Former reporter leaves $1 million to Indiana University School of Journalism

I know what you're all thinking: "How could a reporter come up with $1 million?"

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100608/LOCAL/6080375/Former-reporter-leaves-1M-to-IU

 

Creative expense accounts or rich relatives are my guesses.

 

The key word being "former".

No current reporter I know will ever have money to leave their kids, let alone a college.

 

There WERE ways to parlay modest incomes into bigger bucks back then. I'm guessing that's what this guy did.
My dad is living comfortably now 35 years after he retired as a manager of an auto parts store. He worked for that company for more than 40 years. He retired at age 59 and got a $25,000 lump sum pension. He was very conservative and made some small but wise investments that paid off handsomely.
And the house he bought in 1962 for $28,000 is now worth at least $1.5 million.
Sadly, those kinds of investments aren't available to us these days.

 

The bigger problem is that we lack the spending control necessary to save up to make those investments.

 

So did most people in 1962.