92 Year Old Janitor Amassed $8 Million on a Meager Salary

92 Year Old Janitor Amassed $8 Million on a Meager Salary

It’s common knowledge that the power of compound interest can be very powerful. But no one expected 92 year old Ronald Read to be able to amass a fortune of $8 million before his death. Due to his frugal living habits, he dressed modestly and conducted himself humbly. When his coat needed fixing, he used […]

My apartment Janitor has 5 apartments for each of her children. She looks like 60s....

we all can achieve it... as long as we work hard/smart and save save save!!

Unlike in US, I think it is quite hard to find stocks in SGX that can deliver consistent performance over a long period of time, for example 40 years. Let me share my personal experience. In 2000, I was working in a US pharmaceutical company based in Singapore. Over the 5 years period when I was working there, I participated in the employee shares purchase scheme, where 15% of my monthly salary was deducted to buy the company shares. I also opted for dividends to be reinvested, and the company pays quarterly dividends. I never sell a single shares, even after I left the company.

This company subsequently had a stock split, because the share price went up a bit too high and accordingly to the management, priced out many retail investors. That means my number of shares on hand doubled, even though the price halved. However, over the years, the price has risen back to the pre-split level, and more!

Recently, the company split into two legally separated entities. Reason given was that it has two distinct businesses, and the company has grown too big to be able to effectively manage as one. Management says the breakout value is more than the combined. I get to own 1 share of the new entity for every share I currently own. Obviously, the share price will again have to drop by halve to reflect the change, even though the value of my total holding remain the same. Again, and very quickly, the share price of both entities risen quite fast post separation.

And that’s not the end of the story. No long after the separation, the new entity was acquired by another company, and as usual, the acquisition price was at a premium to the market price. The acquisition term was a mix of cash plus shares in the new merged company. I just received the money from the BO, and the amount is already substantially higher than all the monies that I have used to buy the shares when I was still an employee there. Plus I have a small holding in the new merged entity, plus my original holding in my ex company still fully intact. I will therefore continue to receive my quarterly dividends, and of course to use it to buy up more shares, hoping for the cycle to repeat itself again.

Thanks for reading and sorry for my boring writing, but I just want to share that investing in the long term does have its merit.

Hope this janitor has got filial children & grandchildren. He saved it all for them!

(31-08-2016, 03:10 PM)morten Wrote: Hope this janitor has got filial children & grandchildren. He saved it all for them!

let hope old folks dont fall for the 'oldest trick in the book'. - transfer son name to the flat then he kick out the parents.

The lesson from this report of a successful stock investor and janitor is :

The principles for getting rich buying shares are there for everyone to learn. But they are hard to follow for most people. Let’s recap.

Learn how to save money.
Learn how to pick stocks that will not only survive but thrive in the long term.
Ignore the share price fluctuations and hold those stocks for the long term.
Don’t sell. Buy more shares and reinvest dividends and let the profits compound.

But I wonder how many janitors in Singapore and Hong Kong can raise enough savings to risk investing in the stock market ?

(31-08-2016, 02:55 PM)Ben Wrote: Unlike in US, I think it is quite hard to find stocks in SGX that can deliver consistent performance over a long period of time, for example 40 years. Let me share my personal experience. In 2000, I was working in a US pharmaceutical company based in Singapore. Over the 5 years period when I was working there, I participated in the employee shares purchase scheme, where 15% of my monthly salary was deducted to buy the company shares. I also opted for dividends to be reinvested, and the company pays quarterly dividends. I never sell a single shares, even after I left the company.

This company subsequently had a stock split, because the share price went up a bit too high and accordingly to the management, priced out many retail investors. That means my number of shares on hand doubled, even though the price halved. However, over the years, the price has risen back to the pre-split level, and more!

Recently, the company split into two legally separated entities. Reason given was that it has two distinct businesses, and the company has grown too big to be able to effectively manage as one. Management says the breakout value is more than the combined. I get to own 1 share of the new entity for every share I currently own. Obviously, the share price will again have to drop by halve to reflect the change, even though the value of my total holding remain the same. Again, and very quickly, the share price of both entities risen quite fast post separation.

And that’s not the end of the story. No long after the separation, the new entity was acquired by another company, and as usual, the acquisition price was at a premium to the market price. The acquisition term was a mix of cash plus shares in the new merged company. I just received the money from the BO, and the amount is already substantially higher than all the monies that I have used to buy the shares when I was still an employee there. Plus I have a small holding in the new merged entity, plus my original holding in my ex company still fully intact. I will therefore continue to receive my quarterly dividends, and of course to use it to buy up more shares, hoping for the cycle to repeat itself again.

Thanks for reading and sorry for my boring writing, but I just want to share that investing in the long term does have its merit.

In SG, the biggest wealth maker for the baby boomers (50s babes) is SIA. The stock options made a lot of SIA staff rich. Only the ignorant (like my sister, her own words) did not make so much.

My friend's father was a flight engineer. Made lots from SIA. His house kenna enbloc. But lost a lot of money in CLOB. So CLOB is one '劫‘ the baby boomer need to survive.

(31-08-2016, 03:52 PM)soros Wrote: The lesson  from this report of a successful stock investor and janitor  is :

The principles for getting rich buying shares are there for everyone to learn. But they are hard to follow for most people. Let’s recap.

   Learn how to save money.
   Learn how to pick stocks that will not only survive but thrive in the long term.
   Ignore the share price fluctuations and hold those stocks for the long term.
   Don’t sell. Buy more shares and reinvest dividends and let the profits compound.

But I wonder how many janitors in Singapore and Hong Kong can raise enough savings to risk investing in the stock market ?

In Asia, it is buying 'bricks' that made people money.

In TW, Xiao S's father in law was a doctor/dentist who invested in Hon Hai during its early days. 

In SG, people invested in NL Wong before he was NL Wong. or Simon Cheong before he was Simon Cheong.
Sometimes, picking the right guy is more important than picking the company.

There is a minimum wage in the US and they are trying to push it up to USD15/hr for the lowest paid in certain states.
A garbage collector can be quite well paid. There are hefty taxes to be paid of course but you get cheaper housing and automobiles/gas.

All in, it is easier to live comfortably and amass a small fortune if you live modestly. Here in Singapore, the low wage workers get miserable pay.