From the hunger and hardship of Ireland's Great Famine to the pinnacle of US politics, the Kennedy family's rise is extraordinary.
Just over a century after Patrick Kennedy left Ireland for Boston with little to his name, his great-grandson John F Kennedy entered the White House, cementing the family as American royalty. Behind that ascent was a vast fortune built largely by JFK's father, Joseph P Kennedy Sr.
Click or scroll on to discover how the Kennedys made their money and how their fortune survived across generations, despite the succession of tragedies that has plagued the storied dynasty.
All dollar values in US dollars.
The Kennedy fortune had remarkably humble beginnings. Patrick Kennedy was born in Dunganstown, County Wexford, in 1823, to a poor farming family. With two older brothers, he had little prospect of inheriting the family farm, while the devastation of the Great Famine made opportunities scarcer still.
Nearly two million people, about a quarter of Ireland's population, are estimated to have emigrated to the US over a 10-year period at the time. Patrick was among them, leaving Ireland in 1848 and settling in Boston, where he found work as a cooper making beer barrels.
Patrick married fellow Irish immigrant Bridget Murphy in 1849. Sadly, their hopes of building a better life together were cut short less than a decade later when Patrick died of cholera in 1858, aged just 35. Their first son John had already succumbed to the disease, leaving baby Patrick Joseph “PJ” Kennedy as the family's only surviving boy.
Widowed with four children to support, Bridget worked tirelessly and eventually opened a small grocery store in East Boston, bringing the family greater security and allowing PJ to attend a private Catholic school.
Itching to make a living and armed with a basic but solid education, PJ ended up leaving school early to work on Boston's waterfront as a stevedore. By 1879, the 21-year-old had put money aside from his earnings and, with additional help from Bridget, bought a struggling Boston saloon for $3,000, equivalent to $100,000 (£75k) today.
PJ proved a shrewd businessman. The venture prospered, and he went on to acquire further bars before moving into the wholesale liquor trade. By his late twenties, the son of poor Irish immigrants had become a prosperous entrepreneur in his own right.
PJ's standing as a prominent East Boston businessman soon drew him into politics. A supporter of labour and Irish causes, he was keen to advance the interests of the area's large Irish Catholic community.
In 1885, aged 27, he won election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, beginning the Kennedy family's political dynasty. His victory also reflected the growing political power of Boston's Irish-American population, which was gradually breaking into institutions long dominated by the city's old Anglo-Saxon establishment.
In 1887, PJ married Mary Augusta Hickey, the daughter of another successful Irish-American family. Their first child, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, arrived the following year.
By then, PJ's business success had transformed his circumstances. The young family initially lived comfortably in a three-storey East Boston home and later enjoyed an increasingly affluent lifestyle far removed from that of their forebears.
PJ's influence and wealth continued to grow through the 1890s. After serving in the Massachusetts House, he moved to the state Senate while remaining a powerful figure in East Boston politics. His business interests expanded too, including investments in banking and coal.
The family's lifestyle reflected his success. They moved to a large brick mansion on upscale Webster Avenue, where young Joe grew up with servants, horses, smart clothes and trips to Europe.
Joe enjoyed opportunities his father had never had. At 13, he entered Boston Latin School, a prestigious public school favoured by the city's elite. Popular and fiercely competitive, he became class president and excelled in sports.
Joe's business instincts emerged early too. As a teenager, he organised a neighbourhood baseball team, raised money for uniforms, rented a field and charged spectators admission. He's pictured here in 1907 seated the middle of the shot, surrounded by his teammates.
A savvy operator like his father, the young Kennedy patriarch was already learning that money could open doors.
Joe entered Harvard in 1908, hoping the university would bring valuable business contacts as well as social advancement. He joined the selective Hasty Pudding Club and Delta Upsilon, but the doors to Harvard's most prestigious final clubs remained closed.
Kennedy was rejected by both the Porcellian and Fly, whose memberships were dominated by Boston Brahmin families from the city's old Anglo-Protestant elite. For an ambitious Irish Catholic determined to break into America's establishment, the snub was a sharp reminder that money and education could only take him so far.
After graduating from Harvard in 1912, Joe became a Massachusetts bank examiner, gaining an invaluable education in finance. His big break came when Columbia Trust, which PJ had helped establish, faced a takeover.
Determined to keep the bank independent, Joe audaciously borrowed $45,000, about $1.6 million (£1.2m) today, and assembled a controlling stake.
In 1914, its shareholders appointed the 25-year-old president. Newspapers soon celebrated him as America's youngest bank president, giving the super-ambitious Kennedy his first taste of national attention.
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That same year, Joe married Rose Fitzgerald after a seven-year courtship. She was the daughter of John F “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, a former congressman and two-time mayor of Boston who had become one of the city's most notable Irish-American politicians.
The match joined two already influential Boston families, creating a young power couple with money, connections and politics firmly in their blood. Their first child Joseph Jr was born in 1915 and the couple would go on to have nine children, including JFK and RFK.
America's entry into World War I opened another door for Joe. In 1917, he left banking to become assistant general manager of Bethlehem Steel's huge Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, earning a tidy $10,000 a year, roughly $260,000 (£195k) when adjusted for inflation.
The role broadened his horizons beyond Boston finance and brought him into contact with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D Roosevelt. When the war ended, Joe returned to finance with stronger credentials, wider connections and even greater ambitions.
After joining Hayden, Stone & Co in 1919, Joe immersed himself in the booming stock market, becoming an expert trader at a time when Wall Street was largely unregulated. In 1923, he established his own investment operation and continued making immensely profitable deals.
Kennedy had set himself the goal of becoming a millionaire by 35. And he did just that, joining the seven-figure club the same year he set up on his own.
Joe's next money-making frontier was Hollywood. In 1926, he took control of Film Booking Offices of America and moved west to concentrate on the burgeoning movie business, reorganising studios and exploiting the industry's rapid growth.
The results were spectacular. By 1927, Kennedy was already a multimillionaire. His Hollywood deals continued generating huge profits, and by 1929 his fortune was estimated at $4 million, equivalent to about $78 million (£58m) today.
With Wall Street's speculative frenzy intensifying, Joe Kennedy began selling his shareholdings in 1928. A later legend claimed a shoeshine boy offering stock tips convinced him the boom had gone too far. In any case, Kennedy's associates remembered him as a cool-headed operator with an exceptional feel for timing and value.
By the October 1929 crash, he'd already liquidated substantial investments. Kennedy then made further money as stocks fell, including through short selling, emerging from the turmoil with his fortune intact.
Joe was ready when Prohibition neared its end in 1933. Travelling to Britain, he secured lucrative US rights for major brands including Dewar's Scotch and Gordon's gin, then channelled the business through Somerset Importers.
Contrary to a persistent myth, reputable biographers have found no credible evidence that Kennedy made his fortune bootlegging. His documented liquor business was legal, and extremely profitable to boot.
Bucking the trend, and then some, Joe's wealth soared during the Depression years. He'd entered the 1929 crash rich enough, but his well-timed stock moves, Hollywood profits, liquor deals and aggressive investment strategy sent his fortune skyrocketing.
By 1935, Joe was worth an estimated $180 million, equivalent to $4.4 billion (£3.3bn) today. In little more than a decade, he'd gone from newly minted millionaire to one of America's richest individuals.
In 1933, Joe's old acquaintance Franklin D Roosevelt became president, thanks in part to Joe, who backed his campaign with money and political support. A year later, FDR appointed him the first chairman of the newly created Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)..
Putting a seasoned speculator in charge of policing Wall Street raised eyebrows, with critics likening it to putting a fox in charge of a henhouse, but Kennedy proved effective. He helped establish the regulator and restore confidence in battered financial markets before stepping down in 1935.
After leaving the SEC, Joe returned to private business, but not for long. He backed Roosevelt's re-election in 1936 and the following year became first chairman of the newly created US Maritime Commission, charged with revitalising American shipping.
An even bigger prize followed. In 1938, FDR named Joe US ambassador to the UK, the government post he'd most coveted. That March, the Kennedys moved into 14 Prince's Gate, the lavish ambassadorial residence overlooking Hyde Park, placing the family at the heart of London's diplomatic and social elite.
The ambassadorship carried enormous social prestige, and the Kennedys were soon hobnobbing with the cream of the British establishment at balls, dinners, regattas and race meetings. The ultimate symbol of their ascent came in April 1938, when Joe and Rose spent a weekend at Windsor Castle as guests of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
Getting dressed there one evening, Joe reportedly told his wife: "Well, Rose, this is a helluva long way from East Boston." It was perhaps the clearest symbol yet of the family's incredible rise.
Yet the ambassadorship soon became a liability. An appeaser and isolationist, Joe had favoured keeping America out of the European war and grew more and more pessimistic about Britain's prospects, putting him at odds with Roosevelt as the president moved towards greater support for the Allies.
The rupture became public in November 1940, when Joe was quoted telling reporters that "democracy is finished in England". He disputed aspects of the account, but the damage was done. That month, he submitted his resignation as ambassador.
Back in private life, Joe turned to real estate, buying heavily when property prices were still depressed. The strategy paid off handsomely. According to Fortune, he made an estimated $100 million from property during and immediately after World War II, translating to a windfall of $1.9 billion (£1.4bn) when adjusted for inflation.
Joe's deals included Manhattan buildings bought cheaply and later sold for several times their purchase price. By the end of 1944, he owned a bulging portfolio of New York real estate, but his biggest property coup was still to come.
In 1945, Joe acquired Chicago's Merchandise Mart, then the world's largest commercial building. Fortune later put the price at $12.96 million, which works out at $241 million (£181m) in 2026 money.
The deal became a cornerstone of the family fortune. By 1960, TIME valued the Mart at $75 million, around $850 million (£641m) today, while its annual rents were already exceeding the original purchase price.
Even as Joe's fortune continued to grow, tragedy was reshaping his plans for the family. In August 1944, his eldest son Joe Jr, who was being groomed for political greatness, died when his aircraft exploded during a secret wartime mission over England.
JFK reportedly responded: “Now the burden falls on me.” In 1946, he won a seat in Congress, beginning his political ascent. Two years later, sister Kathleen was killed in a plane crash in France, another devastating blow to the family.
Joe had no intention of letting his fortune disappear with him. He established trusts for the family in 1926, 1936 and 1949, investing in stocks, bonds, oil and real estate and giving his children the financial freedom to pursue careers without worrying about earning a living.
By the 1960s, the trusts were providing each of the seven surviving Kennedy children with $100,000 a year after tax, equivalent to around $1.1 million (£827k) today. JFK's personal share of the family trusts was valued at the time at $10 million, which equates to $112 million (£84m) in 2026 money.
Having entered Congress in 1946, JFK moved to the Senate in 1952 and, backed by the Kennedy family's formidable organisation and financial resources, launched his campaign for the presidency in 1960.
That November, the 43-year-old narrowly defeated Republican Richard Nixon, winning 303 electoral votes to Nixon's 219. Just 112 years after Patrick Kennedy had left famine-stricken Ireland for Boston, his great-grandson was elected the first Catholic president of the United States.
The family's moment of triumph was painfully short-lived. In December 1961, less than a year after JFK entered the White House, Joe suffered a massive stroke that paralysed his right side and left him largely unable to speak.
Then came Dallas. JFK's assassination in November 1963 plunged the Kennedys into unimaginable grief. Joe, by then severely incapacitated, had lived to see his son's meteoric rise to the presidency, only to see him cruelly gunned down in his prime.
By 1968, Bobby Kennedy had emerged as the family's leading political figure. After serving as attorney general under JFK and later as a senator for New York, he launched his own campaign for the presidency. But tragedy struck again.
Bobby was shot after winning the California Democratic primary and died on 6 June, aged 42. With JFK and RFK gone, their younger brother Ted, already a Massachusetts senator, became the family's most prominent surviving political standard-bearer.
Joe passed away in November 1969, aged 81, enormously rich but devastated by loss. Much to his sorrow, he'd outlived his three eldest sons, Joe Jr, JFK and RFK, as well as his daughter Kathleen, who all died in particularly tragic circumstances.
Joe had always kept the true extent of his wealth private, but after his death The New York Times estimated his fortune at $500 million, equivalent to about $4.6 billion (£3.4bn) today.
Joe had made sure his fortune would not simply be divided up after his death. Much of the family's wealth was already held in trusts and other structures overseen by professional managers, with beneficiaries receiving income while the underlying capital was carefully preserved.
The arrangements stretched beyond Joe's children too. A trust established in 1949 provided for his 28 grandchildren, while control of inherited principal was released only in stages. The Kennedy fortune had effectively been engineered to outlive its founder.
One of Joe's greatest investments continued enriching the family long after his death. In 1998, the Kennedys sold the Merchandise Mart and other commercial properties to Vornado Realty Trust in a deal worth $625 million, roughly $1.3 billion (£979m) in today's money.
The family also received Vornado partnership units that have gone on to generate bumper dividends. Joe's 1945 property gamble was still paying his descendants decades later.
Yet for all their wealth and privilege, the Kennedys have endured a disproportionate amount of tragedy. The untimely deaths of Joe Jr, Kathleen, JFK and RFK helped fuel talk of a 'Kennedy curse', a label that persisted as later generations suffered further misfortune.
RFK's sons David and Michael died young, while in 1999 JFK's son John Jr was killed in a plane crash alongside his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy (pictured), and her sister Lauren.
Further losses have included RFK's granddaughters Saoirse Kennedy Hill and Maeve Kennedy McKean. Most recently, Caroline Kennedy's daughter Tatiana Schlossberg died from leukaemia in December 2025, aged just 35.
The family's most famous houses have met very different fates. The Palm Beach estate Joe bought in 1933, later JFK's Winter White House, remained in Kennedy hands for 62 years before being sold for $4.9 million in 1995, around $11 million (£8.3m) today.
Then in 2009, Ethel Kennedy offloaded Hickory Hill in Virginia for $8.25 million, which translates to about $13 million (£9.8m) in 2026 money.
Hyannis Port (pictured) remains the strongest link to the family's past. The original 21-room house was donated to the Edward M Kennedy Institute in 2012, but neighbouring Kennedy properties stayed in family hands, meaning the celebrated Cape Cod compound is still partly owned by the dynasty today.
Ted Kennedy's death in 2009 ended a Senate career spanning 47 years, but the family has remained prominent in public life. Its most visible political figure today is RFK Jr, who became US Health Secretary in 2025. His positions on vaccines and public health have generated intense controversy, drawing criticism from medical experts as well as some members of his own family.
Other prominent Kennedys include JFK's daughter Caroline, a former US ambassador to Japan and Australia; former congressman Joe Kennedy III; and RFK's daughter Kerry, a longtime human rights campaigner.
The Kennedy fortune is far more fragmented than in Joe's day, but it has hardly disappeared. Forbes last estimated the extended family's wealth at $1.2 billion in 2015, around $1.7 billion (£1.3bn) when adjusted for inflation, with trusts and investments continuing to benefit scores of descendants.
Caroline Kennedy alone controlled nearly $175 million in assets in 2013, about $250 million (£188m) in 2026 money, while Forbes valued RFK Jr and his wife at about $15 million (£11.3m) in 2024.
Nearly 180 years after Patrick Kennedy left Ireland, and despite the many tragedies that have befallen the family, both the Kennedy dynasty and its fortune are still going strong.
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