He was a neighbor of a good friend and owned a gas well company in nearby Penn. His suburban house was worth about $180k and I had no idea until recently that he even had that kind of money. I joke with my friend that if I had that sort of dough I'd move as far away from her as possible. Jake always waved from his front yard and was easy to talk to.

I found out he was wealthy when I was researching stocks and looked into his company a few years ago. He had a million controlling shares of the company at about $50 a share. He was compensated $300k a year but didn't live like it. He finally treated himself a couple years ago with a fully restored '58 Vette, but lives his life like a working man. I don't even think his adult kids know what he has. They drive new cars, but in the $30k range.

Since all this Jake finally retired last year, cashed in his stock holdings, and moved to sunny Arizona at 59 years of age. His new dream home near Phoenix is valued at about half a mil and I hear he hasn't changed his lifestyle much. Maybe he's an anomaly or just plain stupid. I see him as a real life Jed Clampett.

On edit: I do concede that he votes a straight ticket Republican ballot. We've had our discussions and he always remained polite and respectful.