So if he would have started investing his money in lets say 1950, even if he lost 40% of the value of it this year and last, do you think it was still wise to stick it in mason jars? If he could have Forest Gumped it, it could be worth quite a tidy sum today.
A couple of years back two guys got in the paper saying they found some cache of pre-1935 dollars under some tree roots. I think the value of it in todays dollars was over $100,000 if the money was sold to collectors. Anyway, they were bragging about how they found it, got in the news papers and on TV and then it was discovered that they did a roofing job and found it hidden in the attic when they had to repair the wood beneath the shingles. If I remember correctly, they were charged with theft and had to give the money back. Some old guy had gone to his grave never telling anyone about his stash.
He didn’t have any money to invest in 1950. He worked minimum-wage jobs, paid cash for everything, and was finally able to start saving only a few years before he passed. (All of it was SS income minus monthly expenses.)
Could he have been smarter? Sure. But now the money’s gone and precisely for the reasons he imagined.