The Story Of “The Witch Of Wall Street”

August 22, 2022

Hear the story of one of the greatest investors of all time.

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The Story of Hetty Green, “The Witch Of Wall Street”

Early Life

Henrietta Howland Robinson was born in 1834 in the city of New Bedford, MA, as the daughter of Francis Henry and Sarah Eldredge Robinson. Her father was a Quaker and a wealthy whaling ship owner who had the ability to trade with China. For those that don’t know, during the 1800s New Bedford, MA was the wealthiest city in the entire US. It specialized in whaling, which was used in creating valuable whale oil that was used to light lamps around the world. If you ever visit, the Whaling Museum is well worth a tour.

From A Young Age, Hetty Was Involved In Finance

From a young age, Hetty was involved in finance. At the age of 12 she began trading stocks and commodities with her grandfather's money.

According to her biographer, Janet Wallach, Hetty often read the financial newspaper to her grandfather. She began trading stocks and commodities from his office and was so successful that she earned $5,000 within the first year.

Hetty Inherited A Ton Of Money

When Hetty’s mother died, she left her a house valued at $250,000 in today’s money. After her father died, he left her 6 million dollars (about $87 million in today’s dollars). Her aunt left her 1 million dollars, which was about $21 million in today's money. This all happened when she was still in her teens. Despite receiving all this inheritance money, she chose to live very frugally.

Her Strategy Was Simple: Buy Low And Sell High On Things Nobody Wants

There's no doubt we have to thank her for the modern stock market we have today. She was one of the first people in history who really understood how markets worked and used it to make billions. Her strategy was simple: buy low and sell high on things nobody wants.

One place she went looking for undervalued assets was government bonds. After all, if you can pay 6% interest on a loan in gold, it sounds like an excellent investment opportunity! But Green wasn't content with just buying bonds she found opportunities where the yield would be much higher than that—real estate. 

During the 1820s the Erie Canal was finishing construction and was set to connect New York City & The Atlantic Ocean to the booming Great Lakes area. This became a massive financial opportunity and cemented nearby Wall Street as the financial capital of the US. Real estate became a valuable asset in that area and guess who had been buying it up? None other than Hetty Green. She used real estate has her primary vehicle for building wealth.

She Was Also A Notorious Cheapskate

Green was also a notorious cheapskate, the kind of person who would wear old clothes that were regularly mended and patched. She never turned on the heat or used hot water, instructing her maid to only wash the dirty parts of her dress to save money on soap. She even refused to pay for a doctor for her son’s foot and he ended up having to have it amputated! Her (insane) frugalness earned her a spot as the Guiness World Record holder for “World’s Greatest Miser.”

Hetty Green’s Story Should Teach Us A Valuable Lesson

Hetty Green was known for being a notorious cheapskate. She was nicknamed “the Witch of Wall Street” by her peers, who saw her as someone who could be mean and cold-hearted towards others. She also had a reputation for being an excellent investor, although many people still saw her as someone who cared more about money than people. In fact, she was able to amass wealth so large (about $2 billion today) that she became the richest woman in America during her time period—and one of its richest individuals ever!

Hetty Green’s story is one that should serve as a reminder that even though we’re chasing wealth and financial freedom, we shouldn’t do it at the cost of our loved ones and others around us.

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23-year-old dividend investor | Author of the 5-star book, “Time Is Money” | I’m building an investment portfolio to achieve financial independence | NFA

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