the most famous investor you don't know
Issue 137 - June 2nd, 2023
Today’s post has nothing to do with real estate, but it is a great story about one of the most famous investors of all time. You have probably never heard of this person as they were not famous at all until they died when his story went viral globally. This person was an incredible example of how the simple act of saving money, living a simple life, and letting compounding run wild can lead to success and wealth accumulation that is hard for our human minds to even comprehend.
Ronald Read, a former gas station attendant and janitor, lived a modest and frugal life. He was known for his simple lifestyle, wearing old clothes, and driving a second-hand car. However, upon his death in 2014, it was revealed that Ronald Read had amassed a fortune of around $8 million.
What made Ronald Read's story remarkable was the way he accumulated his wealth. He was an avid reader and had a habit of studying financial publications, particularly The Wall Street Journal, for investment ideas. Despite having little formal education, he developed a knack for picking undervalued stocks over the years.
Read grew up in Dummerston, Vermont, in an impoverished farming household. He walked or hitchhiked 4 miles daily to his high school and was the first high school graduate in his family. He enlisted in the United States Army during World War II, serving in Italy as a military policeman. Upon an honorable discharge from the military in 1945, Read returned to Brattleboro, Vermont, where he worked as a gas station attendant and mechanic for about 25 years. Read retired for one year and then took a part-time janitor job at J. C. Penney where he worked for 17 years until 1997.
Read died in 2014. He received media coverage in numerous newspapers and magazines after bequeathing US$1.2 million to Brooks Memorial Library and $4.8 million to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. Read amassed a fortune of almost $8 million by investing in dividend-producing stocks, avoiding the stocks of companies he did not understand such as technology companies, living frugally, and being a buy and hold investor in a diversified portfolio of stocks with a heavy concentration in blue chip companies.
Read's story became widely known as a testament to the power of patience, discipline, and the long-term perspective in investing. It demonstrated that even individuals with modest means and simple lifestyles could accumulate significant wealth through consistent saving and wise investment choices.
Ronald Read's life and financial success continue to inspire many, encouraging people to be diligent, informed, and patient in their own financial endeavors.
The remarkable thing to me about Ronald Read is the simple lesson that true WEALTH is money not yet spent - it is the very definition of wealth, but so many people in our society focus on “being rich” which is usually easy to spot - being rich is very different from being wealthy and the patience and discipline required to generate wealth is not hard but it does require saving consistently and no ego.
Morgan Housel in “The Psychology of Money” touches on this very point:
“Rich is current income…it is not hard to spot rich people. They often go out of their way to make themselves known.
But wealth is hidden. It’s income not spent. Wealth is an option not yet taken to buy something later. Its value lies in offering you options, flexibility, and growth to one day purchase more stuff than you could right now.”
In my opinion, the ultimate form of WEALTH is free time and the ability to control your calendar. More than items purchased or any crap you can “buy”, controlling your time is the ultimate goal. This may mean forgoing some of the fancy toys, but I think in the end we all just want more time to do whatever we want whenever we want without anyone telling us what to do if we don’t want to do it.
Humans are simple creatures, but we love to make things more complicated than they need to be. I try to fight for simplicity in my life all the time. I fail a lot of the time as we all do, but I am on a mission to make life more free, simple, and enjoyable with every year that passes in the future.
I never want to focus on “accumulating more stuff” as the goal in the future. I want to focus on controlling more of my time and experiencing more in life instead of acquiring more crap that rarely makes us happy.
The more stuff you own, the more it owns you. I want to strive for freedom of mind and time as I push forward in the future; this is simple in theory, but hard in practice. I am working on this every single day, and I look forward to sharing more thoughts like this in the future.
Have a good weekend!
great article!!!!! and so so true!