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Today is Dividend Day.
The series where I teach you 5 things about dividend investing in less than 5 minutes.
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1️⃣ The Millionaire Next Door
Ronald Read was a janitor and gas station attendant that passed away with a dividend portfolio worth nearly $8 million.
He gave:
$2 million to his stepchildren, caregivers, and friends
$4.8 million to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital
$1.2 million to the Brooks Memorial Library, which had a $600,000 budget and a $600,000 endowment
Here were his top 10 holdings:
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2️⃣ A Strange Year in Stocks
The chart below compares individual investor sentiment (Bulls minus Bears) with the S&P 500’s actual returns.
In 2025, sentiment was extremely negative. The gold diamond shows bears outnumbered bulls by a significant 11.1%.
Despite this widespread pessimism, the S&P 500 ignored the crowd and posted a strong 16.5% return.
This is a classic example of the market climbing a “wall of worry,” proving that stocks can perform well even when investors are fearful.
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3️⃣ An Investing Quote
Building wealth like Ronald Read doesn’t require a finance degree, it requires a rare kind of stubbornness.
Most investors sell their best stocks the moment the headlines get scary or the market dips.
But Ronald Read’s edge was simply his refusal to sell.
As Thomas Phelps explains in his classic book, 100 to 1 in the Stock Market:
“To buy right requires vision and courage... To realize 100 for one requires patience, extraordinary tenacity—the will to hold on.”
— Thomas Phelps
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4️⃣ Ronald Read’s Story
Read built his $8 million fortune by owning 95 different blue-chip companies and never selling them.
I put together a thread breaking down his specific portfolio, his simple rules for picking stocks, and the lessons we can all learn from the world’s most famous “Millionaire Next Door.”