How Elizabeth Warren Built A $12 Million Fortune

[left-of-center2012]

Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren identifies as a capitalist, which makes sense, given her estimated $12 million fortune.

She and her husband, Bruce Mann, both longtime law professors, hold much of their wealth in retirement accounts. Their TIAA and CREF accounts—available to educators and nonprofit employees—are worth at least $4 million. They also own two homes: a $3 million Victorian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and an $800,000 condo in Washington, D.C.

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After becoming a senator in 2013, Warren dropped her consulting work, but she made up for the lost money with book deals. She disclosed book advance payments of $3.2 million between 2013 and 2018 from Macmillan Publishing Group. In 2014 alone, she received an advance from publisher Henry Holt & Co. (now owned by Macmillan) for $1.2 million.

Warren’s husband, Mann, has made most of his money in the last decade from his work at Harvard, where he specializes in legal history, estates and trusts. He earned about $400,000 in 2018, according to the tax returns. Like Warren, Mann has a sole proprietorship, but he has only earned about $5,000 from it since 2008.

---snip---

Mann and Warren have also gotten richer just by living in Cambridge, home of Harvard and one of the hottest real estate markets in Massachusetts. They bought their house in 1995 for $447,000. Today, Forbes estimates it’s worth $3 million.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2019/08/20/how-elizabeth-warren-built-a-12-million-fortune/#52219466ab57

[samnsara]

1. smart people!! Lots of smart investing...

..lots of hard work and long days pay off.

[left-of-center2012]

2. And luck?

"They bought their house in 1995 for $447,000.
Today, Forbes estimates it’s worth $3 million."

[IronLionZion]

3. Lock her up!

Owning a house for 25 years is about as corrupt as Hillary's emails

[left-of-center2012]

5. Why go there?

No one said anything they did was illegal.

[IronLionZion]

8. It's a crime against millennials, transient contract workers, and low income people

who can't afford to buy. Land ownership is the American aristocracy.

Relax, I'm a Warren supporter just trying to be silly.

[The Mouth]

10. Property is theft!

Doncha know?

[George II]

4. The timeframe is longer, but my parents bought their house in 1962 for $29,000....

....and about five years ago (51 years) we sold it for $780,000, and it was in horrible shape.

[question everything]

20. Location, location location

We lived in the West Coast and in the Midwest. There is no comparison how houses appreciate on the coast and, I suppose, on the East Coast and how they are not in the Midwest.

[JI7]

6. yes this can often be luck becsuse housing cost is often about location

and certain locations can see large increases in a short amount of time .

this can be good for owners but hurts renters.

[Blue_true]

16. Maybe more smarts.

On the early to mid 90s, a few of my associates have told me that the housing market in her state was depressed. It started to pick up toward the end of the 90s as more technology companies started up in the state (biotech, hightech materials, artificial intelligence and robotics), it never cooled down after that, even with the screwup Bush the Lessor in office. So her house appreciation mirrors the economic fortunes of that state.

[mathematic]

7. Earning $12m from a lifetime of skilled work doesn't make you a capitalist

At least, not in the class-sense of the term. (You can be a "capitalist" in the sense of "somebody that endorses an economic system of capitalism", regardless of how your income is sourced.)

If anything, I'm surprised she's not worth more given her expertise. It's pretty clear she's made many choices, such as being a professor and then going into public service, that didn't maximize her lifetime earnings.

[TidalWave46]

9. It says she identifies as a capitalist.

She has "endorsed" the system.

[mathematic]

12. Very famously, but that's not the sense used in the first line of the piece

"Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren identifies as a capitalist, which makes sense, given her estimated $12 million fortune. "

This is a class statement. "She's rich so she's a capitalist." But she didn't make her money from owning capital and exploiting labor. She made it by BEING labor.

I think it's fair to say that she believes that laborers should be entitled to a greater portion of the value they create. That's a statement consistent with both capitalism and socialism and does not entail or explain support for either system.

[TidalWave46]

14. It is the exact "sense."

“Identifies”

[appalachiablue]

11. Warren supports and believes in capitalism; I wouldn't call her & husband

'capitalists' in the hard core, literal sense. Why do we care anyway. There's way bigger fish to fry these days.

[Mr.Bill]

13. Maybe I'm jaded from the time I spent in Silicon Valley

but 12 million is really not that big of a deal for someone her age. Bigger deal than me, though, that's for sure.

[Blue_true]

17. Given her longterm prominence, I agree with you.

She definitely has not been selling her soul to the highest bidder.

Given who she has been for the last ~ 3 decades, a net worth of $100+ million would not be out of the question.

She is comfortable, but not super or even mildly rich by today's standards for prominent people.

[pnwmom]

15. Good. They've made smart investment decisions and haven't gone bankrupt.

And being a capitalist is nothing to criticize her for. Even the lauded Nordic countries have capitalist economic systems, no matter how much some people want to pretend otherwise.

[Blue_true]

18. I agree. Given that she has been a well known Harvard professor since the mid 80s,

a $12 million net for her and her Harvard (longer than her) professor husband is not out of line.

[comradebillyboy]

19. How dare Warren and her husband prosper and be sucessful, I'm just shocked