I would love to see a spreadsheet of how much he invested each year and what shares he bought.
Wikipedia has more information
Investing and frugality[edit source]
Reader's Digest's Juliana LaBianca said Read was "a blue-collar guy with blue-chip smarts".
[15] The Wall Street Journal noted that his roughly $2,380 purchase of 39
Pacific Gas and Electric Company shares on January 13, 1959, grew to $10,735 by the time he died.
[9] Read bought many shares of
The J.M. Smucker Company,
CVS Health, and
Johnson & Johnson and held for long-term several
blue chip companies, including
Procter & Gamble,
JPMorgan Chase,
General Electric, and
Dow Chemical Company.
[9] He focused on companies that paid generous
dividends, which he would reinvest into purchasing additional stock.
[9] He did not invest in
technology companies and the stock
du jour because he concentrated largely on companies he knew about.
[9][16] When he died, he had no fewer than 95 stocks that were
diversified in many industries such as
healthcare,
telecommunications,
public utilities, rail transport, banks, and
consumer goods.
[9] Although he owned shares of
Lehman Brothers when it
went bankrupt in 2008, the bankruptcy minimally affected his returns because his investments were diversified.
[16] In a
safe deposit box at his bank,
[16] Read stored his
stock certificates, which when piled together reached five inches high.
[9] To remain updated on his investments, he relied on
The Wall Street Journal,
Barron's, and the public library near him.
[9] Read read
The Wall Street Journal daily.
[4]
His neighbors, family, and friends did not know the scale of the money he had amassed.
[17] Read used a
safety pin on his fraying khaki denim jacket so he could continue wearing it
[7][9] and put on shabby
flannel shirts.
[13] Read was a regular at a
Friendly's where one time a patron paid for his meal because the patron thought Read could not afford the meal.
[12][13] He owned a used 2007
Toyota Yaris,
[12] which Read's lawyer, Laurie Rowell, said despite his being a millionaire, whenever he visited, he parked in the further parking spaces that did not have
parking meters.
[4]
Writing in
The Boston Globe, Nik DeCosta-Klipa called Read "the epitome of Yankee frugality, according to those who knew him".
[12] Despite the limited salary from his employment, he was able to amass a substantial fortune through purchasing equities.
[7][18] Barry Ritholtz of
The Washington Post praised Read, writing, "How a man of modest means accumulated so much wealth contains exemplary lessons for saving that apply to all of us."
[16] He noted that lessons could be learned from Read's experience: "But there is also a cautionary tale about recognizing the value of your finite time here on Earth. Perhaps learning to enjoy life while you can is part of that equation."
[16] The Wall Street Journal said that "Besides being a good stock picker, he displayed remarkable frugality and patience—which gave him many years of compounded growth."
[9] Referring to
Thomas J. Stanley's 1996 book
The Millionaire Next Door,
Los Angeles Times columnist
Michael Hiltzik found Read to be "a Vermont retiree who appeared to be one of Stanley's emblematic secret blue-collar millionaires".
[11]
Brendan