Ronald Reid was the last person you would expect to become a millionaire.

He used safety pins to hold his old coats together and cut his own firewood well into the ’90s.

He drove a used Toyota Yaris and resisted buying new ones.

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Perhaps his only real indulgence was his daily English muffin and cup of coffee at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital in Vermont, where a friend recalled sitting on the exact same stool every morning.

In his career as a janitor and gas station attendant, he was known as a hard worker.

But friends and family never guessed that he would amass a fortune of $8 million.

Decades of compounding in use

When he died in June 2014, Reid’s will revealed an $8 million portfolio.

It turns out that not only had Reid been saving diligently for decades, but he had also bought high-quality, dividend-paying companies that he held for the long term.

Reid owned stock in at least 95 companies at the time of his death – names you’d love to recognize Procter & Gamble, JPMorgan Chase & Co. And Johnson&Johnson. Many of these companies increased their dividends every year for decades after he bought them.

There’s no doubt that Reid’s investments were wise. But his results are a testament to his patience more than anything else. They recall an old observation by Warren Buffett that “the stock market is a vehicle for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.”

You might think you don’t have to wait decades like Reid did. But investors today have an edge he couldn’t have dreamed of.

Giving ordinary investors a shot at pre-IPO glory

For 79 years, if you want to invest in young companies apple inc in the 1970s, Metaplatforms Inc.‘s Facebook in 2004 or Airbnb Inc. In 2009 you had to be an accredited investor.

The concept originated in a 1933 law that created the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which…