A federal auditor who never earned more than $4,000 a year died alone in a Manhattan studio, and the fortune she quietly assembled stunned everyone who thought they knew how wealth was built.
A Modest Salary and a Fortune Nobody Expected
A retired federal auditor died on January 9, 1995, at 101. In 23 years at the Internal Revenue Service, she never earned more than $4,000 annually. Her stock portfolio was worth about $22 million.
She started with $5,000 in savings, though her executor challenged claims about her investing skill.
A Stalled Career and a Stock Market Obsession
She had a law degree but was never promoted. She retired as a government auditor in 1944, in her early fifties, thinking she was held back because she was a…
