Booking Wealth: Presidents' Book Deals
Not that he needs it. Instead, President Obama’s memoir will add to what’s already guaranteed to be a cushy retirement that includes a $200,000 annual pension, health care coverage, subsidized travel for official business, and a private office of his choosing.
But when figuring the Obamas’ lifetime earnings of $242.5 million, we focused on books and speeches as the key catalysts. Books alone should net them at least $40 million.
“His is going to be easily the most valuable presidential memoir ever,” Raphael Sagalyn, of the ICM/Sagalyn Literary Agency, told The New York Times External link . He went on to predict that President Obama could earn $30 million from a multi-book deal and that Michelle Obama’s memoir of life as first lady could also become “the most valuable” of its kind.
Call it business as usual for the Obamas, who for a time lived off sales of “Dreams from My Father,” the memoir Obama wrote in 1995 during his first run for a seat in the Illinois Senate and which was re-released in 2004, during a bid for the U.S. Senate. Sales took off during his run for president four years later.
"Before this book started selling we were living in a condo and we had two cars, but one of them was beat up," Obama told a 2008 campaign crowd, according to CNN External link .
Money Talks: Presidential Speaking Fees
For the Clintons, speeches have been the centerpiece of an unparalleled moneymaking machine for a former presidential couple. Over 15 years they’ve grossed $153 million for 729 speeches, earning an average of $210,795 per address, CNN reports External link .
Both Obamas are considered accomplished, even moving, public speakers, so it follows the fees for their speeches will likely be enormous.
But what about net worth? Could the Obamas equal or even exceed the Clintons’ $75 million in their 15th year out of office? That seems likely. President Obama leaves office with two best-sellers already to his name to add to the estimated $40 million in book fees he and Michelle will receive. Add $3 million in pension income and about 50 speeches a year at a conservative $200,000 apiece and you’re already close to $200 million before taxes. Enough to put the Obamas high up on the list of wealthiest former first families—and continuing a tradition of presidential ladder-climbing that dates back nearly 50 years.
Total income estimate until age 70 for just the Obama's:
$242.5 million