Former President Barack Obama was just 55 years old when he left office after two terms in 2017, making him one of the youngest ex-presidents. While he still has decades to go before reaching Jimmy Carter's record of 43 years of post-presidential retirement, Obama's relatively young age means that barring illness or catastrophe he is likely to remain a figure in American politics and society for some time. He'll also have more time than most chief executives to build his fortune, something that many former presidents either chose to forego or failed at. Ulysses S. Grant, for example, was just 54 when he left office in 1877, and after a failed Mexican railroad gambit and a massive investment in his son Buck's doomed Wall Street brokerage firm, he died virtually penniless.
That is a fate unlikely to befall Obama. Today he is a relatively youthful 64, and has packed a number of ventures into his early retirement years while still emerging periodically to stump for Democratic congressional and presidential candidates, which the party considers an asset given his status as the most popular living former president. He has also launched a film production company with former First Lady Michelle Obama and helmed the non-profit Obama Foundation, which manages the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Finally, he and Michelle have published multiple best-selling volumes of their memoirs and appeared as well-compensated speakers at various events around the world, adding considerably to their net worth.
Like all presidents, Obama drew a salary during his time in office that made him a higher earner than 97% of all Americans. His family wealth today, however, is largely derived from royalties and advances from books, speaker fees from public engagements, deals for the couple's production company and real estate holdings. In 2018, the New York Post claimed that the Obamas were worth $135 million, although no methodology was shared with readers. Forbes estimated the Obamas' net worth in September 2024 to be $70 million. That remains the most recent public estimate.
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How he made his fortune
22 years ago, Barack Obama, a Harvard Law graduate and University of Chicago law professor, was a little-known Illinois state senator when he was given the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston that nominated then-Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for the presidency against incumbent George W. Bush. Obama's speech was so well-received that "observers from across the political world hailed the address as an instant classic," a career-altering turn that "captured the nation's attention and opened the way for a run at the presidency," said Chicago Magazine. It was "one of the most electrifying speeches in political convention history," said Politico, although its "aspirational message" now looks like an "almost hopelessly naive relic." Unfortunately for Democrats, it did not help Kerry capture the presidency. That address also propelled sales of Obama's little-known 1995 first book, "Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," which had been re-published a month before the convention. "At a young age and without much experience as a writer, Barack Obama has bravely tackled the complexities of his remarkable upbringing," said The New York Times after the book's 1995 publication. Sales of the book subsequently "took off," and it "sold about 500,000 copies in the United States" in the two years after his breakthrough speech, said The Century Foundation.
Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, and on the strength of his star turn at the DNC was already a national figure. By then, Obama had made millions from his two memoirs, including "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" (2006) before he was elected president in 2008. He also wrote a children's book, "Of Thee I Sing: Letters to My Daughters," which was published in 2010. In 2007 alone, when he announced his longshot 2008 bid for the White House, Obama "earned almost $3.3 million from Random House book royalties," said AOL.
As a senator from Illinois, Obama started at a salary of $162,100 in 2006 and then earned $169,300 in his final year in the chamber in 2009 before collecting $400,000 per year during his eight years as the president. But it was the ongoing sales of his books that sent the Obamas' wealth on a steady upward trajectory during his presidency, with total royalties of $15.6 million between 2009 and 2017. Obama "donated all post-tax profits from the children's book to provide scholarships for children of wounded and fallen soldiers," said Forbes. Fortune estimated the Obamas' net worth to be $12.2 million when they left the White House in January 2017.
Lucrative post-presidency
Throughout this political career, President Obama was as much a celebrity as he was an elected official. The Obamas have long exercised significant influence over popular reading habits by virtue of their book recommendations — and in the Trump era, this often serves as an excruciating reminder "that we used to have a thoughtful, curious, intelligent man leading this country," said Literary Hub. It is therefore not surprising, in retrospect, that entertainment has been central to Obama's activities after his presidency ended. In March 2017, the Obamas signed a joint $65 million deal with Penguin Random House for one memoir each that "appears to be bigger than any previous presidential book deal in history," said Vox. Michelle Obama's book, "Becoming," was published in 2018. It "employs the techniques of a novel more than those of a typical political memoir," resulting in a book that was "surprisingly candid, richly emotional and granularly detailed," said Vanity Fair. It "sold more copies than any other book published in the United States in 2018," said Penguin Random House.
Her 2022 book, "The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times," was also an instant bestseller. Its structure was such that each "chapter is a tool" individuals can use "to help keep yourself together," and the book's insights were "nuanced and never prescriptive," said The New York Times. It was the second-highest selling book of 2022, "selling nearly 734,000 copies" despite not being released until November, said Publishers Weekly. Barack Obama's memoir of his time in office, "A Promised Land," was published in 2020. It was "less a personal memoir than an unusual sort of history, one recounted by the man at the center of it," said The Washington Post. It sold almost three million copies in its first year and was the "top print title in 2020," the turbulent year that was "marred by a deadly pandemic and extraordinary political and racial strife," said Publisher's Weekly. He has been working on a second volume of that memoir, and the "new tome is nearing completion," said Deadline in September 2024. A release date has not yet been announced, and the former president has not provided an update on his progress since.
President Obama "reportedly earned $800,000 for two speeches and at least $2 million for three talks" in 2017 alone, said Yahoo Entertainment. Those fees drew widespread scrutiny, as he "immediately stepped into controversy over his post-White House buck-raking," said the Los Angeles Times. In 2018, the Obamas founded a production company, Higher Ground Productions, and signed an agreement for an undisclosed amount of money with the streaming service Netflix. That agreement gave the Obamas a "global platform in the Trump era, connecting them with an audience of more than 120 million Netflix subscribers in more than 190 countries," said NBC News. Some critics assailed the deal as being "more about name recognition than actual content," said The New York Times.
The company has produced scripted and unscripted television and movies, including the children's show "Waffles and Mochi" as well as the 2023 post-apocalyptic thriller "Leave the World Behind." Obama reportedly had a hands-on role in the adaptation of Rumaan Alam's 2020 novel about a family navigating a series of mysterious global events at their vacation rental, but the president's "input came after the story's script was formulated," said Forbes. The film has a "light, practically Spielbergian touch and sense of adventure," and during its runtime the "apocalypse felt fun," said Brianna Zigler at Paste Magazine. Because it didn't get a theatrical release, there is no traditional box office data for the movie.
In 2022, Higher Ground signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which "signals further growth for their company," said Deadline. CAA is a "powerhouse talent agency" with a "star-studded" roster of "Hollywood actors and sports legends," including actor Meryl Streep and baseball star Shohei Ohtani, said CBS News. That same year, Higher Ground signed a deal with Amazon's Audible service that "includes multiple audio projects that will be distributed worldwide," said CNN.
Higher Ground also produces podcasts, including "IMO With Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson," which debuted in 2025 and replaced her previous program, "The Light Podcast." The new podcast is "marked by a very American tendency to mutual self-congratulation," whose guiding principle seems to be "to stick to banalities," said The Times. The amount of money that the Obamas make from Higher Ground is unknown.
Obama also won an Emmy for Outstanding Narration in 2022 for his voice work on the Netflix documentary series "Our Great National Parks." He won a second Emmy in 2023 for narrating "Working: What We Do All Day," and again in 2024 for another Netflix documentary, "Our Oceans," which is a "nature series you'll want to binge like all your other streaming favorites," said The Daily Beast.
The Obamas bought and moved into a home in Washington, D.C., for $8.1 million in 2017, and still maintain their residence in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago that they purchased in 2005. It remains a "secret how often the former first family stays" in their Chicago residence, but it is "often enough that the tree out front has been cicada-proofed," said Chicago Magazine. They also bought an estate on Martha's Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, in 2019 for $11.75 million. The home "sits in an area that is rich with natural and human history" and their purchase was the "first time that a former president has bought property on the Island," said the Vineyard Gazette.
Like many Americans with substantial investments, the Obamas' portfolio has likely fluctuated dramatically in the tumultuous months following President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcements on April 2, 2025, but no details of where the market drama has left them are currently available from public sources. Following the initial tariff announcement, Obama predicted they would have a negative impact but maintained that "he is more concerned with what he described as the White House's infringement of rights," said CNN.
