.5 Lessons From the 'Witch' of Wall Street

5 Lessons From the 'Witch' of Wall Street

The best advice is often timeless.

Karen Wallace, CFP®  Dec 31, 2019

Mentioned: Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRK.B)

During the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, a woman named Hetty Green was one of the most powerful financiers in the world. She made the vast majority of her $100 million fortune ($2.3 billion in today’s dollars) herself, investing in railroad stocks and bonds, government bonds, and mining stocks. She also provided loans to cash-strapped businesses and bailed out the city of New York on several occasions.

But high society didn’t quite know what to make of Green. Despite having all the makings of a socialite--a huge fortune and a direct bloodline to the Mayflower settlers--Green preferred to dress plainly and conduct business with men. That Green preferred black, Quaker-style dress to fancy clothes wasn’t the only reason she’s best remembered by the epithet “The Witch of Wall Street,” though.

 Bain News Service, Publisher. Mrs. Hetty Green. [No Date Recorded on Caption Card] Photograph. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2014680543/.

Green was much maligned in the press and among her contemporaries, who called her stingy and greedy. People couldn't make sense of this grotesquely wealthy woman who reputedly didn’t give to charity and made a habit of suing people--including members of her own family. Her frugality is legendary: She was even listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “World’s Greatest Miser.”

Unfortunately, Green’s enduring legacy hinges on the “Witch of Wall Street” dichotomy: Discussions of her enormous self-made fortune are typically offset by tales of how cheap and mean she was. Though it’s tempting to dispel a few of these myths and paint a less-wicked picture of Green, doing so ignores the more relevant lessons we can learn from her.

Here are five lessons we can learn from Hetty Green about investing and life.

1. Teach Girls about Business

American women would be much happier if they learned the principles of business in girlhood,[1] Green once told the Ladies’ Home Companion. Indeed, she credited much of her business acumen to lessons learned watching her grandfather run the family business while she was still a girl.

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