This Man Secretly Amassed an $8 Million Fortune Working as a Gas Station Attendant (Nobody Knew This Before His Death)
This incredible story of Ronald Read will teach you a few things about life and money.
Until this man — who worked as a janitor and gas station attendant in Vermont — died in June 2014 at 92, nobody knew about his $8 million fortune.
“He was a hard worker, but I don’t think anybody had an idea that he was a multimillionaire,” said his stepson Phillip Brown in 2015.
You might be wondering, “How did this man earn such an incredible amount of money?” Most importantly, “Why on earth did he keep it secret from everyone, including his own family?”
Born in 1921, Ronald Read had a humble beginning living in a tiny house with his family in Dummerston, Vermont. He had to travel or hitchhike more than 6 km every day to attend high school at Brattleboro.
After graduating in 1940, he joined the United States Army and was deployed to North Africa, Italy, and the Pacific Ocean theater. He returned to Vermont after completing his duty right before the Christmas of 1945 and then started living a very ordinary life.
He worked for 24 years as an attendant and mechanic at Habiland’s Service Station before retiring in 1979. But his retirement didn’t last long. Just after one year, he joined J. C. Penney as a part-time janitor.
After working there for 17 years, he finally retired in 1997.
Now, what do you think? Doesn’t all this seem like an ordinary man’s life? And how much can a man earn from working such low-paying jobs?
Not $8 million for sure, right?
Read was extremely frugal throughout his entire life.
All his friends and close ones knew how careful he was when spending money. Need example? Here you go —
“You’d never know the man was a millionaire,” his lawyer Laurie Rowell explained. “The last time he came here, he parked far away in a spot where there were no meters so he could save the coins.”
He used to drive a second-hand Toyota Yaris. His flannel shirt was so old that someone once paid for his breakfast, misjudging his shabby appearance. Also, his Khaki denim jacket was held together with a safety pin.
This ordinary janitor made million dollar fortune by investing money in the stock market.
He knew the value of compounding. So he bought different stocks and held them for years after years — if not decades. Of course, his extraordinary patience paid off in the end.
“Investing and cutting wood, he was good at both of them,” said his lawyer Laurie. She also mentioned that Read had a habit of reading the Wall Street Journal daily.
No wonder from where he got the idea to invest and in which companies. And he invested almost everything he earned from his job.
“I’m sure if he earned $50 in a week, he probably invested $40 of it,” His friend and neighbor Mark Richards said in an interview.
Read’s diverse portfolio included stocks of The J.M. Smucker Company, CVS Health, Johnson & Johnson, and several blue chip companies like Procter & Gamble, JPMorgan Chase, General Electric, and Dow Chemical Company.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2015 that he owned at least 95 stocks at the time of his death in 2014.
Read bought stocks and kept them for decades, ignoring the market situation, recession, etc. Thus this man of modest means accumulated an $8 million fortune.
But he was extremely private in nature and never talked about how much money he had. He didn’t want to brag about his money. Instead, he loved to lead a simple yet meaningful social life.
So, nobody knew about his $8 million fortune until his death. Not even his family members.
When Read died in June 2014 at the age of 92, his lawyer Laurie went to retrieve the appropriate estate documents from his safety deposit box. To her surprise, she only found a huge amount of stock certificates. Later, it was estimated that Read’s stocks were worth more than $8 million.
What surprised everyone in Vermont was that he bequeathed $4.8 million of his wealth to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and $1.2 million to Brooks Memorial Library.
This made Read the talk of the town after his death. The man everybody thought was an ordinary guy was actually an extraordinary person with a huge heart.
What’s more interesting is Read didn’t have a strong connection with the hospital. What I mean is he never went there for treatment. But yes — he frequently visited the hospital for breakfasts.
“He always had a cup of coffee and an English muffin with peanut butter,” Ellen Smith, one of his friends, said. “That was it. And he always sat at the exact same stool at the counter.”
However, he donated an estimated $2 million to his stepchildren, caregivers, and friends. It is to note that his wife died in 1970 of cancer, leaving two sons from his previous husband.
Read never remarried.
I don’t know what you’ll pick from this incredible story.
It can be a lesson of what intelligent investing and patience can do for you, even if you are a regular Joe. Many might find it an example of how an ordinary person becomes extraordinary through selfless philanthropic work. Others might learn the lesson of living a simple, frugal, and private life.
But I’m still overwhelmed by the story, thinking — What it takes to be a man like Ronald Read, who spent a lifetime earning millions in secret only to give them away to others after his death.
In this competitive world — where all we want is everything and more — I think Ronald Read’s story can give us some food for thought.
Sources: CNBC, CNN, Washington Post, Business Insider, Reuters, Wikipedia, Ronald Read Story-BM Hospital.
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