How this 96-year-old Secretary grew a $9,000,000 Fortune

What's up you guys? It's Graham here. So, I want to share a really cool story written by Corey Kildonan of the New York Times. It's a great example of what can happen when you live frugally and invest consistently while still working a very modest nine-to-five job, which is something I feel like a lot of people can relate to. And how, over time, that could snowball into something massive— to the tune of nine million dollars over the course of a lifetime.

Now, if you want to read the full article, I'll link it down below in the description. But let's get into it. This story is about a woman named Sylvia Browne from Brooklyn, New York. She worked as a secretary for a law firm. She made a very modest salary. She took the bus and the subway to get around. She never flexed on them haters, and she somehow accumulated a fortune of over nine million dollars.

Now, how did she do this? Just as a background here, she grew up in Brooklyn, New York, during the Great Depression. She worked during the day and attended Hunter College at night just so she could pay the bills. Then, in 1947, she began working for a law firm as one of its first employees, where she stayed working there for 67 years, up until the point she retired at age 96. Her husband worked as a firefighter and then later as a teacher once he retired.

But how they lived day-to-day is an indication of how she became so wealthy. There were no Gucci belts, there were no Porsche turbos, there were no first-class jets around the world, and there were no views of the Hollywood Hills or of Central Park. In fact, they lived in a rent-controlled apartment. She would take the subway to work, or she would take the bus to avoid spending money on a cab to get around. She never talked about money; she never drew attention to herself, and she lived extremely modestly.

This allowed her to secretly invest a portion of her salary. Now, how did she invest? Well, as a secretary, she would help her boss buy stocks, so when she saw her boss buy a stock, she would buy it for him but then buy a smaller amount for herself of the same stock with an amount that she could afford on her salary. And that continued over a long period of time. She would continue to say if she'd continued to live modestly, and she'd continue to invest everything she could.

She never told anybody about her wealth, and she kept her spending at the exact same level, regardless of how much money she was saving or how much her nest egg was really building up. She just continued repeating the exact same strategy over and over and over again long-term in her lifetime. Thanks to compound interest, this grew to a fortune of over nine million dollars, an 8.2 million dollars of which was donated to charity towards college scholarships.

And don't think this story is unique either because there are plenty of examples out there—people who carry almost the exact same storyline. Leonardo Tchaikovsky is another example who left 13 million dollars to charity upon his death. He began working as an AV cook in World War II, and then after that, he began working as a meat cutter. The company he worked for as a meat cutter ended up giving him some stock in that company that he kept, and he later opened up his own grocery store.

He later expanded to owning a nightclub, a dance studio, and some rental properties. But throughout all of it, he maintained an extremely frugal lifestyle. He did end up buying discount shoes and living under the radar, but by the age of 90, because of these spending habits and consistently investing, he had accumulated 13 million dollars that he ended up donating all to charity.

Again, no Ferraris, no Hermes belts, no Louis Vuitton, no Supreme, no Patek Philippe watches. All it is is just living frugally, saving your money, and investing long-term. Another example here is Grace Groaner, who happens to be another secretary who amassed a seven million dollar fortune that she donated to charity upon her passing. Like our other two examples, she didn't have a high income, but what she did do is live modestly, invest, and save everything she could.

In 1931, Grace got a job working for Abbott Laboratories, and it took her four years to save up enough money to buy three stocks of the company worth 180 dollars in 1935. And then from there, she just held on to it and never sold it. Now, even though the stock ended up skyrocketing in price, turning Grace into a millionaire, she never once touched that money. She never sold it; she never increased her lifestyle.

And even though she enjoyed to travel, she never once tried to keep up with the Joneses. She never bought expensive things, and she lived in a very modest one-bedroom apartment up until the time that a friend built her a small one-bedroom cottage with mismatched furniture that she ended up moving into later in life. She even bought most of her clothes through rummage sales, and even though during retirement, she ended up traveling and actively volunteering, she never once touched the principal of her investment.

That led to a seven million dollar fortune being donated to college scholarships upon her passing. Now, these three stories are all the result of three factors to consider. The first one is that it doesn't matter how much you make; it's how much you save. In all three examples, none of them had an extremely high income. What they did do is end up saving the bulk of their money and investing it.

The second thing they all have in common is that it's time in the market, not timing the market, that has the biggest effect. These people were not ones to think the stock market is at an all-time high, "I'm not gonna buy it, I'm gonna wait till it crashes, and then I'm gonna buy more," or maybe the market's down, and they're afraid to invest their money. They don't care; all they did was invest consistently long term.

The third, or probably greatest factor of them all, is just long-term compound interest. But just as an example here, your initial investment over 60 years has compounded 100 times, and every year after that, your initial investment grows by 10 times every single year following. That's huge.

So, I really hope that stories like this can give you hope that it doesn't matter how much money you're making right now. Long term, as long as you live modestly and invest, the possibilities are really limitless. You too could amass quite a big fortune by the time you're older, and at that time, it's completely up to you to decide what you want to do with it.

And don't think that they didn't enjoy themselves. They didn't buy Ferraris; they didn't buy first-class tickets; they didn't have mansion parties with tigers. That's no way to live. Just remember that all of these people didn't feel the need to impress anybody. These are very thrifty, practical people who found enjoyment in very simple things.

These are people who are very resourceful, who didn't want to waste their savings on things they didn't really need, and instead wanted to use compound interest for a greater good. At the time of their passing, by donating it all to charity. It also goes to show you that how much money you're making right now is only a very small component of how much wealth you can really build.

Instead, the most important is how much of that you can save and invest, and how long you can do that for is what really matters the most. So, as always you guys, thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. If you guys enjoy content like this, make sure to give the video a like; it does really help out a lot.

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