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A secretary bought three shares of her company's stock for $60 each in 1935.
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Grace Groner reinvested her dividends for 75 years, and her stake increased to $7.2 million.
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Her employer, Abbott, shared Groner's story in a recent post on the website.
A secretary paid $180 in 1935 for three shares of her employer's stock. By the time she died in 2010, her investment had grown $7.2 million.
Abbott, a pharmaceutical company, gave a shout out to the former employee in a recent post on her website.
“As we celebrate 101 years of dividend payments, we remember one of Abbott's earliest investment success stories, Grace Gronerwho has worked as a secretary at Abbott for over 40 years,” the post reads.
“In 1935, Groner bought three shares of Abbott stock for $60 each. She regularly reinvested her dividend payments and quietly amassed a fortune of $7.2 million. A dollar estate was discovered.”
He gave all his fortune to a foundation he had established to support his alma mater, Coleg Coedwig Llyn. The money was earmarked to fund internships, international studies, and service projects for students.
Groner hung on to her Abbott shares for over 75 years without selling a single one, despite several stock splits, and used its dividends to bolster her stake.
She was likely able to leave her nest egg intact for so long because of her simple lifestyle. She lived in a one-bedroom house, bought her clothes at rummage auctions, and didn't own a car, the Chicago Tribune reported in 2010.
Its shares would be worth north of $28 million today, excluding dividends, given that Abbott's stock price has roughly quadrupled since 2010. The drugmaker's market value has risen to about $200 billion, which meaning it now competes with Disney, PepsiCo, and Morgan Stanley in terms of size.
Read the original article on Business Insider