Henrietta "Hetty" Green is listed in the Guinness World Records as the "greatest miser." She was known as the richest woman in America during the Gilded Age. Being a prominent businesswoman and financier, she was able to make a fortune of several billion but saved on hot water and laundry.
Hetty was born into a wealthy family who had a large whaling business. The girl got interested in finance in her early childhood. Living with her grandfather and her aunt, Hetty would read the stock quotations and commerce reports for her grandpa and picked up some of his business methods.
Any other heiress to a huge fortune would surely have spent at least part of it on luxurious life. But as a teenager Hetty has already been notorious for her asceticism, and as she grew older, that quality only worsened.
Green did very well in business. When she bought up Manhattan real estate, brokers followed her every move, because her investing strategy was always successful.
Wall Street bankers were literally afraid of Henrietta, as she could ruin anyone if she wanted to, and often did. Hetty's fortune was growing as well as her cheapness.
Indeed, Green's stinginess was legendary. She would send her son to sell a newspaper she had read. She never turned on the heat or used hot water, she wore one old black dress that was only replaced when it was worn out; she did not wash her hands and she rode in an old carriage.
In the newspapers, Henrietta was nicknamed "The Witch of Wall Street" for her looks and stingy habits. No one knew her exact fortune until the very end.
So Henrietta's children were astonished when they inherited $4 billion. Fortunately, her heirs didn't inherit their mother's avarice, and they gave most of their fortune to charity.
Source: trendymen
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