Bernie Sanders has an estimated net worth of $303,507

[catnhatnh]

From:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/04/30/17261/12-things-know-about-bernie-sanders

It occurs to me that I have friends and relatives with higher net worth's. I have no relatives or friends in the 1%. If you look at the net worth of many politicians you would think it was impossible not to become rich after many years in congress. The only explanation that fits is that he truly must be different...

[jen63]

1. Sherrod Brown's

is about the same. Says a lot to me!

[Wilms]

2. As has been noted, Bernie is totally out of touch...

...with the billionaire class.

[whatthehey]

3. He's either Francis of Assissi or a terrible money manager then

When you've had Congressional level salary and expenses for a quarter century and amassed way less than I have while making far less, the money must have gone somewhere. He's either single-handedly funding an orphanage or a frivolous squanderer.

[JonLP24]

5. I'm not very familiar with how net worth is estimated

The 300,000+ number is down from $460,000+ from 2012. OpenSecret has some info but is limited as far as the explanation goes as only Liabilities listed are 2 Visa cards

https://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/liabilities.php?year=2013&cid=N00000528

I'd imagine whatever the case might be are likely to be more in the middle of those 2 extremes.

[Pooka Fey]

9. Screw this post. You have NO IDEA what kind of financial obligations this man has assumed.

When does a dedicated public servant have time to "frivolously squander"? Senator Sanders doesn't strike me as being the "frivolous" type.

And we're all so impressed with your >$300K amassed wealth that you taken the trouble to share publicly on DU.

[whatthehey]

17. So you ignored my alternative to go for the poutrage tizzy instead?

As I said, he's either very charitable or frivolous/stupid at managing money.

Somebody making well over 6 figures with many expenses covered must be one or the other to have less than twice his salary in net worth.

Can you get off your righteous wwannabe high horse and suggest a 3rd possibility?

[Pooka Fey]

18. 3rd possibility: It's none of my damn business

Snark much, do we? Hmmm?

[LanternWaste]

36. Limiting options to simply two choices is irrational when we lack all relevant knowledge.

"suggest a 3rd possibility?"

Limiting options to simply two choices is irrational when we lack all relevant knowledge. Pretending otherwise is also saddled in a rather tall equine.

[Avalux]

16. Senator salary = ~175k.

Yes there are free perks, but living in DC is expensive. I'd like to know exactly how much you think he should have 'amassed' given that salary.

[whatthehey]

19. Anyone at that bracket can and should easily manage 15% annually

Even if he stuffed it under a mattress (which would equate to that poor money management thing in itself given the range of risk free options like 30 yr T bills) that would exceed 303k.

You are also forgetting that net worth includes equity on housing, retirement portfolios, readily saleable possessions, and so on. We can presume the man has a VT house for a start. At his age and income bracket it's unwise for it not to be paid off.

Forget the hero blinders. If you had been paid an average of $147k for 25 years, even in DC, and we added together not only your bank accounts but your home equity, car, retirement funds, etc, would you think you had been a good financial steward if you had just 300k to show for it? If this were a Republican Senator there would be hordes of replies stating how terrible a financial acumen this evidenced. I prefer to be objective.

Despite what the tizzy above implies, this is not an impressive number to brag about, with the previously offered alternative that he is giving away an enormous percentage of his income. Good for him if so, but even then he can only do so without fear of poverty in old age because of his Cadillac retirement benefits. A normal citizen facing retirement with 300k saved (even assuming he rents a home not owns) is headed for a life almost entirely dependent on SS benefits, as that nestegg would generate less than $1k a month in income safely invested.

[SheilaT]

31. You would think.

But many people don't save anything and spend every penny that comes in. Although obviously Senator Sanders is not in that category with a net worth above 300k.

All too often I read stories about someone making six figures who loses his job and has zero savings. People who every time they get a raise buy a more expensive car, or go on vacation somewhere. Who eat out three or four times a week. And so on.

While Sanders' wealth is relatively modest, at least has some.

[Avalux]

34. I'm not forgetting anything.

None of us know what Bernie has done with his money; if he's squandered it (which seems to be where you're coming from), or hoarded it in offshore accounts (oh wait......)

What I do know is that all the proceeds of his book go to the Addison County Parent/Child Center, to assist children in Vermont.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

39. Living in DC *AND* a home state.

[liberal_at_heart]

23. Most average Americans are bad personal money managers. I'm bad with my personal

finances. So, he is human, he makes mistakes and is like most common American people. So what?

[mountain grammy]

44. Congress does pay well, but living in one of the most expensive cities in the world

and keeping his home at home can't be cheap. This is especially true when one is paying one's own way and actually working at the job one holds, for the people who are represented by that work, instead of using that position to enrich oneself.
If you look at it in an honest, not corrupted, kind of way, a congressional salary provides a good living to an honest representative. Bernie's well above the average American.. think about that while you criticize his worth.

[cali]

4. Hey, he's rich compared to VT's senior senator: Leahy

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org, Leahy's net worth as of 2012 was estimated between $49,007 to $210,000. That averages to $129,503.50

http://ballotpedia.org/Patrick_Leahy

What a moron! 40 years in the Senate and that's the best he could do?

[dsc]

6. Two things

One you transposed a 0 and 3 his net worth is 330k and change. Two, this is exclusive of housing and thus might underestimate his net worth considerably. A house in Washington would be easily a million.

[closeupready]

7. If housing is excluded, then I think it's dumb to call it 'net worth'.

It's absolutely a valuable asset which could be seized and sold to satisfy outstanding liabilities, so why on earth it's not included is beyond me.

[dsc]

8. I have no idea either unless it is because that doesn't have to be listed on the forms

that Congresspeople fill out.

[closeupready]

11. Oh, right, that might very well be. They wouldn't want

transparency now, would they, lol.

[JonLP24]

12. The info OpenSecrets comes from what they put on the forms

The Financial Disclosure Reports PDFs don't seem to ask that just liabilities, assets, transactions, etc

Bernie Sander owns IBM stock and notice the average net worth of Congress really sky rockets like Wall Street during the Obama years. 4 pages to list all of Boehner's transactions buying & selling stock.

https://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/transactions.php?year=2013&cid=N00003675

[JonLP24]

14. Even the sole stock -- IBM -- Bernie Sanders owns doesn't reek of corruption

Rank

In 2012, Fortune ranked IBM the No. 2 largest U.S. firm in terms of number of employees,[7] the No. 4 largest in terms of market capitalization,[8] the No. 9 most profitable,[9] and the No. 19 largest firm in terms of revenue.[10] Globally, the company was ranked the No. 31 largest firm in terms of revenue by Forbes for 2011.[11] Other rankings for 2011/2012 include the following:[13]

No. 1 company for leaders (Fortune)
No. 1 green company in the U.S. (Newsweek)[48]
No. 2 best global brand (Interbrand)
No. 2 most respected company (Barron's)[49]
No. 5 most admired company (Fortune)
No. 18 most innovative company (Fast Company)

For 2012, IBM's brand was valued by Interbrand at $75.5 billion.[50]

For 2012, Vault ranked IBM Global Technology Services No. 1 in tech consulting for cyber security, operations and implementation, and public sector; and No. 2 in outsourcing.[51]

<snip>

Work environment

IBM's employee management practices can be traced back to its roots. In 1914, CEO Thomas J. Watson boosted company spirit by creating employee sports teams, hosting family outings, and furnishing a company band. In 1924 the Quarter Century Club, which recognizes employees with 25 years of service, was organized and the first issue of Business Machines, IBM's internal publication, was published. In 1925, the first meeting of the Hundred Percent Club, composed of IBM salesmen who meet their quotas, convened in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

IBM was among the first corporations to provide group life insurance (1934), survivor benefits (1935) and paid vacations (1937). In 1932 IBM created an Education Department to oversee training for employees, which oversaw the completion of the IBM Schoolhouse at Endicott in 1933. In 1935, the employee magazine Think was created. Also that year, IBM held its first training class for female systems service professionals. In 1942, IBM launched a program to train and employ disabled people in Topeka, Kansas. The next year classes began in New York City, and soon the company was asked to join the President's Committee for Employment of the Handicapped. In 1946, the company hired its first black salesman, 18 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1947, IBM announced a Total and Permanent Disability Income Plan for employees. A vested rights pension was added to the IBM retirement plan. During IBM's management transformation in the 1990s revisions were made to these pension plans to reduce IBM's pension liabilities.[58]

In 1952, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., published the company's first written equal opportunity policy letter, one year before the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education and 11 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1961, IBM's nondiscrimination policy was expanded to include sex, national origin, and age. The following year, IBM hosted its first Invention Award Dinner honoring 34 outstanding IBM inventors; and in 1963, the company named the first eight IBM Fellows in a new Fellowship Program that recognizes senior IBM scientists, engineers and other professionals for outstanding technical achievements.
An IBM delivery tricycle in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1965

On September 21, 1953, Thomas Watson, Jr., the company's president at the time, sent out a controversial letter to all IBM employees stating that IBM needed to hire the best people, regardless of their race, ethnic origin, or gender. He also publicized the policy so that in his negotiations to build new manufacturing plants with the governors of two states in the U.S. South, he could be clear that IBM would not build "separate-but-equal" workplaces.[59] In 1984, IBM added sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy. The company stated that this would give IBM a competitive advantage because IBM would then be able to hire talented people its competitors would turn down.[60]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM

The buying & selling of stocks from Congress members concerns me from a conflicts of interest POV but I can't make an issue of the stock Sanders owns.

[AZ Progressive]

10. Bernie and Leahy are certainly common people compared to Warren and Grayson

Elizabeth Warren has a net worth of roughly $8.75 million

Grayson has a net worth of $31 million

[obnoxiousdrunk]

13. Isn't Joe Biden in that range too ?

[JonLP24]

15. Seems to be close enough $543,014

https://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/summary.php?cid=N00001669&year=2013

It seems the Financial Disclosure Reports does include some housing info (Rental Property). Biden's is in a similar range as Sanders $100,000 -- $250,000 don't know if it is lacking from that end

[Bluenorthwest]

20. That sounds like minus the house, my guess for Bernie is just under 700K all tallied with Vt house.

650, 675. That territory.

[AzDar]

21. Bernie!!

[liberal_at_heart]

22. No wonder he relates to the common American. He's not a multi millionaire like most

in Congress. Something tells me he won't be accepting any cushy lobbying jobs when he retires either. Go Bernie! A man of the people.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. Obviously, Goldman Sachs hasn't offered him an entertainment gig at $200k per gig.

Unlike another candidate that turn down offers from the corporations and bansters.

[Metric System]

25. Maybe he'll become rich AFTER he's President, like Bill Clinton.

[leftofcool]

28. Maybe so. I was just reading about Bill's 104 million in 11 years giving speeches.

Isn't that what an NFL play makes in 10-12 years?

[hifiguy]

30. A few stars make that but the average NFL career is 3-4 years.

And the contracts are not guaranteed as they are in MLB and the NBA.

There are a LOT of broke ex-NFLers.

[leftofcool]

37. True that. I think baseball players last the longest.

[GummyBearz]

26. He should give a speech to UCLA

Hillary charged them that much for an hour, and I heard it was her discount rate, since its a public university and all

[leftofcool]

29. Universities will pay to get he best.

[GummyBearz]

41. And sometimes they end up getting the worst

[stillwaiting]

27. His investments hasn't received special attention it would seem.

Wonder why?!?!

[gollygee]

32. Wow. I could have a higher net worth than the president.

It is really expensive to be in congress - there are lots of travel and social obligations. There isn't much of their salary to save.

[workinclasszero]

33. So he's rich

If you think 303,507 isn't a s**t ton of money to most americans, I don't know what to tell you.

Of course FDR was rich and he was a great president for non rich america. I don't hold politicians wealth against them, if they are just and fair.

Then its all good.

[AZ Progressive]

40. That's probably a paid off house and a few other assets

$300,000 isn't extraordinary for a middle class white male in their 70's.

[tavernier]

35. I have my SS and two lotto tickets!

... and a few coins in my back pocket for a not too rainy day. But I live in a tiny house on an island next to the ocean, so I'm happy as a clam.

Why must people feel that they need a billion times more than they can spend, once they find a happy and fulfilling life?

[DCBob]

38. Probably puts him in the top 1%.

[woolldog]

42. Obviously he does not manage money well.

Why would I entrust him with our nation's finances?

[Thinkingabout]

43. Maybe he had his wife give back her golden parachute and his net worth

Took a big tumble. Goes to show the minimum wage needs increase, a family can not save anything on a Senator's salary.