To the outside world, Curt Degerman was a poor can collector.

The aged Swede, known as "Tin Can Curt," spent 30 years roaming the streets of Skelleftea in northern Sweden in his blue jacket and ragged pants, collecting tin cans and bottle for cash. He was, in the eyes of most people, an ordinary street bum.

Yet when he died he left more than $1.4 million to his cousin.

How did he do it? Thrift and smart investing.

It turns out that in between collecting cans, Mr. Degerman spent a lot of time in the local library reading business papers and studying the stock market.