Investing Facts

Ronald Read worked as a gas station attendant and then a janitor in Brattleboro, Vermont. He held his coat together with safety pins. Someone once offered to pay for his meal, assuming he couldn't afford it. He died at 92 with nearly $8 million - from decades of quietly buying stocks. He left $4.8 million to the local hospital.

Geoffrey Holt was the quiet caretaker of a mobile home park in Hinsdale, New Hampshire. He rode a lawnmower around town, owned no TV, and had almost no furniture. When he died at 82 in 2023, his will revealed he had secretly amassed $3.8 million through decades of shrewd investing - and left every cent to his town of 4,200 people.

Sylvia Bloom worked as a legal secretary on Wall Street for 67 years. Every time her boss bought a stock, she quietly bought the same one. Nobody - not her husband, not the lawyers she worked for - knew. When she died at 96, her estate was worth $9 million. She left $8.2 million for college scholarships.

Grace Groner bought 3 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock for $180 in 1935. She was a secretary. She held those shares for 75 years, reinvesting every dividend, while living in a one-bedroom cottage and buying clothes from rummage sales. When she died at 100, those shares were worth $7 million. She left every cent to her old college.

McDonald's quietly owned 90% of Chipotle from 1998 to 2006. They invested $360 million and grew the chain from 16 to 500 restaurants. Then McDonald's pushed for drive-throughs. The founder said no. McDonald's sold for $1.5 billion. Chipotle is now worth $38 billion.