A secretary turned $180 into $7.2 million by holding her employer’s stock for 75 years

• The secretary bought three shares of her company’s stock in 1935 for $60.

• Grace Groner reinvested her dividends for 75 years, and her share grew to $7.2 million.

• Her employer, Abbott, shared Groner’s story in a recent website post.

The secretary paid $180 for three shares of her employer’s stock in 1935. By the time she died in 2010, her investment had grown 7.2 million dollars.

Abbott pharmaceutical company yelled at ex-employee A last post on his website.

“As we celebrate 101 years of paying dividends, we remember one of Abbott’s earliest investment success stories: Grace Gronerwho worked for Abbott as a secretary for over 40 years,” the post reads.

“In 1935, Groner bought three shares of Abbott stock for $60 each. He consistently reinvested his dividend payments and quietly amassed a fortune of $7.2 million. Groner died in 2010, at the age of 100, and it was only then that his multi-millionaire … dollar property was found”.

He donated his entire fortune to a foundation he created to support his alma mater, Lake Forest College, which he used to fund internships, international studies, and service projects for students.

Groner hung on to his Abbott stock for more than 75 years, never selling a single share despite several stock splits, and used his dividends to bolster his stake.

He was likely able to keep his nest egg intact for so long because of his simple lifestyle: He lived in a one-bedroom house, bought his clothes at the dealership and didn’t own a car, the Chicago Tribune reported in 2010.

Its shares would be worth north of $28 million today, ex-dividend, given that Abbott’s stock price has roughly quadrupled since 2010. The drugmaker’s market value has reached nearly $200 billion, meaning it is now competitive. The size of Disney, PepsiCo and Morgan Stanley.

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