|
Mr Hammer
|
Marin Katusa
Chief Energy Investment Strategist
Yes, President Obama is a multimillionaire.
Being the president of the United States has done well for his portfolio, as you will see below. But that was expected when he was elected president.
It’s easy to assume that the leader of the most powerful country in the world has at his disposal the best money managers in the business.
So let’s see where the president invests his money, and why it’s important to you, the investor.
Today, I will share with all my readers the specifics of the US president’s personal portfolio.
In 2013, President Obama earned a presidential salary of $400,000, plus a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment.
Those amounts are exact and have been fixed since 2001 for all presidents.
US federal financial disclosure forms don’t give the exact amounts; instead they give a range, but my longtime readers know my background is complex mathematics, and this is the type of research I do for fun, so I’ll break it down for you.
Before I jump into the details, here’s why I’m doing this. I was recently invited to a lunch with Presidents Bush and Clinton that’s going to take place in the fall, and I wondered what I may have in common with them—in case casual conversation occurred. I was told President Obama might be a last-minute addition.
Well, like Bush, I like oil and uranium. Like Clinton, I’m a vegan. But Obama… that was a tough one—as I have nothing in common with the man.
So, rather than having an unpleasant experience talking about the government’s failed foreign policy if by chance I do speak with him, I thought it would be more productive to do some research on the president’s portfolio—so if he asked, I’d be informed enough to talk about it.
So just before checking out of my wonderful hotel in Barcelona (on a side note, if you ever have the chance to visit Barcelona, make the effort to visit the Basilica de la Sagrada Família, built by famous architect Antoni Gaudí—regardless of your religious beliefs, it’s an architectural wonder), I downloaded the most recent Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report and during my nine-hour flight back home, I went painstakingly through each Excel cell of the president’s portfolio—and I’m sure you’ll be happy I did.
Results:
President Obama’s investment portfolio is worth up to $7,145,000. As I said earlier, the exact number is not given, but I worked out the range.
In 2013, the president earned up to $334,010 from dividends from his investments and royalties from his book deals. Just to put things in perspective, that amount is up to 83.5% of his annual presidential salary.
In 2013, he earned somewhere between 2.35% and 2.5% overall in dividends from his investment portfolio. (That means President Obama is not a subscriber to the Casey Energy Report, as our portfolio is beating his portfolio’s performance by over 600% year to date.
But let’s get into the juicy details—such as, who manages the president’s money?
The average American (AKA Obama voter) may believe Obama fights for them against the big banks. Think again.
JPMorgan, the biggest bank of all, manages some of the president’s money, as does Vanguard. Both can easily be classified as too big to fail, and that could be why President Obama has his money with them.
Where does he put most of his net worth?
US Treasury notes, where he has up to $5 million, and US Treasury bills, where he has up to $500,000. Well, those yield less than 1%.
This is a perfect segue into why President Obama clearly has no comprehension of basic finance and a truly poor economic understanding.
Obama has a mortgage on his residence in Illinois. Again, the specific number isn’t stated, but the mortgage is somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million, at an interest rate of 5.625%. The incurred date of the mortgage was 2005.
Let’s think about this for a second: President Obama is paying 5.625% on his mortgage annually.
He could easily pay off that mortgage, but he would rather pay a 5.625% mortgage rate to the banks and collect less than 1% on his Treasury bills. Awful.
A supporter of Obama would say that there must be a reason, and I agree. But the real reason is not a tax advantage or portfolio planning—it’s that President Obama doesn’t understand basic mathematics.
Now, if the Treasuries were paying him much more than his mortgage, I would understand the logic behind his decision, but that is obviously not the case.
Basic financial prudence dictates that you should always pay off your debts when you can, especially when the debts are costing you more than what you’re earning on your core investments. But it’s clear to me that President Obama runs his personal finances as poorly as he does the nation’s.
However, as I said before, he has done well for himself by being president. In 2013, he earned up to $165,000 from royalties from his books (I wonder if he actually wrote them, but that is another subject entirely).
Well, at least we know he won’t be writing any financial-planning books anytime soon.
The Casey Energy team routinely follows all the investments of the state and federal politicians in the US and Canada to keep our eyes on where the people making the policies have their money. Trust me, it’s important to know where the politicians put their own money.
|
Forum
Pages: 1
Is it all over for Trump? (Read 5231 times)
