A Woman And Her Money

With all that is going on with Wall Street today, I thought you, my readers, might find this interesting.

The Witch Of Wall Street

Henrietta "Hetty" Howland Robinson Green (November 21, 1834 – July 3, 1916) was an American businesswoman, remarkable for her frugality during the Gilded Age, as well as for being the first American woman to make a substantial impact on Wall Street.

Hetty Green was a mean-spirited, tightfisted, shrewd woman! Born Henrietta Howland Robinson in 1835, she is listed in Guiness Book of World Records as the greatest of misers. Hetty's father, Edward Mott Robinson, and her aunt Sylvia Ann Howland both died in 1865, leaving her an inheritance of nearly $10 million (worth some $185 million in today's dollars). Hetty immediately began investing in the financial markets, scoring her first major success after the Civil War as she bought depreciated U.S. government bonds from skittish investors. Her philosophy was simple: "Buy cheap and sell dear"--and she had an instinct for knowing when which was which!

Hetty Green gained her nickname, the Witch of Wall Street from her fellow investors who often chuckled when Hetty arrived in her usual garb - a long, black 'dress' and solid black petticoat. Hetty's thriftiness caused her to rarely wash the dress, except occasionally the hem that drug the ground.

Hetty herself lived in cheap boarding houses in Manhattan and Brooklyn, taking public transportation to her Wall Street "office"--the vault of Chemical National Bank. There she sat, clipping coupons from her municipal bonds, and diligently pouring over financial reports and forecasts. Known as The Witch of Wall Street, Hetty's disposition was so repugnant that she had no friends and people avoided her.

Even Hetty's son was the recipient of her mean-spirited cheapness. When he injured his knee, Hetty refused to pay for a doctor and treated the injury herself. Two years later, when her son's knee still hadn't healed, Hetty dressed him in rags and pretended to be a charity case. When the doctor learned who she was and demanded payment, Hetty left his office in a rage. Several years later, the boy's leg had to be amputated.

She never turned on the heat nor used hot water. She wore one old black dress and undergarments that she changed only after they had been worn out. She did not wash her hands and rode an old carriage. One tale claims that she spent a night looking around her home for a lost stamp worth two cents.

Hetty herself lived off cold oatmeal because she was too stingy to heat it, and died of apoplexy in an argument over the virtues of skimmed milk. The year was 1916, and she left behind every penny of some $100 million (equal to about $1.5 billion today). Friendless and pathetic, Hetty Green was reputedly the wealthiest woman in the U.S. at that time.

One thing in this story that jumps out at me is the fact that this was an American businesswoman,the first American woman to make a substantial impact on Wall Street.

I would say that is more than substantial, she made a huge amout of money. Maybe we need a woman running our country and Wall Street.

They say being rich is not the key to happiness.

I say if I were rich and the key I had was not the key to happiness, I would buy a new key.