Meet Heinz B., an 80-year-old German millionaire who seems to have taken the concept of frugality to the extreme. While most millionaires might have significant sums stashed away, Heinz keeps a mere €15 in his bank account, with the bulk of his wealth tied up in real estate investments.
Instead of dining out at fancy restaurants or indulging in luxury goods, Heinz prefers to forage for his meals in the trash. It's a habit he's comfortable with, having grown up with little, and he sees no reason to change his ways now that he's amassed a fortune.
So, the next time you spot someone rummaging through the garbage, don't be too quick to judge. They might just be a resourceful millionaire. You never know...
From Oddity Central:
Heinz B. looks like a homeless person with nothing to his name, but appearances can be deceiving. The German man may only have €15 euros ($16) in his bank account at the moment, but that’s only because he just withdrew 700,000 euros ($756,000) to buy a new home, his tenth. The 100,000 euros left over was transferred to a fixed-term deposit to generate interest. He might not look like much, but the octogenarian is worth several millions of dollars and knows how to increase his fortune. Besides, he claims to have been frugal his whole life, so he doesn’t really need money to get by. He is more than happy living on food found in dumpsters and hoarding all sorts of things other people throw away.
“Maybe I’ll buy some oil for frying or something if it runs out, but I find most of the food in the trash,” Heinz recently told German tabloid Bild. “People are wasteful and throw away so much that you could feed a whole family! For example, people buy a pack of sausages, eat one, and then simply throw the rest in the trash.”
The pensioner from Darmstadt in southwest Germany first made news headlines in 2021, when it was reported that he owned 7 houses and 2 apartments, and had around 500,000 ($540,000) in his bank account. He’s been growing his fortune ever since, recently investing a whopping 700,000 euros into another house. Interestingly, he makes sure to buy properties in his area, so he can reach them by bike in case they need repairs. It’s not like he’s willing to pay someone to do it when he can do it himself.
“Craftsmen charge 55 euros per half an hour of repairs,” Heinz B. said, adding that most of his houses aren’t even leased because the rent wouldn’t cover the costs of maintaining the properties. Besides, it’s not like he needs the extra money anyway.
