Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., the 46th President of the United States, is one of the world’s most important statesmen, whose long career in politics is hailed as inspirational by many. His long career has not only earned US President Joe Biden the respect he deserves but also helped him build a net worth that is quite modest compared to many others in American politics.
Born on 20 November 1942, Joe Biden has been a career politician most of his life. He entered active politics at the age of 29 as a member of the Democratic Party and has remained ingrained with it since. Due to his long and illustrious political career, Biden has been at the forefront of some of the most progressive policies implemented in the US and has influenced the overall direction of American politics both at home and beyond its borders, especially in areas of foreign relations and criminal law.
He served as vice president from 2008 to 2016 under the 44th US President, Barack Obama. He was elected president in 2020 and has been praised for his leadership over the four years during a time when the world has been in turmoil marked by a pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
His standing as a world leader is best underscored by the fact that he is only the 15th person to have served both as vice president and as president of the United States and only the 6th person to have been elected to presidential office after serving in the role of vice president.
As a recognition of his service to his country, Obama, while serving as president, awarded Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with distinction, in January 2017, just days before they left office.
Biden, who turned 81 in 2023, had previously announced his intention to contest the 2024 US presidential election. But there were growing calls both from within his party and progressive intellectuals for him to withdraw owing to his age.
Following a poor performance in a nationally televised debate with right-wing Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump in July 2024, Biden announced that he would not seek a second term. Thus, he will officially cease to be the President of the United States in January 2025, with the inauguration of a new president.
Biden has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s presidential contender, for the top job. It is widely understood by political experts that Harris, herself a distinguished leader of impeccable integrity, will certainly defeat Trump to rewrite history as the first woman president of the United States. Interestingly, Trump was defeated by Biden-Harris in the 2020 election.
All about the net worth of Joe Biden, salary, other earnings and properties
What is the exact net worth of Joe Biden?
Joe Biden has often presented himself as a product and champion of the middle class. He served as a Senator from Delaware uninterrupted from 1973 to 2009, during which he is known to have worked tirelessly for the people of the state while travelling back and forth from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, to Washington D.C. for 36 years. This is why he is also famously known as ‘Amtrack Joe’ and ‘Middle Class Joe’ in the media.
But ‘Middle Class Joe’ is a multi-millionaire.
In a report in June 2024, Forbes said that Joe Biden has a net worth of USD 10 million. The figure includes the net worth of First Lady Jill Biden. It is worth noting that Forbes had estimated the president’s net worth at USD 10 million in 2023.
This means that Biden has not seen his wealth rise in the 12 months leading up to the 2024 estimate. The 2024 Forbes article attributes this to the near flatlining of the American economy during the period.
The net worth of Joe Biden when he took office as President was USD 8 million. This means that he has made just about USD 2 million more since.
However, his net worth saw tremendous growth after he took office as the vice president in 2008. At the time he had a net worth of only USD 27,012, according to a CBS News report from the time. It is not clear whether the database, Center for Responsive Politics, which was the source of the information, took into account the worth of his properties. Nevertheless, eight years later when he left the vice presidency, Biden’s net worth had jumped almost 92 times (based on the CBS News figure) to USD 2.5 million.
The million-dollar net worth for a vice president isn’t a surprise since they receive quite a large paycheck than a Senator would. This is why some believe that if by any remotest possibility, Donald Trump becomes the president, then Republican vice presidential contender J.D. Vance and his wife Usha Vance will see their net worth grow considerably.
As for Joe Biden, the true growth in his net worth happened in the four years between his vice presidency and presidency. Yet he still remains comparatively far less wealthy than several present and past world leaders of developed countries, including former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak.
How much did US President Joe Biden earn in 2023?
In April 2024 The White House released a statement announcing that President Joe Biden had shared a total of 26 years of tax returns with his latest filing, underlining his high integrity for which he is praised worldwide.
“Once again demonstrating his commitment to being transparent with the American people, President Biden has released the most tax returns of any commander-in-chief while in office,” the statement read.
The tax information provides the exact estimate of his earnings for the period from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023.
The White House said that Joe Biden and Jill Biden reported federal adjusted gross income of USD 619,976. Their taxable income in their joint income tax filing for the period amounted to USD 568,974.
The main source of Joe Biden’s income during this period was his salary as the President of the United States. During his presidency, he has been drawing an annual salary of USD 400,000 that every US president before him received since 2001. The salary is credited to him on a monthly basis. As president, he is also entitled to an annual expense allowance of USD 50,000 for his official duties, but the unused part of the amount reverts to the Treasury. The expense amount is not included in the gross income of the president.
On the other hand, Jill Biden’s main source of income is the USD 85,985 salary she receives as an English teacher at Northern Virginia Community College.
The tax filing revealed that besides their respective main sources of income, they have also earned USD 54,616 in taxable Social Security benefits, USD 34,940 in pensions and annuities, USD 39,455 in interest on investments and USD 4,100 from Giacoppa Corp. — one of the two S Corporations (the other being CelticCapri Corp.) set up to receive royalties from their writing and speaking engagements.
Following deductions and adjustments, the total federal tax they paid amounted to USD 146,629 at the rate of 23.7 per cent for 2023. Besides their federal income tax, the Bidens also paid USD 30,908 in Delaware income tax. Additionally, Jill Biden paid USD 3,549 in Virginia income tax.
The White House said that the couple also made a total contribution amounting to USD 20,477 to 17 different charities. One of the charities they made a donation to is Beau Biden Foundation, which The White House described as “a public charity dedicated to ensuring that all children are free from the threat of abuse.” The foundation is named after Joe Biden’s eldest son, who passed away at the age of 46 in 2015.
Compared to their 2023 earnings, the Bidens had reported earnings of USD 579,514 in 2022 — lower than their earnings from the year prior. Their 2021 income was reportedly higher largely due to the huge earnings of around USD 62,000 from their two S Corporations.
A small part of the net worth of Joe Biden comprises pensions, amounting to USD 1 million. Jill Biden has a pension of USD 250,000. Additionally, the couple also have cash and annuities as part of their savings.
How much did Joe Biden earn between 2016 and 2020?
The Bidens practically made a massive fortune after Joe Biden ended his tenure as vice president in the Barack Obama administration. According to a 2021 Forbes report, they made over USD 17 million in the four years after leaving the White House. The larger portion of this — an amount of USD 11 million — came in 2017 alone.
The income was generated from the books written by the couple and the several dozens of speeches they delivered since vacating the White House. Of the books, Biden’s most recent is Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose (2017).
Citing their financial information from the time, a 2019 Politico article revealed that Joe Biden earned over USD 4 million from 49 speeches he delivered in late 2017 and 2018. Jill Biden earned USD 700,000 from 18 speeches during the same period.
During this period, Joe Biden was also paid more than USD 540,000 by the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as the ‘Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor’ at the Annenberg School and School of Arts and Sciences.
According to a 2019 CNBC report, the two S corporations reported USD 3.2 million in income in 2018. But they pay salaries to both Joe and Jill Biden. As such, the Bidens were paid combined wages of USD 245,833 in 2017 and USD 500,000 in 2018 by their S Corporations.
“That mean any amounts the Bidens received as a distribution wasn’t subject to the 15.3 per cent combined Social Security and Medicare tax,” the report said, elaborating on how the US law allows business owners to save taxes through a two-way policy involving wages and distributions.
Real estate owned by Joe Biden to date
All reports on the net worth of US President Joe Biden agree that the largest portion — up to two-thirds — of his wealth comprises real estate. Yet, they pale in comparison to the assets owned by his divisive political rival Donald Trump, who comes from a wealthy family with a long and controversial history in American real estate.
Biden began investing in real estate early on in his career. After completing his education at the University of Delaware and earning a law degree from Syracuse University, he joined a law firm in Delaware. He subsequently became a public defender and by 1971 started his own practice.
According to Forbes reports, he bought his first home in 1969 in Newark, Delaware, with a loan provided by his father-in-law — the father of his first wife, Neilia Hunter. He bought his second home in Wilmington and then a third, which was a property measuring over 32.3 hectares in Maryland. He put up some of the properties on rent while living with his family in a rent-free accommodation in exchange for managing a country club pool.
He sold all three properties to buy a colonial-style home originally built in 1723 on 1.6 hectares in Wilmington. It was this property against which he obtained a loan to contest the 1972 Senate elections. Biden won and guaranteed himself a steady salary of USD 42,500 as a Senator in those days. He thus bought another colonial in the Chevy Chase neighbourhood of Washington D.C., with the help of another loan from his father-in-law.
But his wife, Neilia, tragically died in a car accident in 1972 with their infant daughter, Naomi. Both Beau and their second son, Hunter, were seriously injured in the accident. He sold both his 1723 colonial and his Chevy Chase property soon after.
Three years later he bought a 929-sq-metre mansion in Wilmington formerly belonging to the DuPont family, one of the richest families in America, for USD 185,000, which he managed to pay for by obtaining a loan of USD 160,000.
Biden married Jill in 1977 and they had a daughter, Ashley, in 1981. The family lived in the DuPont mansion for 20 years, before Biden sold it for USD 1.2 million in 1996. He then bought a piece of land for USD 350,000 nearby and constructed two houses on it. When he was vice president, he rented out the property to the US Secret Service assigned to protect him for USD 26,400 per annum.
After leaving the vice presidency, he bought a 446-square-metre property worth USD 2.7 million in Rehoboth Beach. The home is now worth USD 4.5 million.
As such, Biden currently owns two properties — the house in Delaware, which was previously rented to the Secret Service, and the Rehoboth Beach summer home.
Whether Joe Biden buys more properties after leaving office in 2025 will be known later. What is certain is that he may see his income grow if he authorises more books because everyone would want to hear more from one of the greatest American leaders who deftly steered his nation and influenced the world in times of serious crises.
(Hero and Featured images: Courtesy of President Biden/@POTUS via X)
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Manas Sen Gupta writes at the intersection of tech, entertainment and history. His works have appeared in publications such as The Statesman, Myanmar Matters, Hindustan Times and News18/ETV. In his spare time, Manas loves studying interactive charts and topographic maps. When not doing either, he prefers reading detective fiction. Spring is his favourite season and he can happily eat a bowl of noodles any time of the day.
