Life Lessons: The Witch of Wall Street

Of the strange achievements recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records, Hetty Green's has to be the most tragic.  She is listed as the "world's greatest miser".  Green was America's first woman business tycoon.  She was so downright unpleasant she became known as "The Witch of Wall Street".

Hetty's lifestyle was so frugal that she shunned turning on heat or using hot water.  She wore the same black dress and underclothes until they wore out.  Then she would buy a new black dress and underclothes.  She worked out of a cramped space because she refused to pay office rent.  Her son lost a leg when she considered the needed operation too expensive.  Hetty died in 1916 as the world's wealthiest and possibly most unhappy woman.

Saving for the future is important, but life is for living.  Instead of hoarding money or things, approach each day as an opportunity to work, share, learn, love, and be generous with others.

Solomon reminds us:

Proverbs 11:26:  "The people will curse him who withholds grain, But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it."

Proverbs 13:7:  "There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing; And one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches."

The old adage is still true:  plan for tomorrow as if you are going to live to be a hundred, and live today as if it is your last.