Do fairy tales really happen in real life?

The first time I came across Ronald Read’s story, it immediately reminded me of Stephen King’s “Fairy tale”.

The plot sounds familiar:

An old man, barely noticed by his neighbors, lives quietly with only his dog for company.

His house is old, his car barely running, and nobody suspects he’s sitting on a fortune. One day he dies, and a hidden treasure is discovered – a closet full of gold.

Except this isn’t fiction. It really happened.

The story of Ronald Read

Ronald Read (1921–2014) wasn’t a public figure, a CEO, or a celebrity. He was an ordinary man whose extraordinary choices only became known after his death.

Born in 1921, he grew up during the Great Depression, a time that taught him the value of money and frugality early in life.

He served in World War II as a military policeman. After he was discharged in 1945, he returned to Vermont, where he got a job as a mechanic at a local gas station.

He worked there for 25 years.

Despite his modest income, Read was living extremely frugally. He was often wearing worn-out clothes, he owned a second-hand Toyota Yaris, which he used to park further, on spaces without parking meters.

Read spent most of his time either in the library or chopping woods or stamp collecting. He was living with his family in a small house he purchased for $12,000 in 1960.

In 1979, he retired for a year, after which he found another part time job as a janitor, where he worked for another 17 years. Read officially retired in 1997 and spent the his last years in Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, where he passed away in 2014, at 92.

Upon his death, it was revealed that Ronald Read had left an estate, worth $8 million.

The investment strategy

To the amazement of Read’s neighbors, family, and friends, he had quietly built a large stock portfolio over the years.

He developed the simple habit of consistently investing in the stock market. Read focused on blue-chip companies, buying their shares and holding them long-term rather than selling.

Among the companies he owned were Johnson & Johnson, CVS Health, Procter & Gamble, JPMorgan Chase, General Electric, and Dow Chemical Company.

What was his strategy?

Simple – he read a lot!

He chose companies that paid bigger dividends, so he could reinvest those dividends into buying more stock.

Most importantly, Read invested only in businesses he understood. He would only invest in companies that he was familiar with and avoid stocks he knew little about, such the technology sector.

When his will was made public in 2014, the world learned that Ronald Read had left millions to his local library and hospital – a revelation that stunned everyone who knew him, given his unassuming lifestyle.

Ronald Read’s legacy

Ronald Read lived simply until the very end, even though he could have used his fortune however he pleased.

Read was a millionaire, but he didn’t care about the money.

His lifestyle showed that he valued knowledge, simplicity, and daily enjoyment more than material possessions. By leaving his wealth to the two institutions that had deeply shaped his life – the library and the hospital, he ensured that his success would benefit countless others long after he was gone.

But how did Ronald Read become a millionaire?

In my previous article How to easily achieve your dreams, I explained that there are only two things you need to reach any dream you have:

To know exactly what you want

and

To know how to get it.

A policeman, a mechanic and a janitor.

Ronald Read worked low-income jobs for 51 years. But Read knew he was interested in finances and, for reasons we’ll never fully know, he wanted to build financial wealth.

So how did he do it?

• Knowledge – Ronald Read’s financial success didn’t come from formal education. He self-educated himself on investing. He spent countless hours in the library he would one day donate millions to. He was reading The Wall Street Journal everyday.

• Vision – He understood the importance of long-term investing. He focused on buying and holding blue-chip stocks. Thanks to his long-term mindset, the 39 shares of Pacific Gas and Electric Company he bought in 1959 for $2,380 grew to $10,735 by the time he passed away.

• Strategy – He didn’t just invest randomly. He studied the dynamics of the stock market and concentrated on blue-chip companies that paid reliable dividends. His stocks were diversified in many sectors – banks, healthcare, public transport, so when one company went bankrupt, it didn’t affect him severely.

• Privacy – Read kept his wealth a secret from almost everyone, including his family and friends. His low profile not only protected his assets but also kept him focused on his long-term goals.
  Why is this important? Privacy protects your motivation. When you share your plans too early, your brain gets a false sense of accomplishment, and you lose the drive to keep working toward the goal. Click here to read how to keep your plans secret.

• Consistency – Above all, Read was consistent. His wealth wasn’t built in a day. He studied markets, observed trends, and kept learning through trial and error every day.

I will be honest with you. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever achieve financial freedom, before the time you retire, by relying only on a 9–5 job.

But if you want to become truly successful, learn from Ronald Read’s story.

Take a look at some other less known failure-to-success stories HERE.

Did this inspire you?

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