Mary Woulf was 22, a single mother and a college dropout. She went to a temp agency for a receptionist job. She did well on the test, so they sent her to their best client, a national mortgage lender.
“I was only supposed to be there for three months,” she said. She stayed for 13 years.
Early on, one of Woulf’s colleagues sat her down. “They knew I was just a single mom and trying to work hard,” she said. The mentor told her about the company’s 401(k) program.
“They said, ‘One day you might have a million dollars.’ And I said, ‘A million dollars?’ And it seemed impossible.”
Woulf opened a retirement savings account in 1990. Thirty-five years later, she has a million dollars.
