# 10 Investments That Made Early Buyers Incredibly Rich > Early investors turned modest sums into millions through rare timing and patience. - Title: 10 Investments That Made Early Buyers Incredibly Rich - Summary: Early investors turned modest sums into millions through rare timing and patience. Ten investors including a janitor, street artist, and retired IRS agent… - Keywords: grace groner, ronald read, jason debolt, dan zanger, anne scheiber, keith gill, michael burry, david choe, ted weschler, peter thiel, Investments, Made - Source: 24/7 Wall St. — https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/09/23/10-once-in-a-lifetime-investments-that-created-massive-fortunes - Author: Mike Barrington - Published: 2026-09-23T15:41:06+00:00 - Read time: 2 min - Topics: grace groner, ronald read, jason debolt, dan zanger, anne scheiber, keith gill, michael burry, david choe, ted weschler, peter thiel ## The $180 Stock Purchase That Became $7 Million Grace Groner bought three shares of Abbott Laboratories for $180 in 1935 when she was a 25-year-old secretary. She left the investment alone for 75 years, turning it into $7 million by 2010. > She left the fortune to Lake Forest College, creating a foundation that funds internships, study abroad and other opportunities for students. ## The Janitor Who Quietly Built an $8 Million Portfolio Ronald Read, a janitor at a JCPenney in Vermont, steadily bought shares in businesses he understood and held them for decades, amassing $8 million by 2014. > Read steadily bought shares in businesses he understood, favored established dividend payers and held many positions for decades. ## The Engineer Who Rode Tesla to an $11.5 Million Portfolio Cloud engineer Jason DeBolt began buying Tesla shares in 2013, concentrating his entire portfolio in the company by 2021, achieving $11.5 million. > In January 2021, DeBolt publicly shared that his Tesla holdings were worth roughly $11.5 million and that he planned to retire at 39. ## The Pool Builder Who Turned $10,775 Into $18 Million Dan Zanger, a pool builder, sold his Porsche to fund a trading account and turned $10,775 into $18 million in 18 months during the late-1990s tech boom. > Trading records and his 1999 tax return reviewed by Fortune showed the astonishing result: roughly $10,775 became $18 million in about 18 months. ## The Retired IRS Auditor Who Grew $5,000 Into $22 Million Anne Scheiber, a retired IRS auditor, grew $5,000 into $22 million by 1995 through careful stock investments, leaving most to Yeshiva University. > She lived alone in a rent-controlled Manhattan studio and remained so frugal that few people understood the scale of her wealth. ## The $53,000 GameStop Bet That Briefly Hit $48 Million Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty, turned a $53,000 GameStop position into a brief $48 million peak in January 2021 through retail buying. > In January 2021, a stampede of retail buying collided with enormous short interest and sent GameStop into one of the wildest squeezes ever seen. ## The Contrarian Who Made $100 Million From the Housing Crash Michael Burry, a doctor-turned-investor, earned $100 million personally by betting on the housing crash through credit-default swaps. > By the end of the wager, Burry had earned about $100 million personally and roughly $725 million for the investors who remained with his fund. ## The Artist Whose Facebook Murals Were Reportedly Worth $200 Million David Choe painted murals at Facebook’s first offices in 2005 and later sold his stake for an estimated $200 million at the company’s IPO. > News reports estimated Choe’s stake at roughly $200 million around the IPO. ## The $70,000 Retirement Account That Grew to $264 Million Ted Weschler’s retirement account grew from $70,384 to $264.4 million over decades, with Warren Buffett hiring him as a Berkshire Hathaway investment manager. > By the end of 2018, tax data obtained by ProPublica showed the Roth at $264.4 million. ## Peter Thiel’s $500,000 Facebook Bet Paid Out More Than $1 Billion Peter Thiel invested $500,000 in Facebook in 2004, achieving over $1 billion in cash by 2012 through the company’s IPO. > When the company went public in 2012, Thiel sold shares in the offering and unloaded most of the remainder after the lockup expired. ## The Unconventional Path to Wealth These investors turned modest sums into staggering fortunes through unusual timing, immense risk, or decades of patience. > Their paths to wealth look nothing like conventional financial advice. ## Why These Investments Matter The story highlights how patience, unconventional strategies, and timing can create extraordinary wealth from modest initial investments. > The people on this list include a janitor, a legal secretary, a street artist, a pool builder, and several investors who risked their reputations on ideas almost nobody else believed. ## The Legacy of Early Wealth These investors left legacies through foundations, scholarships, and community support, emphasizing the long-term impact of patient investing. > He left $4.8 million to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and $1.2 million to the local library. ## What Happens Next These stories inspire future investors to seek unconventional opportunities while emphasizing the importance of patience and long-term strategies. > These extraordinary outcomes involved unusual timing, immense risk, or decades of patience. ## Key takeaway Ten investors including a janitor, street artist, and retired IRS agent turned small initial investments into millions through unconventional strategies and decades of patience.