Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Your Net Worth vs Joe Biden’s



“They may be the most powerful couples in the world and rub shoulders with the likes of George Clooney and the Queen of England, but the Obamas and Bidens face many of the same financial challenges as the rest of us – neglect, inertia, poor diversification and spotty investments.”

I came across a July article of Kiplinger magazine disclosing an amazing fact about VP Joe Biden. He has a total net worth of only $215,000. The whole purpose of the article was to show that even the powerful politicians should be paying closer attention to their money.

Obamas and Bidens Finances
  • Both the Obamas and Bidens have high-interest loans. Obama has a mortgage on his old Chicago house at 5.625% interest, and Biden has other loans over $65,000 in the 7.5% and 9.9% range. Maybe no one has told him that rates are at historic lows?
  • The Bidens also have 9 total checking and/or savings accounts in their names ranging from anywhere between $1,000 to $15,000. Umm... maybe it’s time for some consolidation?
  • The Obamas are far too conservative and poorly diversified, while the Bidens are too spread out.
  • The Obamas have 92% of their money in cash at around $4.7 Million but only $325,000 in mutual funds.  In fact, they only own 1 fund: The Vanguard Index 500.
  • The Bidens have 6 small cash-value life insurance policies, of which they’ve taken loans out against between 5%-8%, and also looks like they have a variable annuity.
  • The Obamas have between $100,000 and $200,000 in each of the girls’ 529 college savings accounts. Least he's doing something right!
Looks like even if you have the “Gift of Gab” to be elected the leader of the free world, you can be still be dumb enough to make bonehead financial decisions. Maybe it’s not entirely his fault? His financial advisor may be a commission-based financial hack job! So he didn’t build that...

Love him or hate him, Mitt Romney has been dang good with his money. His net worth is estimated at about $250 million.

Who would you rather have as the CEO of our country?

If you want to make sure you aren’t making the same mistakes as the Obamas and Bidens, work with a Fee-Only Certified Financial Planner like me ;D www.JasonQuallsCFP.com


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