"Life is like a snowball and all you need is some wet snow and a really long hill."
Figure 1: Ronald Read (left), Superinvestor.
Because I am an annoying father who wants to encourage his sons to invest, one of the things I like to collect on this blog are stories of successful, long-term, investors. I loved this story about a janitor, Ronald Read (Figure 1), who recently died at 92 and left an estate worth nearly $8 million dollars. This goes to show how great investing can be if done correctly. It doesn't have to be a lot, as little bits here and there can make a magnitude of difference. I know someone once who decided to look into finding the best helium miner 2021 to mine helium with and never did he expect to make as much money as he did in passive income. But it happened. This built over time, of course, and he was able to use this money to help create a financially stable future for himself, and it's all because he decided to make an investment. So many people want to get into the investment way of life but do not know where to start. They could start off by consulting a financial advisor, who might be more fit to navigate through the confusion that surrounds the multitude of ways money can be invested. And there are SO MANY options. We now have digital currencies that people are hot on investing and trading in, so as long as the right questions are being asked such as "which trading platform is best for me?", "can you buy crypto on commsec?", "am I able to invest in multiple areas?", then people can start making that money. What if I told you that people can also invest in casino sites? Yes, you read that correctly. Cryptocurrency has now made its way to online casinos, thanks to technological advancements. Indeed, DeFi tokens such as Crypto Snack are available for gambling enthusiasts who can invest in crypto, and play using them. This could be a fun and modern way to invest in digital currency.
However, he earned his fortune the old-fashioned way through conservative investing practices and living a frugal life. As far as his portfolio went, Newsmax reported that
Read's investments included shares of AT&T, Bank of America, CVS, Deere, General Electric and General Motors. "He only invested in what he knew and what paid dividends. That was important to him," his lawyer, Laurie Rowell, told CNBC.
Through regular contributions over a long time, he used the power of compound interest to amass an amazing amount of money. His investment approach epitomized the "snowball" approach that Warren Buffet advocates (see quote that leads this post). To illustrate that even small amounts of money regularly invested over a long-period of time can add up, Newsmax and CNBC both stated that
For example, to reach Read's $8 million fortune, Hogan [a financial analyst] calculated that investors would have to invest about $300 a month at an 8 percent interest rate over 65 years.
I illustrate this compound interest calculation below using Mathcad's Future Value (FV) function – Excel has a similar FV function.
Figure 2: Future Value Calculation.