Quote Originally Posted by Gistok View Post
Also this clash with the upper class helped decide to use John Dodge's farm out in Rochester, as the location of her and 2nd husband Alfred Wilson's permanent home... 110 room Meadowbrooke Hall [[largest home in Michigan)... far and away from the hoi poloi of Detroit.
When Mr Dodge went to his reward, his estate [[after death taxes and obscene legal fees) went to his wife and amounted to $100 million. Her financial gurus put the whole amount in state and local bonds paying 3.5% interest. Since at the time, the top rate was 91% on all income over $252,000, she got 3,500,000 a year tax free. In those days, you didn't have to even report tax free income and with $3.5 mill coming in, she didn't even have to file an income tax return [[no taxable income). If she had worked for a living, she would have to make $39 mill a year to get that much take home pay. In essence, her investments gave her a 39% return on the money invested when taxes were taken into consideration.