I'm not much of a cook, but I used to enjoy watching Martin Yan's PBS show Yan Can Cook, in which he would cheerfully make Chinese dishes and let you know that if "Yan can cook, so can you!" I liked the message that you should not be intimidated by cooking, that it was something anyone could do.

What does this have to do with personal finance?

Well, via Tired But Happy, I came across this article about Paul Navone, a Philadelphia area man who recently gave two $1 million dollar gifts to local colleges.

The catch? The 78-year-old Navone has never worked at a job where he was paid more than $11 per hour.

From the article:

Paul Navone worked in mills in and around Vineland for 62 years, never earning more than $11 an hour. He buys his clothes in thrift shops. He doesn't own a phone. And he doesn't have a TV: The last thing he recalls watching was neil armstrong walking on the moon in 1969.

...

At 21, he joined the Army and spent two years assigned to the base post office in West Germany. Back home, Navone moved in with an older sister until he had saved $6,500. With that stake, he bought his first property. He moved into one half and rented out the other.

"I lived on the income the one unit provided me, and I saved my wages from work," Navone said.

Not just saved, invested. He acquired a second rental property, then a third. Eventually, with the advice of stockbrokers, Navone expanded his investments.

"Paul has always been the perfect client. He gave me money and never took it out," said his broker of 20 years, R. Douglas Smithson, senior vice president for investments at Wachovia Securities in Vineland. "He took my advice, he stuck to a plan, and he reaped the benefits of it."

You may not quite aspire to Navone's life - in addition to the excerpts above, the article relates that Navone is a lifelong bachelor who has never dated (and thus has no kids) - but the core lesson is still there. You don't have to make gobs of money to get rich, and I'd say you don't have to live quite the spartan lifestyle that Navone has lived in order to do it. But you do have to be smart with your money.

Finally, from the article:

"My motto back then without realizing it - and it is now - is that I'll work for the money, and then I want the money to work for me," he said.

If Navone can get rich, so can you!