Bernie Sanders Is a De Facto Millionaire
http://time.com/money/4235986/bernie-sanders-millionaire-finances/While the senator is indeed far less wealthy than many of his Senate colleagues — as well as his fellow presidential contenders — he is not exactly a man of modest means.
True, on the financial disclosure forms Sanders released after announcing his entrance into the presidential race, he lists no assets of his own, other than a $5,000 annual pension payment from his stint as mayor of Burlington, Vt. All of the investments itemized on the disclosure form belong to his wife, Jane, who worked as an educator and college administrator.
But that form does not require Sanders to disclose the amount of savings or the kinds of investments he holds in his government retirement savings account, known as the Thrift Savings Plan — the well-regarded retirement plan, similar in many ways, to a private-sector 401(k), that GOP hopeful Marco Rubio actually proposes opening up to other Americans. The form also doesn’t include the large pension that Sanders will receive when he retires from Congress.
Sanders’ campaign did not reply to repeated emails from MONEY about his finances and his retirement account.
$1 Million-Plus Nest Egg
Although Sanders and his wife’s joint tax return showed income of only a little more than $200,000 for 2014 — including his $174,000 salary, his mayoral pension, and their Social Security payments — the senator’s expected retirement benefits make his situation much more comparable to those in the millionaire class he faults.
If Sanders, now 74, retires from politics at the end of his current Senate term two years from now, without having won the presidential election, he will be able to collect an annual pension of $71,340, MONEY calculated using the current Congressional pension formula.
For another 74-year-old man to buy a guaranteed income stream (or annuity) that would pay out the same inflation-adjusted benefit starting at age 76, it would cost “about $1 million,” according to a calculation that David Blanchett, head of retirement research at Morningstar Investment Management, ran for MONEY.
Sanders has also probably accumulated a tidy sum in his Thrift Savings Plan. A Washington Post analysis of Sanders’ 2014 tax form found that he had some deductible contributions to his retirement plan as well as health care costs, although it’s unclear exactly how much he’s been contributing.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that even if Sanders has been contributing just 3% of his salary per year for his entire time in both the House and the Senate — and has earned a modest 5% annualized rate of return — he’d have accumulated almost half a million dollars by the end of 2015, thanks in part to the government’s matching contributions. If he has been contributing a steady 5%, he’s probably got more than $700,000. That’s in addition to his wife’s retirement funds (more on those in a minute) and his pension.
Indeed, when you factor in his mayoral pension, any Thrift Savings Plan assets, and Jane Sanders’ retirement funds, the household’s effective retirement nest egg could be closer to a $2 million valuation. That’s well above the American average, of course. About half of households 55 and older have no retirement savings, according to a GAO report released last summer. And of those who do, households age 65-74 had a median $148,000 saved.
Even Sanders’ annual pension alone would be far above the $36,895 that the median American household with at least one member over 65 earns in a year, according to the Pension Rights Center.
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which will keep her and her children living in the top one tenth of one percent in perpetuity. She has also personal raked in tens of millions from corporations and Wall Streeters (for which they expect nothing in return LOL).
Nowadays on the radio, advertising to the peons, the announcer tells us that we can't retire with less than a million. Of course, considering Bernie's age he might make it on that if he and his wife don't have any long term care to pay for.
So while it is a lot of money, it is not the type of money that would put you in the one percent during the Great Depression, which is when being a "multi millionaire" was like being a billionaire these days.
(Great W.C. Fields movie about this subject was "If I Had a Million."
you alone!
DUer for posting an article. Not from some fly-by-night website either--from TIME.
I'll bet you loved TIME when they put Sanders on the front cover last year with an avuncular grin, didn't you?
You're not helping the situation with your "fake outrage" comment either. It's not about me. It's about basic civility to one another, here.
If you posted an article without comment and someone came after you for it, I'd object as well.
Well, maybe not now, since you threw that shade at me. But before you did that, sure, I'd stand up for you without thinking about it. I am a bit less motivated now.
Someone "here in the hallowed halls of DU" said a mean thing, so all of us must be held accountable?
smh. Yeah, let's call that like it is.
but last week $250,000 is middle class. They blew through plan ᗺ are at the "fuck all over the place plan". 
The hypocrisy is staggering here.
Backatcha!
was presidential material because he didn't have enough money. Why, they asked, doesn't a guy who's been a well-paid member of Congress for all those years have more money or more assets? There must be something wrong with him, maybe even something nefarious! But now there's this bit of sly innuendo about Bernie being a millionaire, kind of, because he's got a decent retirement savings account.
68. There's no one in this thread, no one, who believes your feigned ignorance. No one.
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Did you get that? There's not a person in this thread who doesn't understand what you're doing. Read that as: you're not fooling anyone at all.
I like discussing politics, and I have a preferred candidate. I make no secret of this. I look forward to the upcoming articles in this series.
But how interesting--and telling--that you would lash out like that, so angrily, and get all personal with me. Well done!
I hope no one else alerts on you either, especially given your reponse to me, here. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and you're shining a lot of light on yourself right here in this thread, talking to me.
I think it's better to just memorialize your comments--that way, you won't run round deleting them when you think better of the way you're behaving. Transparency, and all that...
72. How did the alert go?
Lots of "if"s & "probably"s to try to figure out the comparable valuation of a couple's (in their 70s!) contributions, pension & expected retirement benefits.
They have money saved?!? A pension?? Retirement funds??? OMG!!!
On a more serious note - Good for them.
Some people are rich, or planned well for their retirement - OMG!
Anyway - only Time will tell!
A whole lot of us are "de facto millionaires" when you start throwing in everything but the kitchen sink.
