Grudgingly accepting media coverage and partisan attacks is part of a politician’s job. While former U.S. presidents and high-ranking government officers have certain social obligations in retirement, those that truly want to stay out of the spotlight sometimes manage to do so without too much scrutiny.
See: How Rich Is Former President Donald Trump?
Find: How Much Is President Joe Biden Worth As He Seeks Re-Election?
Press attention seems to follow former first lady and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wherever she goes. Her recent political statements regarding Donald Trump and his supporters and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have garnered strong support from some camps and cutting rejoinders from others.
Mostly, however, Clinton has gotten on with her life as a devoted wife, mother and grandmother since leaving public office. She and her ex-president husband, Bill, have kept busy giving speeches and writing books — and in doing so, have amassed an impressive fortune.
Hillary Clinton Net Worth: $120 Million
While OpenSecrets estimated Clinton’s net worth to be $32 million in 2014, and GOBankingRates reported it was about $45 million in 2017, the Clintons have an estimated net worth of $120 million today, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Included in her last public financial disclosure reports, dated June 28, 2008, Hillary Clinton listed assets totaling millions of dollars representing a broad spectrum of asset values. However, exact figures for some income and asset types aren’t required. More accurate net worth figures are available from the Clintons’ tax returns.
It’s not required by law to disclose tax returns to the public, but presidential candidates typically do so as a show of transparency. As Reuters reported during Clinton’s run for president in 2016, her and her husband’s “tax returns have been made public, in some form, every year since 1977.”
In an effort to get Donald Trump to release his tax returns, the Clintons released their 2015 tax return in August 2016. In it, the couple claimed about $10.75 million in income and paid more than $3.62 million, a rate of 34.2%, in federal taxes, according to Time.
Although she worked as as staff attorney for Children’s Defence Fund, as a full partner for the respected Rose Law Firm and was on the boards of directors for several companies — including Walmart, TCBY and LaFarge — she and her husband’s income comes from their years as politicians and, especially, their careers as public speakers and book writers afterwards.
As Bill told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in 2010, “I’ve never had any money until I got out of the White House. But I’ve done reasonably well since then.” The same goes for Hillary, who was commanding around $275,000 for paid appearances when she left the Obama administration in 2013. As CNN reported, from 2007 to 2014, Clinton and her husband were paid nearly $141 million in paid speeches, according to their tax returns.
In 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had earned more than $30 million combined in the 16 months prior, with $25 million from paid speeches.
In 2004, Bill Clinton scored a $15 million book deal from Knopf for his autobiography, “My Life.” A decade later, Simon & Schuster paid Hillary $14 million for her second memoir, entitled “Hard Choices” (she received an $8 million advance for her first, “Living History.” Both have had bestsellers prior to and after these releases.
Barack Obama’s Net Worth in 2023: How He Made His Money
Hillary Clinton’s Early Years
Clinton was raised in the Park Ridge suburb of Chicago, Illinois, with her father, a small drapery business owner, her mother, a homemaker, and her two younger brothers.
Interested in politics at an early age, Clinton volunteered for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater’s campaign in 1965.
In 1965, she enrolled at Wellesley College as a political science major. During her freshman year, she became the president of the Young Republicans Club but ultimately realized her views were more aligned with the Democratic party, which she joined in 1968. That same year, she became president of the student government at Wellesley.
Clinton later went on to become the first student to give a commencement address at her 1969 graduation — which was covered in Life magazine. Next up was Yale Law School, where she met future President Bill Clinton in 1971. She graduated in 1973.
Hillary Clinton’s Career
As a newly minted lawyer, Clinton accepted a job at what would later be known as the Children’s Defense Fund. There, she went door-to-door in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to learn about the difficulties children with disabilities faced trying to get an adequate education. Her work aided in the passage of legislation requiring the state to offer equal learning opportunities to children with disabilities.
Following a stint as a lawyer on the congressional committee investigating President Nixon, she moved to Arkansas, worked as a law professor and attorney and co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. Around that time, she also married Bill Clinton, who later was elected governor. As first lady of Arkansas, she also worked to improve the healthcare and education systems in the state.
Bill was elected president of the U.S. in 1992 and again in 1996, which made Hillary first lady until 2000. She used this platform to work to help all Americans gain access to affordable healthcare and helped institute the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
In 2000, she was elected a New York senator — the first woman to hold the job — where she helped gain $20 billion to reconstruct New York City after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and worked to ensure responders who later got sick received the proper healthcare.
As a senator, Clinton also launched the Farm-to-Fork program, an initiative that made it easier for New York farmers and producers to sell their products throughout the state. She was elected to a second term as senator in 2006.
In 2008, Clinton ran for president but narrowly lost the Democratic nomination to former President Barack Obama. She continued to serve as a New York senator until 2009, when President Obama appointed her the 67th secretary of state. In this role, she worked to bring tougher sanctions against Iran, negotiated a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, advocated for women’s rights globally and worked to push for greater LGBT rights and human rights. In 2013, she stepped down as secretary of state.
Eight years after battling it out with Obama, Clinton ran for president against Donald Trump. She ultimately lost the 2016 presidential election — but her net worth didn’t suffer.
Personal Life
When Hillary ran for office, Bill relished in recounting the story of how he met her in 1971 when the two were students at Yale Law School. The couple married on Oct. 11, 1975, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
With his wife by his side, he served as the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992, when he was elected 42nd president of the U.S. He served two terms in office, from 1993 to 2001.
Bill and Hillary welcomed their daughter Chelsea in 1980. Their first grandchild, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky, was born in 2014, followed by a second, Aidan, in 2016 — and Jasper in 2019.
At the beginning of 2023, Colombia University announced that it was hiring Clinton as a professor of practice at its School of International and Public Affairs and a presidential fellow at Columbia World Projects.
“Columbia’s commitment to educating the next generation of policy leaders — and helping to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges — resonates personally with me,” Clinton posted on X (formerly Twitter) after the announcement. “Thrilled to join this community,” she added.
Jennifer Taylor contributed to a previous version of this article.
More From GOBankingRates
- Grant Cardone: Passive Income Is the Key To Building Wealth -- Here's My No. 1 Tip
- 10 of the Most Valuable Pennies
- 3 Ways to Recession Proof Your Retirement
- Experts Share the 6 Best Money Moves To Make Before Retiring
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: What Is Hillary Clinton’s Net Worth?
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
