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klochner | 7 years ago

Lawyers aren't known for their stock picking, I wonder if she was piggybacking on insider trading by M&A lawyers.

discuss

order

Andre_Wanglin|7 years ago

Saving $5000 per year for 75 years compounded annually at 6.2% would net you a little over $8M. An unremarkable return on an unremarkable savings rate.

davidgay|7 years ago

I don't think a 21year old secretary was saving the equivalent of $70k 2018 dollars in 1943.

CamelCaseName|7 years ago

All it takes is one remarkable variable -- age.

The same values taken for a 50 year period are only $1.65MM, nothing to sneeze at, but a far cry from $8.2MM.

hunter23|7 years ago

You are neglecting inflation. There was no way this secretary was saving $5000 a year 75 years ago - her yearly salary was mostly likely around that amount.

jandrese|7 years ago

I think it's more the fact that they were a two income family and never had kids. Their apartment was probably paid off and they were one of those couples that was perfectly happy not taking expensive vacations or buying expensive things. Combine that with smart investing and you an amass quite a fortune over a lifetime.

Of course then you are 95 and realize that without descendants about the only thing you can do with the money is give it to a charity and hope they don't squander it.

greenyoda|7 years ago

> without descendants about the only thing you can do with the money is give it to a charity and hope they don't squander it

A reputable charity is less likely to squander $8M than one's descendants are.

emdubs|7 years ago

Dink dink dink! We have a winner!

sveng|7 years ago

Actually M&A lawyers know the law, and have a lot more to lose than the average person. So insider trading amongst them is quite rare. Ask around at work and see what your GC thinks about your hypothesis.

meric|7 years ago

She had many years to compound.

wjn0|7 years ago

Quick script, to show some example numbers on how this could happen (assumes she worked for 75 years, that her salary kept up with annual rate of inflation and she always invested 10%, and a very high annual rate of return of 10%) [1].

[1] https://gist.github.com/wjn0/67641a83d61e2fe74f8729f65fe4bdb...

asdsa5325|7 years ago

Uh, no. $8 million after 75 years of compound growth isn't significant.