Hetty Green, the world's greatest miser

Hetty Green 1834-1916

A miser is a person who hoards money and wealth and spends as little money as possible, and that is exactly what Hetty Green was. Though a wealthy lady, she did all the grocery shopping to save money. She bought crushed cookies because they are cheaper. She ate mostly pies that only cost fifteen cents. She was also said to bring with her dried oatmeal and will just cook it over the radiator. She refused to use hot water and the water heater during winter. One time, she spent the whole night looking for her lost 2-cent stamp only to find out that it was in her pocket all along. She was a female tycoon of the Wall Street. She reportedly amassed a fortune of $200 million ($4 billion in terms of current purchasing power). When she died, she left one of the largest inheritance packages in the history of the US. Her investment strategy consisted of conservative buying backed by substantial cash reserves to cover any movements in her positions. She invested in railroads, mines and real estate and lent money while acquiring mortgages. The Guinness Book of World Records awarded her the distinction of being the world’s “greatest miser.” 

• She was such a familiar sight, with her grim face and strange dress, everyone called her “The Witch of Wall Street.”
• Hetty’s audacity was apparent when her aunt, Sylvia Howland, died in 1868 and left $2 million to charity, Hetty was incensed. She challenged the will in court, presenting a will that left everything to Hetty. The courts determined that Sylvia’s signature were a complete forgery, and Hetty lost the case. 
• Hetty Green refused to use hot water or heating. 
• Her son Ned was a teenager when he was struck by a child driving dog cart. Hetty took her son to a free clinic in the city. But the doctors demanded payment as they suspected of faking poverty. So Hetty decided the leg would likely knit itself if given time and home treatment of “oil of squills” etc. Ned’s leg worsened and was amputated, with Ned’s father using his own dwindling money to pay for it, rather than haggle with Hetty.
• When she developed hernia, she refused to treat it, as its treatment was a pricey $150.
• Green conducted much of her business at the offices of the Seaboard National Bank in New York, surrounded by trunks and suitcases full of her papers. She did not want to pay rent for her own office.
• She changed residence with a skulking frequency, moving from one small, unheated apartment to another. This was her attempt to hide from both the press and tax collectors. She believed that this, combined with taking confusing and varied routes to work (at an office provided free by her bank, of course) also kept kidnappers and robbers at bay. 
• There is no great secret in fortune-making.  All you do is buy cheap and sell dear, act with thrift and shrewdness and be persistent - she said.
• She was an innovator in the field of value investing, which has made billionaires out of people such as Warren Buffett. Green was eccentric, but in her own special way, she was also a genius.
• Her advice to women on investing: “I regard real estate investments as the safest means of using idle money. Let a woman watch and see in which direction a city is going to develop and buy there.”
• In an interview with a reporter at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, she said: "The poor have no chance in this country. No wonder Anarchists and Socialists are so numerous. The law must be upheld, must it? Then why don’t they begin at the right end? Who begins to break the law? The great railroad magnates. Let the poor man break the law and see how soon he gets into jail.
• Hetty Green divided her estate evenly among her children. Ned, squandered much of his fortune, leaving the rest to his sister Sylvia. Sylvia donated his Round Hill, Massachusetts estate in 1948 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Sylvia had married a man who agreed to forgo her money. She died childless in 1951 and left her money an estimated $200 million to 64 colleges, churches, hospitals, and other charities. 

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For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. 

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith 

and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Don't love money: Money itself is not evil. What’s evil is the love of money. Lot of suffering and pain in this world can be traced back to greed and selfishness. World has enough resources to feed every human. However, because of the love of money, most people starve and suffer from pestilence and famine. Money can be very seductive. If we let it control us, it will eventually lead us away from our faith and eventually suffer the many consequences of our decision. Life can become miserable if we love money more than our relationship with God and each other. It is only by having a loving relationship with others that we can have a more fulfilling life.