(part of our Tales of the WLBOTT series)
We enjoyed meeting Lochlan and Lyra Herrera at our recent farmers’ market outing. Fred, our Penitent Intern, was excited to meet someone with such lyrical names, and was very curious when he learned Lochlan and Lyra were twins. “Are you identical twins?”
They laughed. They’d heard that many times. Our Fred was confused – why was this funny?
Just to be clear, Lochlan and Lyra were not okra entrepreneurs. They’d never been to central Texas before, and Lochlan wanted to present an urban, hip vibe. He later felt a bit dumb over his misrepresentation because they’d met some nice friendly folks.
But they did buy up all the okra. They saw right away that the okra was top notch, but wasn’t selling at all. Earlier that day they’d stopped for lunch at Bill’s Burgers Wings and Things in Burnet and noticed the LACare food bank down the street. They loaded up the WLBOTT okra and dropped it off on the way back to West Texas. They also returned to Bill’s, the get the “And Things” special.
Lochlan and Lyra are from Loving County, Texas. Although the county is 3/5 the size of Rhode Island, it has the smallest population of any county in America (64 people).
It turns out that Lyra was an enthusiastic gamer. She loved her 2001 X-box console, and she and Fred spent a lot of time playing (after their chores, of course). But Lyra fretted that the industry might fade away. With a little research at the Wink Public Library, she saw that her X-box was based on the NVidia GeForce 3.
Lyra wanted to do her part to keep NVidia financially healthy, so she bought $40 worth of stock each week, starting in 2001, using her baby sitting money. She kept this up for 15 years, then just forgot about it. During these early years, the stock was languishing around 38¢ a share. Then one day, in mid-June, she decided to check her Fidelity account. She was wondering if she could afford to sell a few shares to get a new clutch for the Ford.
When she opened her Fidelity account, she saw the balance:
$35, 722, 919.32.
This was followed by some serious shushing.
Lochlan, being the competitive younger brother (by 33 minutes) heard about Lyra savings plan, and he wanted to out-do her. So he started a Vanguard account. Being more mechanically minded, Lochlan wanted to invest in something with moving parts, preferably something that spun, so he chose Western Digital, because they made the hard drives in their X-box. Same deal – it was doing fairly well, nudging up a bit and keeping up with a savings account interest, and then he lost interest, just like Lyra.
When Lyra checked her account, she pulled Lochlan aside and said, “Brother, you need to check your Vanguard.”
They huddled into a quiet corner of the library. Lochlan’s Vanguard password was scribbled on an old feed receipt tucked into his ratty 20 year old wallet, but it worked and got him to his account
$7, 142, 019.01.
Another scream, another shushing. Lyra was excited for another reason: “I win! I win! I win by a LOT!”
But after a few minutes of glee, they started to feel like somehow this was all very illegal or a huge mistake, so they sold everything and put the put the dinero in a money market account. This turned out to be a great move, especially for Lochlan, because the bubble burst shortly thereafter.
So in all this excitement, you’re probably all wondering about Lyra’s Ford. Yes, indeed, she got a new clutch, along with a new paint job. Lyra drove (and still drives) 1956 Ford F-100 Styleside pickup, which she inherited from her grandfather. It has a three-speed manual transmission (column shift), a V8 engine, and a slightly battered turquoise-and-white paint job. Lochlan inherited the manure spreader. He felt he got the better deal.
After visiting the farmers’ market in Round Rock and dining on the And Things special at Bill’s Burgers Wings and Things in Burnet, Lochlan and Lyra began the 433 mile drive back to their home in the suburbs of Mentone, Loving.
Oh, and all that money…. Lyra and Lochlan did make one concession to their new wealth:
