"Ordinary People, Extrordinary Wealth"

[RT Wolf]

I pulled this out recently to read and thought others might be interested in it. The reason I didn't post it in business and financial is because I think more people can benefit from its message here.

Ordinary people, some with minimum wage or lower jobs amassing great wealth:

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Wealth [Fool.com] October 30, 2006

From the article:

# Monsignor James McSweeney. Earning a sub-poverty-level income for decades as a Catholic priest, he focused on his investments in his free time and was worth nearly $1 million when he died.
# Genesio Morlacci, a 102-year-old former part-time janitor and dry cleaner, left $2.3 million to Montana's University of Great Falls.
# Gilmore and Golda Reynolds. They seemed like ordinary next-door neighbors in Osgood, Indiana. But when they passed away, they surprised the town by leaving it $22 million that they'd accumulated by investing in stocks over many years.

If anyone's interested in the power of compound interest, I made a post about it recently:

1st Steps to Better Finances?

Cheers!

Edit: I thought I'd add something from the post:

Learn the power of compound interest. This may help:

In the following table, Investor A starts investing 2000 dollars at the age of 26 and doesn't let up until retirement at 65. Investor B only invests a total of 14,000 but starts seven years earlier in life and for a shorter period of time. The investment compounds at 10% a year and you can see the effects.




Here's a compound interest calculator: Compound Interest Calculator