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Kamala Harris is an honorary member of Generation X. Here’s how her finances compare to others in that generation
While her birth in October 1964 technically makes her a baby boomer, Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was born at the cusp of Generation X, just a few months before the start of the generation typically defined as including those born between 1965 and 1980. About two decades younger than President Joe Biden and Republican nominee Donald Trump, she represents a clear generational shift in politics and is being embraced by Generation X, which has never had representation in the Oval Office before.
Her and husband Doug Emhoff’s finances, revealed in disclosure forms released by the White House in recent years, reflect their stance on the end of the baby boom generation.
Check out her retirement savings: Harris has a pension through her government work; as one of the youngest baby boomers, this is not an anomaly. That said, Harris’s age puts her right in the middle of when the first modern workers moved away from guaranteed pensions to fund their retirements and toward defined-contribution plans like 401(k)s and IRAs. Gen X is the first generation to largely bear the full brunt of saving on its own (some experts say). call them the “401(k) experiment” generation), and the change didn’t work out too well for them: A recent study looking at young boomers born between 1959 and 1964 found that 52 percent had total assets less than $250,000.
According to their financial disclosure forms, the vice president and Emhoff — who was also born in October 1964 — are in substantially better shape. The couple’s net worth is between $3.6 million and about $7.40 million, excluding real estate, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Most of Harris’s assets are held in retirement accounts that are invested in index funds; she and her husband also hold at least $850,000 but potentially closer to $2 million in cash (the financial disclosure forms disclose a range of assets, not an exact amount).
Harris and her husband are also homeowners, which is common among Gen Xers (72% own their own home). They have a mortgage rate of 2.625%, according to their financial disclosure forms, which is well below the average generation rate of 4%. That said, the mortgage was taken out in 2020 when the average 30-year fixed rate was 3.38%; like many other Americans, the couple took advantage of the historically low rates at the time. Their home is estimated to be worth between $1 million and $5 million, and they have a seven-year adjustable-rate mortgage, which is also unusual. That means that in a few years their interest rate could go up, although it is possible that they could refinance to maintain the lower ratewhat they have already done once.
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The mortgage is the only debt listed, which is also out of the ordinary for Gen X. According to the Federal ReserveGeneration X holds about 36.6% of the debt in the US, even though they represent less than 20% of the population. They also carry the most credit card debt of any generation, according to recent research, and tend to have more student loan debt than previous generations (though less than millennials).
Harris and Emhoff reported income of $450,299 in 2023, according to tax returns released by the White House earlier this year. That includes Harris’s $218,784 salary as vice president and Emhoff’s $174,994 salary as a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. They also earned about $6,000 in book royalties and more than $50,600 in taxable interest. The average Gen X household earned $126,892 in income in 2022, according to the Secretariat of Labor Statistics.
Income is a notable drop from your 2020 incometotaling more than $1.65 million. Emhoff earned $582,543 that year as a lawyer; he left his offices when Harris was sworn in as vice president.
Finances aside, Harris is representative of her position on the intergenerational cusp in other ways. For one thing, she may also be the first female president, as well as the first Asian-American president. She exemplifies the fact that younger boomers form a much more diverse group than older baby boomers. Generation X is even more: it is not just much more racially diverse than previous generations, but is the first to see a nearly equitable labor force participation rate between men and women.
This story was originally featured in Fortune.com