How have our Presidents’ money stories affected their lives and trajectories before, during, and after their terms? Have the Presidents’ finances affected policy? What stories do they teach the rest of us?

As we head into election season, MEGAN GORMAN has released a terrific book on US Presidents and their personal finances. She is a tax attorney and wealth manager – takes readers on a rollicking ride, full of history and personal finance lessons, to understand the intimate money stories of our most famous presidents in her highly anticipated new book, ALL THE PRESIDENTS’ MONEY: How the Men who Governed America Governed Their Money

Megan Gorman’s “All The Presidents’ Money”

Megan has spent her career advising some of the wealthy. She parlayed her interest in history and politics with her career expertise to analyze our Presidents relationship with money. The stories of our Presidents’ personal finances not only give insight into their leadership style, but they teach lessons for the rest of us as well.

What inspired you to write about the US presidents’ relationship with money?

Since I was six, I’ve always been obsessed with learning about the presidents. There’s an archetype that I was drawn to: a man from an ordinary background that through hard work and luck makes his way to the top. We have many presidential examples in our history: Lincoln, Eisenhower, Grant, Johnson, Truman, Ford, Reagan, and on. Could this same story happen now?  Maybe, but it’s not as easy as it was before.

https://www.amazon.com/All-Presidents-Money-Governed-America-ebook/dp/B0D3T7TGMZ/
Megan Gorman’s Presidents’ Relationship with Money
How did you approach researching the book, since financial details are often private?

I usually started by reading a book on the president and looking for little items – education, jobs, homes – and then ferreting out primary source documents. But the most useful items are the letters.  Letters were where a lot of financial discussions occurred, from Jefferson and his financial challenges to Harry Truman lamenting to his future wife about whether he will ever find financial success. The presidential libraries and museums’ archives were also unbelievable. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvMoUuruCzU

Did you notice any common themes or patterns in the presidents’ financial behaviors and decision-making?

A lot of bad financial decision making occurs when emotion controls the situation. For example, President George Washington asked James Monroe to go to France. Monroe agreed even though he had a substantial plantation at home that needed significant management. Monroe got to France and realized that to succeed, he needs gravitas. In 1790s France, that means having the right home to entertain in. So he went out and bought a house for the US with his own money – doesn’t ask permission and doesn’t think about the obligations back home. His salary doesn’t cover half of what he is spending. When Monroe’s appointment is over, he sells the house at a loss. Money is emotion – and managing it is very hard for all of us.

You write in All The Presidents’ Money that “wealth happens at the intersection of opportunity and discipline.” What do you mean?

We talk a lot about financial literacy and having strong financial skills. But the truth is you could be the greatest budgeter in the world, but if you have no money coming in, it’s a moot point.  Budgeting, risk tolerance, connecting with your future self – all of those things are the framework of finance – but you need your shot at wealth building, to put it in Hamilton parlance. You need to have the ability to make a living.  If you have that, and you use financial literacy, you can build financial resilience. Sounds easy, but in the current stage we are in the US, it’s gotten a lot harder.

Several presidents had a strong aversion to debt. Do you think this is a valuable mindset for financial success?

I completely agree with them. Debt isn’t something you want to have. It needs to be seen as a tool to get you to the next level with a focus on paying it off. Jerry Ford is always an interesting person when it comes to this. In her Oral Histories at the presidential library, his daughter Susan discusses how she would try to convince her dad that having a mortgage wasn’t that bad a thing – after all you got a tax deduction for it. Ford wouldn’t hear of it. He just abhorred debt. Working with wealthy individuals, most of them enjoy the day their mortgages are paid off.  It’s a feeling of safety and security.

Thomas Jefferson struggled mightily with debt. What lessons can we learn from his financial missteps?

One of the things I’ve learned through working with very successful people is that often the skills or personality traits that allow them to be successful can at times be a negative. Jefferson is like that. He’s a magical thinker. On one hand, he can draft huge philosophical ideas and make them understandable. Yet when we look at his financial ledgers, he’s avoidant and unable to be practical.  Being good with money requires being grounded and having the ability to say no.  He’s just unwilling to do it – even when it is too late and is about to lose everything.

What can we learn from Jefferson? The need to connect with your future self. What does your financial like look like 10-20-30 years from now? Are you living debt free? Are you able to travel and live comfortably in retirement? How much money do you want to have saved?  When you have these visualizations, then you can start to put the discipline around your finances in terms of savings and budgeting. 

What role does marriage play in the financial lives of presidents?

A big one! Who you marry has a huge impact on your financial success in life. A lot of our most successful presidents married up financially, starting with Washington. Building strong finances is a team sport. If partners aren’t aligned, they might be working against each other. Warren Harding wasn’t a great president, but he was a great businessman. He and his wife Florence owned a newspaper. Florence ran the paper’s finances. Harding was better at editorial and advertising. Their skills were complementary, and as they built up the paper, they built up their wealth. If he had married a less financially savvy wife, he may not have been as successful.

What is the key to effective communication about money in relationships, and which presidents did it best?

In All The Presidents’ Money, the key to effective communication about money in relationships is to make it a constant topic of conversation in a constructive manner. Whenever you read a letter between the Adams, they address each other “My Dearest Friend” – a rather romantic and loving way to start a letter. The tone allows the conversation to be friendly and constructive – rather than critical and dismissive – even when it’s about money.

Grant’s trust in the wrong business partners cost him dearly. What advice would you give about how to vet financial relationships?

What made Grant great was a challenge when it came to managing money. He’s a little too trusting and takes people at their word. He’s like Bill Clinton in that sense. If anything, Grant should tap into the skills of another General President. Eisenhower was very good at looking at a situation and assessing risk. He learned from playing poker. Risk assessment allows you to consider different outcomes. The key is to ask a lot of questions. What happens if things go wrong? Is there a contingency plan?  How to you protect your investment? 

More on stewarding a FAMILY BUSINESS

The Obamas had significant student loan debt well into their 40s. Is college education still worth the cost?

Maybe, but Americans need to be more strategic about education costs. When you look at Barack Obama, he wracked up a lot of the debt attending Harvard Law. He had a full ride to Northwestern.  But Obama wanted to be president and he knew Harvard was a good way to go. Same thing with Bill Clinton – he had high aspirations, so taking loans to go to Yale Law was strategic.

But the cost of education has gotten so high that what’s really important is getting a degree at the lowest cost possible. Unless you have the finances to pay all cash for college, it is important to think about career path and if strategies like two years of community college followed by a transfer to college will result in less debt.

What was the most surprising thing you learned about the presidents’ financial lives while writing All The Presidents’ Money?

They all worried about money – a lot!  There are letters from different presidents over the course of their life where they question if they are doing the right thing with money. Harry Truman wrote his future wife in 1917 after losing a lot of money in the oil business, “I seem to have a grand and admirable ability for calling tails when heads come up. My luck should surely change. Sometime I should win.”

Then you have LBJ writing a friend about worrying about money – yet in the next breath he’s talking about buying an expensive suit. Clothing budget actually factors heavily. Martin Van Buren grew up poor but he adopted a fancy dress as a way to climb socio-economically. Coolidge was also always dressed to the nines which sticks out because he was so frugal.

In many ways, their money struggles humanize them.  I found that many of the presidents I didn’t like politically, I enjoyed personally.  That was one of the best parts, being nonpolitical.

Speaking of their finances, who is your favorite presidential role model in All The Presidents’ Money?

George Washington was unbelievable with money. He’s very ambitious and not afraid to do the hard work to earn it. But he’s also a great budgeter. He had to be. Upon his father’s death, everything went to his brother Lawrence. There wasn’t money for George to go to college. But he’s a clever guy – he learned surveying from his neighbor and used the money to buy land. He’s also incredibly attractive and married a wealthy widow. Once he marries Martha Custis, he has not only his land, but her dowry land as well.

However, there is one area where Washington fails financially – and that is in terms of values and morals.  Due to his use of slave labor, we have to really put an asterisk against his name. But when he dies, his estate is so large and complex, they actually publish a book on it. It takes 50 years for his estate to play out.

What one piece of financial advice would you give to President Biden? Kamala Harris? What about former President Trump?

President Biden needs to slow down and defer to professional advice. He’s just a little messy and unsophisticated in his money. I’ll give you a present-day example. He made a loan to his siblings with some of the money he got from his book deal. This is very normal – we call them below market loans and we do them all the time with high-net-worth families. But what got him tripped up with Congress is that he didn’t follow the process correctly. He needed to have a demand note, an interest rate, a payment schedule, and he needed to report the interest. He didn’t do all of this – so it’s sloppy. Not illegal, just sloppy. He needs a strong finance person to help run his life.

President Trump is good with money, but at times – and I’m putting this mildly – he’s too aggressive.  He would be more respected if he were more transparent about his finances. Most people won’t really understand his finances anyway. He’s in real estate. It’s a specialized part of the code.

https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Actually-Intelligent-Decision-Making-1-ebook/dp/B07FPQJJQT/