It’s important to earn money, it’s more important to save and invest money sensibly and it’s equally important to spend some portion of the money which you have earned, invested and grown, on your own self so that you attain a respectable lifestyle, people respect you and others around you feel your existence in the society. But, suppose if you own a respectable amount of money with you and you are so miser and don’t spend money at all apart from basic necessities then you are not owning that money but that money is owning you. For example a person with ten million dollars is a miser or living in frugal condition then he is not owning that ten million dollars but that ten million dollars is owning him.
Searching for real life stories I came across one such real life mesmerizing story. That story is of American man Ronald James Read. Ronald James Read was born in 1921 in Vermont, America in an extremely poor impoverished farmer’s family which was having a very small house. His family’s financial condition was very critical. As he grew he started attending his school which was around 4 miles away from his home. So much shaky was their financial condition that Ronald Read had to go walking up to his school and back home, and sometimes asking for lift from passing by vehicles. He was the first high school graduate in his entire family, it was certainly an Honor for him. When he was in his twenties he joined US Army during World War II and was sent to Italy for serving there. After serving there he returned back to his hometown Vermont in 1945 and got a job as a mechanic cum attendant in a Petrol Pump where he worked for a good 25 years. After leaving his job there he joined J.C. Penney Store and worked there as a janitor, that is caretaker of the store. He worked in J.C. Penny till 1997.
He worked tirelessly for more than 50 years in his life. Now is the real crux of this story. During his entire working years in various employments he spent minimum on his own-self as he had a frugal approach to his life. He was shabby in wearing clothes, often wearing very old worn-out clothes which were seen stitched after being torn at some places. He seldom wore a good pair of clothes and good respectable shoes. Behind this shabby looking man was a rich man that nobody knew.
He had a very strong and disciplined habit of saving money regularly. As he was earning money from his salary he started investing in stocks little by little. He had a diversified portfolio in Healthcare, Telecom, Consumer Goods, Banks etc. He bought only those shares which he understood with his limited mental capabilities, without going deep in the fundamentals in that stock, simultaneously he focused on dividend paying shares, his stock portfolio consisted blue chip shares like Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, CVS Health, General Electric etc. are the few names among the Shares he owned. He never ever blew of the money that he earned from the dividends he received instead he reinvested the dividends amount back in the same or other blue-chip companies purchasing additional stocks. Near his house was a library where he used to visit regularly and read articles, news relating Stock and Shares. He was a blue collared person owning some of the finest blue chip Stocks. He relied on his own limited Stock Market knowledge, instinct, patience and discipline in investing. In the year 2008 the news of bankruptcy of Lehmann Brothers, the shares which he also owned, didn’t bother him much as his investments in other blue chip was solid and he was on very strong footing financially.
Ronald Read died in the year 2014. It is surprising to know that when he died he left behind a rich estate of eight million dollars, If we convert this amount in Indian currency today it amounts to a good over Rs. 70 crores. His immediate neighbors also didn’t knew the scale of his accumulated wealth.
He bequeathed six million dollars to a nearby hospital, his care-takers and the library which he visited regularly. Balance of two million dollars he willed to his two sons. It is noteworthy to know that Ronald Read when he was in his late 30s married a single mother having two sons who were quite grown by that time. He adopted them as his sons and financed for their well being and their education etc., he looked and cared for them as his own sons. His wife had died ten years after their marriage.
After his death the news of donation of six million dollars to various organizations spready like wild fire in America and he got tremendous media attention thereafter. People were amazed by this man, his fortune and also his frugal lifestyle. Here was a man who did ordinary jobs during his entire life, earned and saved and owned Stocks and Securities worth around eight million dollars, he spent minimum on his own self, had a miser’s approach to his own life and was never famous and popular when he was alive, but gained popularity when he left this planet.
There are two points to ponder upon this unknown but real life story, one, It’s important to earn money, invest prudently and grow your money as Ronald Read did and don’t fall in the loan or EMI trap, two it’s equally important to spend some portion on your own self, so that you are respected in the society and in social gatherings and by doing this you are letring yourself feel that you too is existing in this world.
Hello! I am Ramesh P. Raheja, I am the founder of strongwealth.in. For last more than 40 year I have been in profession of free lance accounting. I want to share my experiences and sincerely help people achieve their goals faster in their lives. The views present in this blog are only for reference and guidance purpose. The reader should always take professional advice from their consultants/tax advisor/financial planner/insurance etc. as the case may be.