doing?

Cut your spending habits, practice investing a slice of your pie within your free time and accumulate your wealth. If you do well enough maybe in 10 years at your salary you will have the means to retire and then you can do your "dream" profession without all the risk involved of quitting your career and being extremely short sighted.

Best of luck with whatever your choice.

I was hesitant to respond because everything I wrote seemed harsh. This individual's post said It best.

 

Thanks to you both for your answers.

I wrote a lengthy answer myself but couldn’t post yet as I get the following message:

"We do not allow new users to post any links to help prevent spam. This will be the case until you have enough points and have lived here long enough for us to know you're a friendly primate."

However, I’m not posting any link. Does anyone know how to avoid that? Has it something to do with the fact that I am copy-pasting the text from a document or that I am “multi-quoting”? I wrote an email to WSO but have not yet received an answer.

 

Thanks to both of you for the time taken and the answers that I appreciate and with which I partially agree. I see a lot of assumptions and some misunderstandings though.

littleredman:

Your mantra that with all of the degrees and accolades within your life as a sign you can achieve above average performance immediately reminded me of a passage somewhere within The (link omitted) where graham mentions the doctor who because they believe they have superior intellect also believe they will be a great investor.

I continue to fail to see how giving background information can constitute “my mantra”. I recognize I even looked that one up to check that it wasn’t me who was getting the meaning of the word wrong. Also, I didn’t intend to brag, and even intentionally omitted some info to avoid backlash. Not enough, apparently. I just tried to give what I consider to be the minimum required info for what I am asking for. And while I agree with the rest, once again by describing the bulk of my education and background I wasn’t making the link between my “superior intellect” and any alleged abilities as a great investor.

littleredman:

You made no mention of your own returns other than to say that you had read previous ideas from some of the best investors in the world claiming that you replicate those results.

I had to reread again my words with that one. I am in no way claiming that I replicate the results of the investors that I cite. As you said, I make no mention of my own returns and I am not going to rewrite or restate what I DO say.

littleredman:

Maybe you came on here in the hopes of someone telling you to follow your dreams and go for it in which case you have likely already made up your mind and are more likely to hear a positive response over a negative one. I will not be that positive response, you have committed your life to said profession and are very well off because of it.

Again a lot of assumptions. I came here without preconceptions and knowing that I could get all kind of answers, including more or less harsh ones. I was and still am hopeful for thoughtful honest answers (I consider yours to be in spite of everything) be them more in the line of my wishes or not. If I had already made up my mind I would be in no need to wander over the internet. Regarding your assumption that I am “very well off”, I will assume far less than others may be in this forum and will also provide the info that, as you said, I committed my life to my profession for the most part in a country where it doesn’t pay anything near to what your words make me believe you are thinking.

littleredman:

Why risk the possibility that you may not have the skills necessary to be successful in a completely different field for the idea of doing what you "dream" of doing?

Cut your spending habits, practice investing a slice of your pie within your free time and accumulate your wealth. If you do well enough maybe in 10 years at your salary you will have the means to retire and then you can do your "dream" profession without all the risk involved of quitting your career and being extremely short sighted.

Legit questions, arguments and advices. Just as additional info I’ve always saved something between a good chunk (when I made peanuts) and the most part of my earnings and lived well below my means and the standards of the people my income. To the point that in recent times I decided to increase spending as my saving wasn’t aiding to make us happy, which was in turn stupid. What you advice here is what I have been doing for a long time and what I will probably continue to do. I don’t think I will do anything too stupid (as I’ve never thought I could afford to) but I may take somewhat bolder steps to continue the later trend. Nothing outrageous though.

Thanks again.

  • I finally got to sort out my problem posting.
 

here's what I'd do if I were you: suck it up and continue practicing medicine but maybe less hours per week. use the rest of the time to trade your own accounts. the upside is if you're good, you'll be richer and may be able to strike out on your own. if you suck (like most people who do what you describe do), you'll still be employed.

I imagine medicine is pretty hard to get back into once you leave, so I'd hesitate leaving altogether. also, since you have little to no experience managing money, thinking that because you're a skilled surgeon that you have the emotional temperament to handle clients' capital is just wrong. while you may have that ability, just because you're good at one thing doesn't mean you'll be good at another.

couple more points: you mention a disdain with dealing with the general public. I've got news for you, people suck in general, regardless of net worth. the most unreasonable person you meet is just as likely to be worth $100 or $100mm, it depends on so much more than that, so I don't think entering an investments role would get you away from that. the upside however is you may have some control over your clients, but if your fund gets successful, you may not have much control over that.

finally, I'd recommend doing some soul searching, you seem to have a "grass is greener" mentality. before you start making all of these changes, see if a change of scenery (moving to a new country) gets you reinvigorated, maybe it will. finance isn't as sexy as everyone makes it out to be, you'll occasionally read about people who have what many freshman believe are dream jobs at top funds, and just being fundamentally unhappy. I'd ask you what is really important to you. to me, it sounds like autonomy, and that has less to do with the industry you're in and more about the structure of your organization.

best of luck

 

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