As reported by Yahoo! Finance, Ronald Read was a retired janitor and gas station attendant based in Vermont before his passing in 2015. Remembered by those in his community as a humble, hardworking and good-natured individual, people were shocked to hear his estate was valued at $8 million.

The janitor was Ronald Read, an American philanthropist and investor who lived in Vermont and passed away in 2014 at the age of 92. Despite working for 25 years as a gas station attendant and another 17 years as a part-time janitor at JCPenney, he quietly amassed a fortune of $8 million. His secret was extreme frugality and a "buy-and-hold" investment strategy focused on dividend-producing blue-chip stocks like Procter & Gamble, JPMorgan Chase, and Johnson & Johnson. He was so frugal that he famously used a safety pin to hold his old jacket together and parked far away to avoid paying for meters. Upon his death, he shocked his community by bequeathing $6 million to his local library and hospital. His story is frequently cited in 2026 by financial experts as the ultimate proof that consistent, long-term investing and living below one's means can lead to massive wealth regardless of a person's primary income level or social standing.