Ronald Read earned a below-average salary as a janitor and gas station attendant.
He drove a second-hand car and chopped his own firewood.
When he passed away at age 92, he was one of the richest men in Vermont.
Here's his story:
Read was the first in his family to graduate high school.
After graduation, he enlisted in the US Army and served during WW II.
When he returned home, he worked as a gas station attendant and mechanic for almost 25 years.
Read and his brother ended up buying the gas station, and selling it when they retired.
Ronald stayed retired for a year.
He spent 17 more years working at J.C. Penney as a janitor and doing maintenance.
Read consistently invested in stocks of companies that paid growing dividends, and reinvested them to buy more shares.
He owned companies like:
• J.M. Smucker
• Procter & Gamble
• Johnson & Johnson
Read didn't own any technology stocks. He only bought companies that he could understand.
Nobody knew the amount of wealth that Read had amassed during his life. When he died, his estate was nearly $8 million!
He gave $2 million to his stepchildren, caregivers, and friends.
He donated $4.8 million to the local hospital and $1.2 million to the library.
Read owned 95 stocks in industries like healthcare, telecommunications, public utilities, railroads, banks, and consumer goods.
Here's what we can learn from Ronald:
• Small investments can become big fortunes
• Invest in what you understand.
• Buy established companies with growing dividends
• Reinvest those dividends
• Focus on long-term growth.
This strategy can give you impressive results.
If you liked this and you're interested in investing, dividends, learning, and growing, follow me @tj_terwilliger
TJ Terwilliger
@tj_terwilliger
Student of investing. Balancing concentrated bets in no-brainers and anomalies with dividend growth and shareholder return strategies. 🏋️♂️ I write at Compounding Dividends and Brainless Investing. Get a free subscription to both with the buttons below.