A tale of two millionaires, some people spend it ans some save it

Every morning, billionaire Milton Petrie walked from his New York  apartment and bought a newspaper from the regged old man on the street corner.One  morning  the man  wasn’t there.Petrie learned that  he was  very ill in the city hospital. Immediately he saiid his hospital bill and later, when  the  man died  , paid  for his funeral.The old man was just one of many people that Milton Petrie helped with his money.Whenever he read about personal disasterss in his newspaper he sent generous cheques,especially to the familiesof policemen or firemen injured at work.He also sent cheques to a mother  who lost  five children in a fire,and  a beautiful model,whose face was cut in a knife attack.It cost him millions of dollars, but he still had million left.He said that  he was lucky in business and he wanted to help those less fortunate than himself.”The nice thing is , the harder I work, the more money I make, and the more people I can help”.Milton Petrie died in1994 when he was 9. His will was 120 pages long because he left $150 million to 383 people. His widow, Carroll, his fourth and last wife , said his generosity was  aresult of the poverty of his early years.His  family were poor but kind-hearted.His father was a Russian immigrant  who became a policeman, but never arrested anyone, he was too kind.He couldn’t even give a parking ticket.

Hetty   Green. The Richest,the Meanest Woman in the World.

Hetty Green was  a very spoilt, only child.She was born in Massachusetts, USA, in 1835. Her  father was  a millionare businessman.Her mother was often ill,and so  from the age of two her father took her  with him to work and taught  her about stocks and shares.At the age  of six  she started reading the daily financial newspapers and she opened  her own bank acount.Her  father died when  she was 21 and she  inherited  &7,5 million.She went to New  York and invested on Wall Street.Hetty saved  every penny,eating  in the cheapest restaurants for 15 cents.She became one of the richest and most hated women in the world.She was called “The Witch of Wall Street” At 33 she married Edward Green, a multimillionaire, and had two children, Ned and Sylvia.

Hetty’s meaness was legendary.She always argued about  prices in shops.She walked  to the local grocery store to buy  broken cookies,biscuits,which were  much cheaper ,and to get  a free bone  for her  much-loved dog.Once she lost  a two-cent stamp and spent  the night looking for it. She never bought  clothes and always  wore  the same long ragged  black skirt.Worst of all, when her son Ned  fell and injured his knee, she refused  to pay  for  a doctor and spent hours looking for  free medical help. Inthe end Ned’s leg was amputated.

When she died in 1916 she left her children $100 million (worth $9 billion today. Her  daughter built a hospital with  her money.