Explain something to me DL!

Perhaps he invested well in stocks and/or real estate.

He came of age in an era in which we believed that everyone deserved opportunity, OP. He worked hard, saved, invested, and was the beneficiary of a period of time in which these were valued traits. And the fact that we taxed the wealthy with a 92% marginal tax rate helped.

I'm sure all of that is true, R2, but I wonder how much his cheapness had to do with it?

From the article linked below:

By saving less than $100 a month, adjusting the savings for inflation, and investing well, a young person can retire with millions.

We assume that an investor sets aside $1,000 in 1970 and increases the annual savings by 3% each year to roughly keep up with inflation.

After 10 years of adding the inflation-adjusted $1,000 a year, our hypothetical investor would have accumulated $16,187. Not enough to knock anybody’s socks off. But after 20 years of this, the account would be worth $118,874.

After 30 years, the account would have grown to $689,226. And after 40 years, in 2009, the account value at the end of 2009 would have been (gulp) $649,360.

the account would have more than doubled over the next five years, growing to $1,352,002 at the end of 2014.

Going to funerals every week is a tad weird.

[quote]How does a guy like that, a blue collar worker (blue collar, unionized worker, so he did make a decent living but a high, high income) with a stay at home wife manage to save enough to leave his family with a small fortune and help them financially along the way? Like I said, he had a good income, but nothing that would make an average person rich. Was is it his overall cheapness or do you think there's more to it? I'd like to know.

OP - your entire post demonstrates why you cannot comprehend it.

From what you've written and without knowing more details, he wasn't "cheap" as you label him. A "cheap" person does not "He helped his children buy their homes, helped pay for his grandchildren's university tuition and down payments for their first homes and so on."

Only a spendthrift fool would label someone who doesn't waste money on useless or unnecessary things as "cheap." Obviously, he had his priorities and didn't let the opinions of people like you embarrass, sway, or goad him into wastefulness. Saving and investing wisely over decades will create a tidy nest egg for anyone.

It's all about one's priorities: "He spent his senior years volunteering, especially helping immigrants and visiting seniors in hospitals and nursing homes."

Who can say whether he enjoyed his life or could have been happier if he indulged in spending a bit more on smaller luxuries or conveniences - that's a qualitative judgment.

Anyone who lived through the great depression (the one in the 1930's) became frugal and saved money. No safety net in that era. This story was not uncommon. My grandparents: single breadwinner postal worker, modest home, etc. left an estate in the million range. My parents, aunts and uncles, blew it all within 10 years.

My grandfather was somewhat like this, in terms of income. My grandmother didn't work. He worked for a company that made hangers and racks & stuff like that. Nothing special. They lived in a small house & raised 3 kids on this salary without any problem or any loans for my dad & uncle to go to college which didn't cost 200k per child back then.

I asked my dad how his father had so much money when he died (they had millions in savings) and my dad said the main thing - as far as he knew - was that he just put his money in savings back in the day when accounts were in the 15% range. The compound interest adds up...and he had a lot saved by then (he was in his 50s during the hyperinflation era when rates jumped like this). I'd guess they already bought their home at a lower mortgage rate, given the timeline. They didn't have credit cards or really need anything but the bare necessities - culturally, this was pretty common anyway as others mentioned.

My dad said there were a few stocks that he owned, but owning stocks was not very common. So, he only bought a few & didn't really know what to do with them so he just let them sit for 20+ years which made a tremendous amount of money.

They were always cheap, too - not a bad thing. They had the same clothes and furniture forever. And with food, they were crazy (by today's standards). My grandmother would eat some tiny scraps of tuna for lunch and then carefully wrap it up in foil and store it in the fridge - then take the rest of the scraps out again for dinner - but this time with some lettuce. I'm too young to remember this but my brother used to sleep over there all the time & imitate them. They were extremely strict with food. Only 3 meals a day...and this part I remember, because my own mother would shove food in my face all day long - but not them. If you asked, you were denied or given a stale cookie that they were going to throw out anyway (or perhaps as punishment for you asking).

Uber on weekends?

It does cost around 4-5 times as much, if not more to eat at a restaurant than to cook and eat at home, depending upon many variables, obviously. A 2-egg, 3-bacon, waffle, coffee breakfast costs about $1.50-$2.00 to make, but will be at least $15 at a restaurant, after tip. Multiply that and other small savings here and there by a few decades and it adds up.

I usually figure that by the time I drive, park, wait to be seated, wait for the waiter, wait to place the order, wait for the order to be brought to the table, wait for the check, drive back home, I could have made just as good a meal for much less money and hassle, but I enjoy cooking.

The fact that he lived to be 82 helps a great deal.

Using the Rule of 72, if his money was invested at 10% (good, but not impossible with stocks), he would have been worth only $500,000 at 75, $250,000 at 68, and $125,000 at 61. He probably had a good pension, lived modesty, and let his investments compound over a few decades. Not rocket science.

Something someone hinted at: Some people don't buy a helluva lot of stuff, are put off by the thought of it. My sister's always made good money, but she's never bought lots of shoes, clothes, etc.; got good furniture that's lasted for eons; eats well at home; is selective about going out for dinner; doesn't drink much. Definitely not cheap and definitely not casually spending $30 here, $120 there on stuff. She and her husband do travel internationally and don't cheap out doing it.

To be sure, in this scenario, cost of things relative to income was drastically different. When I lived in the SF Bay Area, I met a few natives who grew up in a decent house, their dads didn't have high-money jobs, moms didn't work and there was still enough money to cover (vastly cheaper) college.

As noted, much to be said for long-term savings and adding not-huge amounts each year, but the middle class in this country and others has been so utterly fucked over, gone down with barely a peep of protest.

There are a lot of things that cost monthly money that were not even on the radar in the past. People MUST have their phones ($50-100/month), people MUST have their internet ($80/month), people MUST have their cable TV and/or their netflix ($80-150/month), people MUST have their daily Starbucks latte ($6, ($180/month)), and the list goes on and on and on. Subtract all of that out, and suddenly you have an extra $600/month to save. Adds up REALLY quickly. Then people feel deprived if they don't take an expensive vacation every year (another $4000 bucks or more). They watch HGTV and decide their completely usable laminate countertops are horrible and look at those cabinets - suddenly they are into a $20,000 kitchen remodel.

I guess my point is if you prioritize a very materialistic life in which you have to have everything that you think everyone else has and enjoys, you are always going to be spending every cent that you earn and never saving.

He sounds boring actually

It's already been mentioned, but the older people I know who have a lot of money are cheap with food. I lost count the number of times my cousins would come over to our house--around meal time. Meals at their house was something out of a Dickens novel.

Today my uncle eats the same thing everyday, breakfast is one slice of toast with margarine and tea. Lunch is a can of soup with tea made from the same tea bag used in the morning. Dinner is a sandwich made with butter, two slices of bread of a bit of cheese and tea using the morning teabag.

R15.....is this Uncle you mention loaded by now? Or you have no way of knowing? Buy him a box of Tea Bags for his birthday, maybe he will put you in his will:)

R16 my cousin let it slip after my aunt died a few years back that they had several million dollars. I know he owns three apartment buildings and he's taking in about $30k a month just from those.

If I buy him anything it'll be a bar of soap. Bathing daily is another extravagance he doesn't believe in.

I won the lottery and never told anyone

* He