Can scavenger died wealthy
"Tin-Can" Curt Degerman, a well-know aluminum can scavenger in the Swedish town of Skellefteå, was apparently a multi-millionaire when he died last year. He was apparently very thrift and also a shrewd investor. From Sweden's The Local:
“He went to the library every day because he didn’t buy newspapers. There he read [Swedish business daily] Dagens Industri,” a cousin (of Degerman told the Expressen newspaper)."Eccentric Swede turned empty cans into gold" (via Fortean Times!)
“He knew stocks inside and out.”
And Tin-Can Curt used that investing know-how to turn the modest deposits he collected from returning empty cans into mutual funds worth more than 8 million kronor.
In addition, he had purchased 124 gold bars currently valued at 2.6 million kronor and had nearly 47,000 kronor in the bank.
Tin-Can Curt also owned his own home, which was found to have 3,000 kronor in loose change, bringing the total value of his estate to 12,005,877 kronor.
the latest
latest episodes
Well, good he spent all that time saving money. Its doing him so well right now.
Thrifts of the most unappreciated sort are stunningly enriching over enough time. A can of store brand coffee Vs the trendylatte. The cow juice in that homelatte being also a store brand bought with coupon savings if your state allows. There's a zone between false perceptions of economy and real thrift too. Paper products Vs cloth dishtowels. But the cheaper appearing paper towels compared to a good quality one are just that false economy. Investing in quality where applicable has a highe ROI than any stock market's sustainable yield. That plus ecology/economy rethinkings that defy logic to explain their detractors.
Like the example of reusable water bottles Vs the expense of as someone put it "Naive spelled backwards" Or drinking water instead of canned drinks. After all- the person who showed which way money flows in canned drink economics did so in a big way .
Good for him!
He apparently lived the way he wanted to, as he could certainly afford to live in a different manner, but choose this lifestyle - I may not choose it, and you might not either, but he did, and it served him well.
Think of it, he had a paid-off home, money in the bank, and did as he choose... The mind reels at all the "neccessities" he went without that many of us (myself included) can't imagine being without...
Note, 12 Million Kronor is just over $1.4M US today (April, 2009) - not to diminish his accumulation, but to put it in perspective.
The 3,000 Kronor is just over $350 US - hardly an amazing amount of change in my opinion. It is less than a *full* large water bottle like some charities in the US use to raise funds.
I myself collect about $80 in loose change in a month (but I tend to keep all my coins, rather than using them when buying items, so my number may be a bit higher than others - I consiously hold on to my coins, then make a note of putting the money towards an "impulse" purchase, like a new generation MacMini...
While I admire this man's thriftiness, I don't long for his lifestyle. Life is a balancing act. Don't waste yours in pursuit of accumulation at the expense of a little deserved self indulgence.
Phlavor,
Well said. While people can certainly live however they want, I don't see the point in accumulation for accumulation's sake. What good is money if not as a tool to purchase services, needs and wants (or for donation).
@#4
Agreed. I often find these stories (Person X lived solely on Ramen noodles for 50 years and died a millionaire) to be interesting, more for the borderline mental illness that some of these people seem to show.
My father used to run a construction company and one of his oldest clients was very very wealthy and yet this man lived in a dilapidated 2 bedroom house that he ended up living in after divorcing his wife when he didn't want to move into the nice house he built for them on the other side of town.
He was too afraid that the trailer park and commercial properties he owned and operated would suffer greatly if he was 15 minutes away in a nicer part of town, and he's not alone, I've known several few well-to-do people who refuse to spend their money on just about anything, even after they've amassed enough to be completely happy and financially secure many times over. It's ironic, in at least a couple of occasions these people have even let their health suffer for fear of "wasting" their money on doctors and tests etc... only to die from relatively easily treatable conditions.
I'd say the moral to this story is be careful with your money, but remember that it's meant to be used, not saved forever (because, sadly, we don't live forever) and it doesn't really matter how much you have in the bank when you die, what matters is how you lived and how happy you and your friends and family were until then.
Urshrew - I don't think there's any suggestion he didn't enjoy his life.
How many people can say they were self-employed for 30 years, in a profession that involved working outdoors, riding a bicycle, no dress code, no boss, no overbearing debt, and had enough money stashed away that they never had to worry about a downturn in business?
John Galt, is that you?
:-) There you go, a Rags to Riches Capitalist success story. If only you work hard enough.
The information was free though.
well, I certainly hope he died intestate so the government gets all the money.
"I once had a friend that died broke. All my friends said wow that's really sad. I just thought he had good timing."
-some comedian I can't remember
Sorry, Takuan - he was apparently left everything to his cousin, who he saw several times a week.
damn.
"Good timing" is not dying broke. It's dying owing a lot of people a lot of money.
#9 DOUGROGERS
Capitalism rewards good ideas, not hard work. Hard work by itself usually gets you nowhere.
As there don't seem to be many other Boing Boing readers that understand Swedish, here is what international press didn't tell.
His cousin estimated that half of the fortune was inherited. He lived with his parents until they died in the late 1990's. He had a mental breakdown as a student and lived the rest of his life on a government paid illness pension. According to his cousin, the can collecting was seen as mostly therapeutic by the man himself (well, some go fishing, and sometimes even through the fish back, or do other "hunting and gathering" that isn't necessary for survival, not much of a difference).
I'm kind of surprised that this made headlines in Swedish newspapers (although small ones) and I'm even more surprised about the interest from international media. His fortune wasn't very large by Swedish standards, quite the opposite. It is kind of sad, but his faith isn't very unusual (at least not in Sweden and definitely not in northern Sweden where it isn't any daylight most of the year and thats not good for your mental health). His cousin seems like he genuinely liked him and was a good friend, though. They had grown up together, talking to each other every day, and he thought of him as a brother.
in my experience capitalism mostly rewards treachery.
This is cool. Skellefteå is just a two hours drive from where I grew up and I've had several coffees there passing through during my student years. I probably saw Curt once or twice without knowing it. Not often you read about a north Swedish town in the news, let alone on BoingBoing...
>> "Capitalism rewards good ideas"
Bullshit.
If all the good ideas made it, the world would not be in the mess it is in now.
Then again, define "good idea". These credit default swaps -just an example- definately were an EXTREMELY good idea, for some.
Wow... that is freaking awesome. But I think I'll choose college education instead.
12,005,877.00 SEK = 1,419,553.89 USD
I truly wish I would hear a story like this someday about that chinese lady who collects cans in the LES. Except in the story she doesn't die, she buys and reopens the old Music Palace as a multi-arts venue where unemployed people get in free.
Worry not Takuan the Swedes have high estate taxes, unknown it seems in America: why should people (in this case his cousin) get a free ride on other people's life work?
That's the problem with America: too many rich people, who did not earn their wealth. Like this guy did. (They call him 'mentally ill'!!)
And the US and State Govs cannot "afford" to help those sickened by underpaid overwork: or by the destitution caused by the lack of any paid work, at all.
Do you think that there may be a connection between untaxed unearned wealth and the lack of the availability of living-wage full-time employment?
Do you think that those with inherited wealth have more time and ability to influence the course of Legislation, and of political life in general? That they could more easily "set the agenda" for public discussions?
To the extent of (further) harming the interests of the majority, who do not have such wealth?
To be clear, this guy earned his momney: unlike say the Bush family of this generation, and the last.
#14: Capitalism rewards any activity that increases capital: capitalism does not care if the activity is deadly or unsustainable or destroys the future.
"Capitalism" is of very recent vintage, and it has never worked: it was an excuse to leave the rich rich in majority-vote democracies then a-borning: it's a fantasy, justifying who gets to legally kill whom.
And many many millions have died to preserve "capitalism". How many die prematurely in the USA due to unavailable and unaffordable health care?
Oh, right, who cares?
"Capitalism is great! Everybody with a different opinion, STFU or my Army/CIA torture squad will shut it for you..."
"Capitalism": a content-free buzzword used to kill debate about socially-desirable, backed-by-the-majority legislation. Like single-payer universal healthcare.
Never used when discussing how much of the taxpayers' monies are to flow to private investment firms...oops I mean "investment banks"....to make up for their gambling losses.
From the article, ... Tin-Can Curt also owned his own home, which was found to have 3,000 kronor in loose change, bringing the total value of his estate to 12,005,877 kronor..
.
It's a very weird way to put it. He owns his own home, so we count the 3,000 kronor in loose change? What about the things in his house. What about the house itself. It's got to be worth more than the loose change found in it.
It would have been different if it said, "He lived in a house that belongs to his uncle, which was found to have 3,000 kronor in loose change, bringing the total value of his estate to 12,005,877 kronor".
Ugly Canuck - seriously? The pernicious Bush Administration wound it's evil tentacles into this thread about a Swiss can collector that lived as he choose and died with a positive net worth?
Bush Derangement Syndrome has apparently taken over your mind, you may want to get that looked in to, you wouldn't want to miss out on Palin Derangement Syndrome - it's all the rage!
Check that, he was from Sweden, not Switzerland - my bad, I meant to check that before hitting send...
Not the "evil Bush Administration"; although Bush will be prosecuted (and then pardoned) for his ordering of torture. (Cowards on the throne are always the cruelest of rulers).
Unearned wealth (unlike our can-collector's) has too much power, too much say, in American life. Just ask Mr. Nader:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/04/18
We've several sorts of idea fail here.
The initial "as reported" story was a simple human interest piece with amusing perceptual hooks. None of which seem to me inherently needing political fails hung on them. Social ones, yeah- they fit. Political/"named evildoer" crudflingings were rightly tagged as derangements. I award points to Timothy Hutton.
Well it's Sunday morning, time to go scavenge the ditches for last night's empties...you know ever since Reagan was elected, scavenging has become a way of life for more and more North Americans: whose parents were better off than they were, and whose children will in turn be worse off than they were. Not as a matter of choice and preference, like for this Swedish gentleman.
Geez maybe our problem is that we just were not right-wing enough, eh?
Income inequality in Sweden is as nothing compared to the USA:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/17/cbo-income-inequality/
Oh right wouldn't want politics to spoil the amusement you get, from being surprised that a "bum" might be worth more than you are.
Ugly Canuck - you're right, it was all sunsine and lollipops when Jimmy Carter was, to use your vernacular, on the throne...
It'sconvienient how you ignore the repeated pleas by the Republicans for increased oversight of Fanny and Freddy, only to be shouted down by the likes of Maxime Waters and Barney Frank, who insisted that all was well and accused Republicans of denying the right of homeownership to those who were on the bottom of the economy.
The ability to repay loans was trumped by the urgent for low income families to "buy" their first homes.
@TIMOTHY HUTTON
Conservatives really need a new meme to state over and over again. Preferably one that is true, this time around.
and welfare queens. Don't forget the welfare queens.
URSHREW - Take a look:
A YouTube.com video
URSHREW - Or this:
YouTube.com video