Stories of frugal females who amass their fortunes through hardwork, consistent savings and wise investing.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Frugal Females Found

Occasionally we hear amazing stories of frugal females who over a lifetime of living beneath their means and saving and investing have managed to amass fortunes. Generally because these women do not have immediate family they bequeath this wealth to a private university, non-profit organization, or even to our government to help pay down our national debt. Margaret Elizabeth Taylor, a widow since 1977, died at age 98 (Nov. 2005) and having no surviving siblings or children "bequeathed her $1.1 million estate to the federal government and requested that it be used to help pay down the $8.1 trillion national debt."Woman Leaves Fortune to Pay Nation's Debt Anna Patocka, who worked as a cook, died at age 95 (July 2005), and left "$1 million to local organizations". "She didn't make a million by inheriting it," friend Helen Linhart said. "She saved it." GRAFTON, N.D.: Woman leaves behind $1 million Anne Scheiber, who worked for the IRS as an auditor, died at age 101 (1995), and left $22 million to "Yeshiva University, with the stipulation that the money be used to establish a scholarship and loan fund for deserving female students at YU's sister institution of Stern College" The Butterfly Effect (Anne Scheiber) The fact that these women had so much wealth to bequeath surprised the folks who knew them. Each was a secret millionaire. The money was accumulated by hard work, consistent savings, and wise investing.  Anne Scheiber made quite the news splash when her bequest was made public in 1996. I remember the article in TIME magazine and the news stories which made much of her stagnant career at the Internal Revenue Service. She was someone who had a law degree and was obviously smart, but because of her gender she spent her entire IRS career in a junior position and never received a promotion nor much of a raise. This prompted her to vow never to enrich the IRS if she could help it. To keep that vow she never sold the stocks she purchased and each stock had the dividends reinvested. This meant her money just grew and grew since only sales would trigger a tax payment. While she was a wise investor, she was also an extremely frugal woman. She saved approximately 80% of her take home pay when working. She lived in a rent controlled apartment, almost never purchased new clothes, and for entertainment attended annual shareholder meetings of corporations she invested in and after using her auditing background to grill the executives would fill her handbag with the free food at the buffet and live off that for days. I find reading these stories inspiring. There is something about knowing that these women had control of themselves and their wealth and did with it as they saw fit. While some may say "but how deprived they must have been, wearing the same clothes and eating left-over stale food". I really don't see it that way. They obviously felt that clothes were not important. You could almost look at it as they were wearing a self-made uniform day in and day out. Nothing so wrong with that. I enjoy food too much to eat stale stuff, but who knows how much I will enjoy food when I am 90? I think that is part of the problem, these women lived so long that most of the folks who did know them and spoke of them reminisced of the 80, 90, or 100 year old woman. What were these females like in their 20's, 30's, or 40's? What personal experiences kept them on their frugal paths? I wish we found these ladies while they were still alive and could tell us their full stories... http://www.bostongalsopenwallet.com/2006/02/frugal-females-found.html