With an annual salary of $400,000, plus a $50,000 expense allowance, it’s fair to say the President of the United States of America is a pretty well-paid position. However, that’s nothing compared to the money presidents can make when they leave the White House, in addition to the $221,400 post-presidential pension they're entitled to.
Read on to see how past presidents have boosted their wealth and what their peak net worth was. Figures have been adjusted for inflation
Gerald Ford was the 38th president and served from 1974 to 1977. With a gleaming military record, impressive legal career, and devoted wife Betty, he was the embodiment of the American Dream, and certainly didn’t allow a lack of family fortune to stand in the way of his ambitions. Ford spent the majority of his life in public service – including, pre-presidency, eight years as Leader of the House Republican Conference, as well as a stint of Vice President under Richard Nixon – and his three years in the Oval Office put him on the path to huge personal wealth.
After leaving the White House in January 1977, Ford reportedly made nearly $1 million a year from book advances. In 1979, he published his autobiography A Time To Heal, which was followed in 1987 by Humor and the Presidency, a book of political anecdotes. He also opened a library, named in his honor, at his alma mater, the University of Michigan. Combined with lucrative public speaking engagements and board memberships, he was able to buy properties in Michigan and Colorado, and also invested in oil. Ford died in 2006 following a series of health issues but not before growing his pre-office net worth by around 400%.
The oldest living former US president, Jimmy Carter is currently 97 years of age, and has also lived the longest, post-presidency, of all other US presidents. He served from 1977 to 1981, but despite an ex-president annual pension of $200,000, his fortune has seen distinct highs and lows after he left the White House. Having successfully converted his family’s Georgia-based peanut farm into a thriving agriculture business before becoming president, he had left the farm in the hands of a blind trust. Post-presidency, he was shocked to discover that the trust had been neglected, leaving him with literal peanuts – and $1 million in debt.
Happily, Carter was able to turn his fortunes around again. A prolific writer, he has to-date penned over 20 books, including memoirs, political tomes, a poetry anthology, and even a children's book, The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer, which was illustrated by his daughter Amy. As well as countless speaking engagements, Carter also oversaw the construction of the Jimmy Carter Library & Museum, taught at Atlanta's Emory University, and founded the not-for-profit Carter Center, which works towards advancing human rights.
Prior to moving into politics, Ronald Reagan was a popular actor, and also served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. His political career began in the 1950s, and he served as the 40th president of the United States between 1981 and 1989. His showbiz career meant he was wealthy prior to entering office, but that was just the start. After his political career finished, he utilized his on-screen charisma to charge thousands of dollars for public speaking engagements; he reportedly made around $1.8 million a year from giving speeches to Fortune 500 companies.
Prior to his death in 2004, Reagan also made a fortune thanks to several juicy book deals, with titles, including his autobiography An American Life, flying off the shelves. He also invested in property, with his portfolio including a 688-acre ranch that was once nicknamed 'the Western White House'.
Richard Nixon, who served from 1969 to 1974, is perhaps most remembered for the Watergate scandal. While it may have severely dented his reputation, it actually did wonders for his post-office earnings. The first president in American history to resign, "Tricky Dicky" cashed in on his notoriety by agreeing to a series of interviews with renowned British broadcaster David Frost. Nixon was paid $600,000 (around $2.6 million in today's money) for the interviews, which were filmed and aired in 1977.
Nixon also penned ten books, starting with RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon in 1978, which became an instant best-seller. He followed the post-presidency trajectory of speaking engagements and writing, and also invested in property. In 1981, he sold his New York townhouse to the Syrian ambassador to the US for $2.6 million, and later went on to expand his property portfolio with premium real estate in New Jersey, California, and Florida.
A member of the wealthy Bush family, George H.W. Bush, who served from 1989 to 1993, made his money running an offshore oil drilling company before becoming the 41st president. By the time he passed away in 2018, he’d grown his fortune by around 475%. So how did he do it?
Bush’s post-presidency years saw him plough millions of dollars into property, including an estate in Kennebunkport, Maine that’s believed to be worth more than $5 million. He also served as an advisor to private equity organization The Carlyle Group, and was paid to deliver a vast array of corporate speeches. Unlike other presidents, he never wrote an autobiography, although portions of his personal diaries were published in two hotly-anticipated tomes: All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings in 1999, and The China Diary of George H. W. Bush: the Making of a Global President in 2008. And yes, that's him on the left, enjoying a tandem skydive to celebrate his 80th birthday.
Following in the footsteps of his father George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush served from 2001 to 2008, and also made a pre-presidency fortune in the oil industry. He also owned a stake in the professional baseball team the Texas Rangers, and would go on to become one of America's wealthiest former presidents. In 2015, it was reported that he'd given upwards of 200 paid speeches since leaving the White House, and had charged upwards of $100,000 for each appearance.
A lucrative book deal in 2010 earned him a further $7 million. His memoir, Decision Points, was released in November 2010 and had sold over two million copies in its first two months. This was followed by 41: A Portrait of My Father in 2014, and 2017's Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors, which showcased Bush's paintings of military veterans alongside their personal stories. In April 2021, he released a second artistic tome, Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants.
Barack Obama, who served as US president from 2008 to 2017, earned millions while still in office thanks to his best-selling books. This included Dreams From My Father, which was originally published in 1995 and re-published in 2004, earning Obama a Grammy for the audio version, as well as a $500,000 advance for a children's version. This was followed by 2006's The Audacity of Hope and 2020's A Promised Land, both of which sold millions of copies.
He and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, have enjoyed a serious post-presidency cash boost, with estimates sitting between $40 million and $70 million. However, that's nothing – American University predicts that the charismatic couple could earn as much as $242.5 million in the coming years.
In addition to commanding six-figure checks for speeches, the power couple are busy building a media empire. Their production company Higher Ground was launched in 2018, and has been commissioned to create scripted and unscripted content for streaming giant Netflix as part of a lucrative multi-year deal. The company has already won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy for the 2019 documentary, American Factory. Higher Ground also partnered with Spotify for a series of exclusive podcasts, starting with The Michelle Obama Podcast, which first hit the airwaves in summer 2020.
The 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton served from 1993-2001. While he was far from wealthy before entering the White House, he certainly made up for it afterwards, raking in $75.9 million once his presidency ended. Clinton has made a fortune from books, and even held the record (until Barack Obama took it from him) for the highest post-presidency publishing deal.
He received around $21 million in today's money for his autobiography, My Life, which was published in 2004 and sold an estimated 2.3 million copies. In 2007, he released Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, which also became a best-seller, followed by 2011's Back To Work. His collaboration with novelist James Patterson has also been lucrative, with their first fiction book The President Is Missing, released in 2018, selling over three million copies.
He and his wife Hillary Clinton have earned millions of dollars on the public-speaking circuit over the past two decades. In 2012, it was reported the pair grossed $153 million for 729 speeches, earning an average of $210,795 per address. Honorary positions and consultancies have netted Clinton even more cash. It’s been revealed he made $18 million as a chancellor at the for-profit college network Laureate International Universities.
The earliest-serving president on our list, Lyndon Johnson was in the White House from 1963 to 1969. A 1964 New York Times report suggested that Johnson was worth millions, thanks to his family owning a radio and TV station in Texas. The TV station, KTBC, is now owned by Fox. Johnson also acquired 1,500 acres of land in Texas's Blanco County, where he and his wife Claudia 'Lady Bird' Johnson built a luxurious ranch. By the time Johnson passed away in 1973, his net worth was estimated to be around $109.3 million in today's money. So how did he do it?
As well as their property and media portfolios, Johnson and his wife Claudia also invested in a variety of other fields, including private planes and livestock. And, of course, there was a literary string to Johnson's bow too: 1969 saw him release his first book, The Choices We Face, which was followed by his memoir The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963–1969. However, Johnson didn't get much of a chance to explore his post-presidency career options; he passed away in 1973, just four years after his retirement.
Despite making at least $1.6 billion while president, Donald Trump left office with less money than when he entered the White House in 2017. In fact, according to reports, it was estimated his fortune had fallen by around $700 million by the time his presidency ended in January 2021. However, due to the ever-controversial Trump's continued refusal to publish his tax returns, commentators struggle to achieve an accurate picture of his wealth.
As the owner of luxe hotels, casinos, office buildings, and golf courses both in America and around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted Trump’s net worth. Two impeachments and the riots on Capitol Hill have also taken their toll, with Wall Street institutions and business associates seeking to distance themselves from him. A string of expensive legal proceedings have further contributed to his financial decline, and it will certainly be interesting to see how his fortunes fare over the next few years as the prospect of a second presidency looms.
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