There’s a Millionaire Janitor, You have No Excuses

There’s actually a millionaire janitor who amassed an eight million dollar fortune through simple means. Who is he? His name is Ronald Read. How did he get there? All he did was save and invest his money into dividend paying stocks. Nothing complicated. You can do the exact same things.

If he can do it, you can do it too. You don’t need privilege to have multi millions, although it absolutely helps. What you need is the discipline to save and invest your money. Heck, if a janitor did it, then you can do it too, there’s no reason why you can’t. What’s even better is that we are in a higher inflation rate from Ronald Read’s time.

Therefore, becoming a millionaire these days is a lot easier than back then. The most common misconception about having millions is that people think that it is complicated. That couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s not complicated at all.

The best wealth building strategy is simple and slow. There is definitely a way to be a millionaire through complicated and quick means. However, they bear the highest amount of risk. The least risky way to become a millionaire is to be patient and let time do the rest of the work for you.

You have no excuses. There’s a good chance that you make more money than our millionaire janitor example. In fact, the average J.C. Penney Janitor brings home is about $23,000. Imagine how much less money than that Ronald Read made 40+ years ago.

Becoming wealthy when you’re young is hard but becoming wealthy by the time you’re old can be the easiest thing ever. Getting ahead is not complicated.

Who is the Millionaire Janitor?

Ronald Reed grew up on in a poor farming household who served in the U.S. Army during World War II and worked as a gas station attendant for the following 25 years after. After taking off a one-year break, he worked at J.C. Penney as a janitor for 17 years after as well, hence the janitor who became a millionaire.

This is in stark contrast to the “Harvard graduate CEO who started a business at 21” stories that you hear about so much these days. Don’t get sucked into the glamour of those headlines. The ordinary ones aren’t building wealth through flashy means at all.

Ordinary people like you and me put our head down and quietly get things done. The one who actually get things done aren’t the ones who just talk about it. They just quietly do it without the need for any recognition or fame from anybody else.

The ones who shout the loudest have the least substance. In fact, the only time people knew about the millionaire janitor’s wealth was when he died. That’s the only time the media even thought or began to think about featuring him as a headline story peace.

Don’t try to go for glory, fame, recognition, pride, or form. Go for substance. Sure, people might not know how great you are, but you know how great you are. That’s all that matters. Would you rather be a dumb millionaire or smart broke person? I would much rather be the former.

Caring about other people’s opinions never did anybody any good.

The Millionaire Janitor Story

Ronald Read, the millionaire janitor, built an eight million dollar fortune (who knows how much larger it could have become today) by purely investing in dividend paying companies. That’s it. He didn’t do anything complicated that the ordinary person can’t do.

He lived frugally and saved as much money as he can from his paycheck and put it into the stock market. When he saw a company he liked, he bought their stock just once and let it ride for the rest of eternity. Even during the turbulence, he never lost faith and kept buying and holding his way to success.

When he saw companies that he didn’t fully understand, like technology companies, he just avoided them altogether. He didn’t focus on what he didn’t know would make him money, he focused on what he knew would make him money, which were blue chip stocks.

There’s a reason why blue chip companies are blue chip companies. They proved themselves to be worthy. I am not a financial advisor and you should always do your own research when investing. They do have a huge chance of failure but they also have a good chance of success as well.

It was good enough for the millionaire janitor to build his empire on. While I haven’t gotten into the individual company investing area of investing yet, I do like the underlying theory behind blue chip investing. The best investing strategies are simplistic.

The more complex something is, the worse it is. Don’t let the overthinking and complexity bias sway your line of thinking and decisions away from you.

Lessons to Learn from the Millionaire Janitor

One lesson that you can learn from the millionaire janitor is to SMASH that social share button and post to your favorite social media! Your friends can easily learn from Ronald Read’s story. If he can do it, they can do it too and it might just be the motivation they need to reach their money goals and become a millionaire.

You don’t know which of your friends can gain value from this article and if it can help just one of your friends, why wouldn’t you share?

Let’s get everyone to be wealthy.

1) Compound Interest Truly is Wonderful

What do you think is more important? Time or money? The answer is time. If you have a million dollars to invest but only 1 year to invest it, maybe you’ll end up with $1.1 million by the end. Barring any correct Gamestop plays.

However, if you only have $10,000 but 100 years to invest, there’s a good chance you’ll end up with $8.7MM by the end. You start with 100 times the time and 1/100th of the amount of money you have. However, you end up with almost 8 times what you would have ended with versus if you had 100 times the money and 1/100th the time.

In the money vs time debate, this is why people say time is more valuable than money. You can always make more money. However, getting more time is literally impossible. Use compound interest to your advantage. Just as it can help you, it can harm you in ways you don’t see coming.

The impact in the early days is so small, that’s why you don’t even see it coming until it’s too late. Let compound interest be your friend, not your enemy.

2) The Caveat is that You Need a Long Time

While compound interest is very helpful, the downside is that you need time. Without a long time, you don’t have good chances at all. The millionaire janitor passed away when he was 92 years old. Not everyone is going to live to be 92 years old. Warren Buffett is 90 years old as of the time of writing.

These people achieved immense wealth but they needed time to actually achieve the wealth they achieved. So then, your number one priority is not to make as much money as you possibly can. Your number one priority is to protect your life so you have the time to build wealth.

We take living for granted, thinking that “well, we lived today, why won’t we live tomorrow?” Life is the most precious thing that you should protect. Otherwise, everything that you are working towards will be gone in a second. Just like that. Protect your health at all costs. It’s what’s going to cross you over the finish line.

3) Income Only Matters to an Extent

The millionaire janitor did not make a lot of money working as a gas attendant and as a janitor. There’s little chance that he made anything over six figures at any point of his life. He made enough to cover his living expenses and had leftover funds to invest.

Income only matters to the point that you can cover your living expenses plus a small amount of leftover funds. Other than that, it doesn’t matter as much as people think it does. Yes, you need leftover and extra funds so that you can invest your money. However, you don’t need to make $200,000 a year to build wealth.

There are many parts of the world where you can live on an after tax income of $25,000. Anything you make on top of that is gravy and is a great wealth generator for you. Don’t think you have to make six figures to be wealthy. While it helps, it’s not necessary.

4) Stocks are a Great Wealth Building Machine

The millionaire janitor invested his money into blue chip and dividend paying stocks. Dividend paying companies are generally better at managing their cash than a non dividend paying company. It’s a requirement that these businesses are good at managing their cash, otherwise they’ll be left in the dust.

Stocks are a good way to build wealth and increase your net worth and it will continue to be a good way to do so. Don’t get sucked into the “real estate vs stocks” debate. At that point, people are debating which investment vehicle is “better”. Whether you have $1,000,000 or $1,200,000, do you really care?

Is that extra $200,000 really going to make that much of a difference in your life? Either way, you’re a millionaire. Life is good and there’s little you have to complain about. Whether it’s better or worse, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that stocks are still a great wealth building machine.

5) The Millionaire Janitor Proves the Buy and Hold Strategy Works

There are many “strategies” that people come up with to make money faster in the stock market. While some are successful and some can be successful, why go after a strategy that isn’t proven? Why not go for a proven strategy that has worked for a majority of people?

The millionaire janitor literally proved that the buy and hold strategy works. Do you really want to be that smart investor who came up with a strategy that no one else thought of? Let go of your pride. I’m sure you’re really smart. However, trying to be smart can be your greatest downfall.

For my personal portfolio, I buy and hold. My investments run automatically. The day to day movements no longer phase me out anymore. A 1.5% decline in the S&P 500 used to freak me out. It used to make me feel that the world is coming to an end. Not anymore. I just shrug my shoulders and get back to work.

6) Feelings Have No Place in Making Money

The millionaire janitor didn’t care or feel anything, even when the market experienced downswings. Throughout his life, the stock market was phenomenally turbulent. From October 5th to October 25th in 1978 and 1979, the Dow fell 11.66% and 10.27%, respectively.

It’s quite scary for a stock to lose 10%+ value in a single month. It’s ridiculously scary for a stock market index to lose 10%+ value in a single month. Ronald Read didn’t care and just carried on like nothing happened. He consistently bought stocks and held for the long term.

He didn’t let feelings get in the way of business. When he knew he made a sound and solid investment, he just let everything else fall into place. Let go of any feelings or pride when it comes to making money. They have no place and will hurt you more than it helps you.

People lost fortunes overnight because of feelings.

7) The Average Joe Can be Wealthy

You don’t need to graduate from a prestigious university with the President of the United States as a part of your connection. You don’t need any of that. That’s just a mindset that people like to say to shift the blame from themselves to others. Anybody can become a millionaire.

Ronald Read didn’t even have a college degree. While stories like that are rarer these days, it’s still possible. All of the fancy credentials that people like to brag about really shouldn’t be something to brag about. You can become a millionaire by going to a state school and you can become a millionaire by going to community college.

Never confuse “helpful to have” with “need to have”. Most millionaires are self-made. They worked hard, invested their money, and let time do the rest of the work for them. The average Joe can do all of that and then some. I’m an average person who made it through.

I will prove to you that the average person can be wealthy as well.

8) Millionaire Janitors are Unknown

The millionaire janitor didn’t care about status. He didn’t care about recognition, fame, or anything else. He just cared about his own opinions rather than others’. In fact, others didn’t know how much wealth he had until he bequeathed millions of dollars to the Brooks Memorial Library and Brattleboro Memorial Hospital.

Only after 92 years of his existence did others get a glimpse of his financial life. That was the only time people knew of his fortune and wealth. No one knew that he was a millionaire janitor, I mean, he looked for tree branches on the ground to use for the wood-burning stove at his house.

He didn’t buy his own firewood, he used free materials to live his day to day life. Therefore, no one suspected that he had any amount of wealth close to what he had. That should be the same for you. You shouldn’t try to be wealthy for the recognition, you should try to be wealthy for yourself.

Whether others know it or not, it doesn’t matter.

Don’t Let the Millionaire Janitor Put You to Shame

If a janitor can become a millionaire, then you can too. Don’t let him put you to shame. You probably have a head start against when he started. He was working in a period with limited information. The internet either didn’t exist or was very rudimentary.

You have all the free wealth of information available to you at your fingertips. There’s no telling what you can accomplish and do in your lifetime. So many people are going to read his story and be inspired, but never take any action. If you want to be wealthy, you have to do what the wealthy does.

If you think you can’t get there because of the circumstances that you’re in, you’re wrong. There’s plenty of money out there for the taking. You just have to go and find it. It’s not that difficult to go and find it these days. People are becoming millionaires in their 20’s by leveraging technology.

Even if you don’t want to use technology to your advantage, you and I can easily invest in dividend paying companies without any problems. The best part? These days, it’s all FREE. Back then, brokerages charged money for executing trades. These days, not so much.

Also, we have fractional investing available to us as well. You have no excuses or valid reasons to not build an $8 million fortune like the millionaire janitor. I’ll be here teaching you all the ropes of how to build wealth and achieve financial success. Anybody can.

All it takes is the right attitude and behavioral things like practicing delayed gratification. These things are completely within your control. Effort requires zero skill so why wouldn’t you do it? No need for innate abilities here!