She was sent to a Quaker girls’ school on Cape Cod at eleven years old, where she learned frugality. Her first business responsibility was to keep strict accounting of personal and household expenses, a practice that served her well in the future. She opened her first savings account when she was eight, depositing the $1.50 she received for a weekly allowance in it. Her grandfather’s eyes were bad, so she read the financial news to him, and by the time she was fifteen years old, she knew more about stocks and bonds than most men in the business. Her mom was sick a lot, so Green lived with her grandparents for most of her childhood. She was the only heir to a fortune made from whaling. Green was born into a Quaker family from New Bedford, Massachusetts. But when cities and banks are turning to you for a bail out, it doesn’t really matter what other people think. She took to heart her dad’s advice to “never owe anyone anything, not even a kindness,” which didn’t endear her to very many people. Henrietta Howland Robinson learned everything she needed to know about financial matters from her grandfather and father.
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