‘Middle-Class Joe’ to ‘Millionaire Joe’
The United State’s President Joe Biden has become rich by $2 million by being in the White House for two years. The presidential hopeful took over the Oval Office in January 2021 with an estimated net worth of $8 million. However, now, he is worth $10 million. The former Vice President referred to himself as “middle-class Joe” throughout his career. In fact, the 80-year-old often joked about being the “poorest person in Congress.” However, these terms are no longer valid because the current president is one of the ‘millionaires’. At the beginning of 2020, when Biden was campaigning for the presidency, he released his financial information that disclosed his state as well as federal tax returns for 2016, 2017, and 2018, as reported by CNN . According to the financial statements, the president and his wife, Jill, made $11 million in 2017 and $4.6 million in 2018. The Democrat has served 44 years in the federal government- beginning his political career at age 30. He was a six-term senator at first and then as former President Barack Obama’s vice president. During his term as Obama’s VC, the financial disclosures showed Biden was the ‘least wealthiest’ member in the office. So what inflated his net worth by a whopping $2 million in just two years?
1. Real Estate Investment (The Bulk of his Wealth)
Biden’s family businesses have not significantly contributed to his increase in wealth. Instead, his net worth rose to $10 million by his investment in real estate, reported by Forbes . The Democrat owns two homes in Delaware, Pennsylvania, worth an estimated $7 million combined, $1.8 million more than they were when he took office.
2. Book Royalties
His middle-class status soon changed once he and his wife signed a deal for Joe Biden’s book, Promise Me, Dad, and Jill Biden’s Where the Light Enters . Biden earned $30,000 in book royalty, dropping to $2,500 and $5,000 in 2022. Meanwhile, his wife Jill did $15,000- $50,000 sales of her book. However, her royalties also fell in 2022, as per The Guardian.
3. His Salaries Over the Years
The factor that primarily contributes to his millionaire tag is his salary. The 80-year-old Democrat makes $400,000 a year as president, and prior, he earned about $225,000 as the United States’s Vice President. Before, he amassed around $155,000 annually as a senator plus another $20,000 teaching at Widener University, as per Forbes .
4. Speaking Enagagements
Aside from these, Biden also mints money through his speaking engagements. He earned over $4 million in late 2017 and 2018 from giving dozens of speeches, including his appearance at the Miami Book Fair to a book tour-related “VIP experience” in 2017, addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Harvard University in 2017.
5. Pension and Social Securities
80-year-old Biden and his 71-year-old wife Jill are qualified for the social security. According to their tax filings, the couple has been taking hefty amounts since 2009- $385,000 in benefits over the next decade, not to mention $890,000 from pensions and annuities during that time, as per the New York Post . His son, Hunter Biden, also shouldered the responsibility to maintain the family’s lavish lifestyle, providing from his several business ventures.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on October 3, 2023. It has since been updated.