By Cesar Gorillo
THE world’s greatest miser (kuripot) ever recorded was a woman by the name of Hetty Green of Massachussets, US.
She was born in the year 1834 and died in 1916 and lived in New Bradford, Massachussets. She lived with her grandfather by five years old, read the Financial Times by six and became a family bookkeeper at age 15.
Her family profited from the whaling fleet business and also with the trade in China. Thus, when her parents died, she was left with a fortune of $7.5 million which she wisely invested in the Civil War Bonds at that time. She went on to invest in the stocks of Wall Street until her fortune reached $l02 million.
To save on costs in clothing, she only wore a single dress in her whole lifetime and only ate nuts to save on food. When she heard that her aunt died, she filed a case against the estate telling the court that she was the sole heir of the $2-million inheritance. She lost in that case.
At age 33, she married but she got sure that her future husband sign a pre-nuptial agreement that he will not share a single centavo of the money she earned prior to their marriage. But they had a very unhappy marriage because they frequently quarreled about money. She also quarreled with the relatives of her husband because she was always afraid they were trying to get money from her.
Things came into heed when they had a violent quarrel because her husband wanted to have their child hospitalized due to a cut in the leg but she argued that they find a hospital for free. Due to the late hospitalization of the child, the leg had to be amputated later because of gangrene.
One night, her husband was looking for her because she had not gone home. Her husband was surprised to find her looking at all the areas near their home because a stamp worth two cents was lost and she wanted to find it because she could not afford to lose two cents.
Finally, age caught up with her and she suffered a series of strokes. Her family wanted her confined in a hospital but she would have none of it because it would only cost her money.
When she died at the age of eighty eight, her children were shocked to find that her balance in the bankbook totaled $l.68 billion by today’s standards.
However, her children were not able to inherit her serious miserly ways and spent her money as they wanted. They even allowed the government free use of her estate for nuclear research and exploration. Before her last child died, she willed to several charities billions of their estate to which has been of use up to now by those who benefitted from her billions.