Bernie Sanders says you too can be a millionaire like him 'if you write a best-selling book'

published 9 April 2019

So you want to be a millionaire? Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has some advice.

After several other 2020 contenders beat him to the punch, Sanders shared on Tuesday that he's planning to release a decade's worth of his tax returns by April 15. It's not tax day yet, but Sanders did drop some hints about his financial status to The New York Times.

In 2016, back when President Trump's tax returns were more of a minor issue, only then-candidate Hillary Clinton seemed focused on getting returns from the senator. Opponents have since tried to compare Sanders to Trump, but he quickly differentiated himself as "not being a billionaire, not having investments in Saudi Arabia, wherever he has investments, all over the world," per the Times. Sanders, the Times quickly pointed out, is a millionaire, to which Sanders said "I wrote a best-selling book. If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.”

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Sanders did release a summary of his tax returns in 2016, showing most of his income stemmed from his $174,000 Senate paycheck. He's also been "consistently ranked among the least wealthy members of the Senate," the Times writes. Yet given that Sanders' 2017 Senate financial disclosure forms showed he earned more than $1.06 million that year thanks to royalties from book sales, his status on that list may be about to change.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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