Elizabeth Warren is currently a U.S. senator with a history of progressive policy ideas. She often advocates for charging the ultra-wealthy higher tax rates, an approach that could theoretically help fund government projects and reduce income disparity. But how much money does Senator Warren have?
Is Elizabeth Warren a Millionaire? Like the majority of congress members, Senator Elizabeth Warren is a millionaire. Between her and her current husband, Bruce Mann, she has a net worth of around $12 million.
When Did Elizabeth Warren Become a Millionaire?
Elizabeth Warren reached millionaire status long before she ran for her seat in the Senate.
After graduating from the University of Houston with a degree in speech pathology, she went to work for a public school system.
A year later, she enrolled in Rutgers Law School. Earning a JD (law degree) and passing the Bar Exam made it possible to start earning money from legal services. She primarily worked in real estate and estate planning, but she had plans that would make her a household name within a couple of decades.
Warren made quite a bit of money when she became noteworthy for her work on bankruptcy and personal finance.
Perhaps she had a deeper insight into these issues because she comes from a modest background. Many lawyers and professors writing about these topics come from privileged families. That privilege might skew their perspectives.
She taught at several law schools and published articles in prestigious law reviews. She held tenure-track and tenured positions at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Harvard Law School. In fact, she is the first tenured law professor at Harvard to graduate from a public university.
Later, she became Harvard Law School’s highest-paid professor. She reportedly earned $400,000 one year for teaching a class and performing other duties at the school.
She added to her wealth when she began serving in advisory roles for Congress, the National Bankruptcy Review Commission, and other groups.
Her book sales also became a significant source of income, although she was likely a millionaire long before she published her first popular book in 2001.
How Much Is Elizabeth Warren Worth?
The most recent estimates available show that Elizabeth Warren and her husband, Bruce Mann, have a net worth of about $12 million.
That amount only includes the value of their personal assets. It doesn’t include the money she has raised for election campaigns. During her 2017-2018 fundraising cycle, she amassed nearly $26 million to use for her reelection.
As a U.S. senator, Elizabeth Warren earns a salary of at least $174,000 per year. While that’s a lot of money for the average American, it doesn’t account for how she became worth $12 million.
How did someone with a $174,000 salary become so wealthy?
Warren and Mann’s tax returns from 2018 show that the couple earned $850,000 in income. In 2014, they made about $1.5 million. During most years on record, their household brought in at least $700,000 per year.
Some of that money comes from Warren’s career as a writer. She has written or co-written nearly a dozen books. A fraction of the books are academic texts published for law students interested in topics like debt collection and consumer protection.
She likely earns much more from books that target mainstream readers. Some of her most popular publications include:
The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt (2001)
The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents Are Going Broke (2004)
A Fighting Chance (2014)
This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class (2017)
Persist (2021)
The couple also has income from their jobs as law professors. Mann currently teaches at Harvard Law School. Warren was formerly a professor at Harvard Law School before transitioning her career to politics.
Elizabeth Warren’s Net Worth Before Politics
Like many politicians, Elizabeth Warren tends to share her tax records when she starts a campaign.
Her tax documents are private, so she isn’t obligated to share them with the public. While she chooses to do so to make her financial life more transparent, no rules state that she must.
Considering that she’s held office since 2008, it’s reasonable to assume she had a few million dollars before getting elected. By that time, she had already taught at prestigious schools at written two popular books.
How Much Did Elizabeth Warren Pay In Taxes?
Elizabeth Warren frequently argues that wealthy people need to pay higher taxes. That raises an important question: How much does Elizabeth Warren pay?
This isn’t always an easy question to answer since some politicians prefer keeping their tax documents secret. Luckily, Warren released her 2018 tax returns when she was competing for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
According to those returns, she and Mann had an income of just under $1 million in 2018, which includes:
$175,000 for her role in the Senate.
About $325,000 from book sales.
About $400,000 from Mann’s teaching position at Harvard Law School.
They also had some deductions from installing a solar system at their home and donating more than $50,000 to various charities.
The couple ended up paying a little over $200,000 in federal income tax that year. Rounding to make the math easy, Warren paid 20% of her income to the federal government.
On average, Americans pay a little over 13% in federal income tax. That means Warren paid about 7% more than the average household. Federal income tax brackets allow for up to 37%. (Note that some estimates show that billionaires pay closer to 8.2% on average in federal income tax)
Does Elizabeth Warren Own a Yacht?
Some sources claim that Elizabeth Warren owns one or even multiple luxury yachts. It’s difficult to believe these sources, though, because some also claim that she has a net worth near $70 million.
If she has access to that amount in cash and assets, it includes money owned by her campaign. Reporting that money misrepresents Warren’s actual financial worth. Using those funds for personal matters would violate campaign finance laws. The money does not technically belong to her, so she cannot use it however she pleases.
With that said, it’s difficult to know whether Warren owns a yacht. The average cost of a yacht in the U.S. is about $1.1 million. Some yachts even sell for less than $150,000. At those prices, Warren could certainly purchase and maintain a yacht.
Websites claiming that she owns multiple luxury yachts, however, are likely exaggerating the truth or spreading lies to smear the politician.
While she could own a yacht fairly easily, she doesn’t have enough wealth to own what most would consider a “luxury” yacht.
While a small yacht typically sells for around $1.1 million, a superyacht can easily cost $5 million or more. It’s very unlikely that Warren and her husband have nearly half of their wealth invested in a single vehicle.
It’s worth noting that while Elizabeth Warren has a tremendous amount of money compared to most Americans, she doesn’t even rank in the top 25 of richest Congress members. For example:
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has a net worth over $200 million.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has a net worth over $96.5 million.
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) has a net worth over $93.5 million.
Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) has a net worth of about $85 million.
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has a net worth of about $85 million.
Compared to these amounts, $12 million doesn’t look nearly as impressive.
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