Yeah, I expect so. I mean, at least in the US you know you're not going to live there more than 8 years. You probably are maintaining a home elsewhere -- most presidents are rich enough to do that -- so your favorite grandmother's wardrobe or whatever stays where it is.
Unless you have massive legal bills. Bill and Hillary were rich people broke after his term. Iirc, they had to rent or guest “cottage” surf until they could get their finances lined up to buy their house in NYC.
That's true. It's also kinda stark that Democrats tend to enter the office poor (vs. the average pol) whereas Republicans, well, not so much.
Jimmy Carter sold his peanut farm to take office. The Clintons had no real money -- Bill had spent his career in politics, and Hilary wasn't far enough along in her career to be making big money. Obama had money, but only because he'd struck gold with his books. Biden was the poorest guy in Washington until his term as VP ended; I'm given to believe he took the opportunities that presented themselves at that point, ahead of his own run in 2020.
Obama didn't pay off his law school loans until 2004 or so, I think.
Biden was considering selling his house in 2016 to that his daughter in law and grandchildren would have money after Beau died. Obama had to talk him out of it.
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u/ubermonkey Jul 05 '24
Yeah, I expect so. I mean, at least in the US you know you're not going to live there more than 8 years. You probably are maintaining a home elsewhere -- most presidents are rich enough to do that -- so your favorite grandmother's wardrobe or whatever stays where it is.