How Joe Biden went from ‘one of the poorest’ in Congress to a Millionaire
New York Post
When Joe Biden was a US senator, he referred to himself as “one of the poorest members” of Congress. But his fortunes rose precipitously following his years as vice president, thanks to a flurry of cash from book deals and speeches — as well as regular kickbacks from his brother and younger son, according to text messages from Hunter Biden’s laptop and a congressional probe.
In 2016, his last year as vice president, “middle-class Joe” reported between $291,000 and about $1 million in assets and income outside his vice presidential salary of $230,700. He also claimed between $780,000 and about $1.6 million in liabilities, according to his 2016 personal financial disclosure form.
But Biden’s fortunes rapidly changed between 2017 and 2020, with help from both his son Hunter and his brother James, according to a congressional report.
In the year after he left office as vice president in 2017, Biden and his wife, Jill, earned more than $11 million, and raked in $4.6 million the following year, according to Forbes.
The year after President Biden’s vice presidential tenure ended, he and wife Jill earned $11 million.Getty Images
Here’s where Biden’s millions come from:
Salary
Biden currently makes $400,000 a year as president. As VP, his salary was about $225,000, according to Forbes. And in the years leading up to that job, he earned around $155,000 annually as a senator plus another $20,000 teaching at Widener University.
In 2017, Biden was paid $540,484 for his role at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement — the DC-based think tank where classified documents were found in November — and as the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 2017, Biden was paid more than half a million dollars for his roles at the Penn Biden Center and the University of Pennsylvania.Penn Biden Center
In 2019, when he began campaigning for president, Biden took a leave of absence from the school, decreasing his salary to $135,000.
Speaking engagements
Biden earned more than $4 million in late 2017 and 2018 from giving dozens of speeches — ranging from $8,040 for an appearance at the Miami Book Fair to $235,000 for a book tour-related “VIP experience” in 2017. Biden addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Harvard University in 2017 and was the featured speaker at the Human Rights Campaign dinner in 2018, according to public disclosures.
Both Bidens have pulled in mega-bucks for speaking engagements.Getty Images
For her part, Jill Biden disclosed 18 speaking engagements totaling $700,000, earning between $25,000 and $66,000 per speech after her husband left the vice president’s office in 2017.
Book advances and royalties
Biden collected more than $225,000 from Random House for his first book, 2007’s “Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.”
Six years later, Jill reported $24,000 in author earnings after writing the 2012 children’s book “Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops,” according to Forbes.
In 2017, Biden and his wife signed a reported $8 million joint book deal with Flatiron Books for Jill to write one book (“Where the Light Enters”) and Joe to write two. “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship and Purpose” was released in 2017. It’s not clear when Biden’s next book will be released. A rep for Flatiron Books did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.
The couple set up two S-corporations, CelticCapri and Giacoppa, for speaking engagements and book payments related to the couple’s memoirs.
Wilmington home
The Bidens owns a sprawling mansion in a tony section of Wilmington, Delaware. That’s where a trove of classified documents was recently discovered in the garage, which also houses a 1967 Corvette Stingray that’s said to have been a wedding present from Biden’s father for the president’s first marriage. In 2016, the car was valued at $78,000 on the CNBC TV show “Jay Leno’s Garage.”
The 6,850-square-foot home — which features three bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms — sits on four acres of land in the Greenville suburb, known as “chateau country.” Biden bought the land on Barley Mill Road for $350,000 in 1996 — after selling a property he called “The Station” for $1.2 million.
The Biden family’s Greenville, Delaware, home is worth more than $1 million.Google Earth
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Header featured image (edited) credit: Biden family/AFP via Getty Images
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