The Truth About Wealth
By: A Simple Writer
Tags: Wealth, Life Lessons, Secrets, Life

Sometimes It Is A Lot Less Flashy Than You Think

Kristina Flour — Unsplash

What’s your idea of wealth? Is it a big house, fast cars, or a certain amount of money sitting in a bank account?

I suppose we each have our own idea of what true wealth looks like. For me, when I think of wealth, I think about people like Warren Buffett, business titans like Rockefeller and Carnegie, as well as the old European families quietly passing down their fortunes from one generation to the next.

The ultra wealthy of today don’t exactly fit my mental image of true and lasting wealth. I fully realize their bank accounts say otherwise, but I’ve always been fascinated more by the stories of old money. There is just something about it.

But there is also something called secret wealth, which I find the most fascinating of all. This is wealth held by those you would least suspect. They may be your colleagues, neighbors, friends, or even family. You and I just don’t know it. Actually we may never know it until we read about their passing in the paper and their wills and estates are finally revealed.

These are people who have chosen to live a normal life and fly under the radar. Maybe it’s a conscious choice on their part or it is just in their nature to remain private. They don’t live flashy lifestyles, drive fancy cars, or have any desire to swim with the big fish in their community.

These are most definitely my type people.

Take Jack MacDonald for example. He was a frugal attorney who passed away and left behind a $188 million fortune. According to a Seattle Times article

“He clipped coupons, wore sweaters with holes in them to make people think he was poor and took a bus — not a cab — to the University of Washington when he attended an alumni luncheon in his later years. Only a tight circle of family and friends knew that MacDonald was nurturing a secret fortune. When he died in September at the age of 98, he left in his will a $187.6 million charitable trust to Seattle Children’s Research Institute, the University of Washington School of Law and the Salvation Army.” A quote in the article said “Jack went out of his way to look poor, partly because he didn’t want to be badgered by people who wanted money.” (1)

Or how about Curt Degerman? He basically came across as a homeless man that collected cans and recyclables in the town where he lived in Sweden. After he died it was found that he had quietly spent his time studying the stock market and investing the small amount of money he made from cans and bottles into stocks and mutual funds which grew to a $1.4 million fortune upon his passing at age 60. (2)

There were also the twins Robert and Kathleen Magowan. According to a Hartford Courant article, Robert was an insurance agent for Prudential and Kathleen a first grade teacher. Both lived a simple, unassuming lifestyle that resulted in investment assets between the two of them worth over $10 million. (3)

I can only imagine the number of similar stories that will never be told. Stories of thrift, humility, and deep privacy that so goes against the modern world of today.

To me, these are the stories I personally find most fascinating and that perhaps best capture a side of wealth rarely ever studied.