AOC says she's worth less than $500,000 after kickback claims — and seems to get kudos from Trump fans in response
AOC says she's worth less than $500,000 after kickback claims — and seems to get kudos from Trump fans in response
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won plaudits from critics for saying her congressional salary is her only income and she doesn't trade stocks.
Summary
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez denied claims that she is secretly wealthy, stating she is worth less than $500,000 and doesn’t trade stocks or take corporate money.
Her financial disclosures show modest savings and student debt.
Some conservatives on X, despite opposing her politics, praised her perceived integrity.
Accusations of political corruption have surged online, partly fueled by Elon Musk.
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she is worth less than $500,000
That sounds like a lot of money still, but I'd imagine public figures can easily leverage that to wealth so makes sense
Jesus, people need to learn to read a damn article.
Her financial disclosure form last year showed she had no more than $46,000 across her checking, savings, brokerage, and 401(k) accounts, and owed between $15,000 and $50,000 of student loans.
Forbes estimated Ocasio-Cortez's net worth last year at about $125,000 with most of her wealth in a Thrift Savings Plan — a 401(k)-style investment vehicle for government employees that doesn't have to be listed in financial disclosures.
And no it's not that unusual for ordinary people to have 500k net worth. Buy a house, put in a few percent in your 401k in index funds, and there you go.
For that matter, Millennials are going to need a $1M networth by retirement age. At least $1M. Now, AOC has some pension benefits as a member of Congress, so she's not quite as ratfucked as the rest of us, but even if she had $500k, she'd be in the "good enough" range.
I'm the ass end of Gen-X and even I need to have at least 1.5 million to retire relatively comfortable so I'm thinking that 1 million isn't going to be enough for Millennials.
I'm roughly around that age, too, and yeah, that's about what I'm looking at. Even that makes certain assumptions about the US economy that may not hold for a few more decades.
Read a little insight a while back. When boomers dreamed of being a millionaire, they dreamed of yachts and penthouse suites. When Millennials dream of being a millionaire, they dream of getting by OK without the rat race.
Uhm, it's her own damn words (from the article):
You are completely making things up. I am not even worth $1 million. Or a half million. I am one of the lowest net worth members of Congress, trade no individual stock, and take no outside income. These filings are public. I loathe corruption, and your lying is reprehensible.
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1887197530573717552
She specifically decided to say "less than half million" which sounded a lot to me.
How does "I'm not even worth half a million" mean "I have hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank" to people. I don't get it.
If you have a retirement account and a home, you're probably worth more than that anyway.
The name Kusimulkku is very much Finnish (it means peehole). Houses don't all cost half a million dollars there and retirement is funded through taxation. 500k net worth in Finland is comparable to being a millionaire in the US I would say. You would probably have 6 digits in your bank account OR own majority of a small company if you're worth 500k.
A lot of people also don't count their only residence as part of their net worth as it's their home, not an investment vehicle and definitely not liquid. Things change when you can afford multiple properties, but you aren't going to sell your only home just because it has appreciated - everything else has likely also gone up then.
Just saying, his perspective coule be very different from yours. I know this because I'm Estonian and 500k to me sounds like a pretty high net worth.
Houses don’t all cost half a million dollars there and retirement is funded through taxation.
I suppose we could be cheeky, take Solidium - the Finnish sovereign wealth fund - and amortize assets across the population as "collective wealth". But holding individuals with 401ks to account for being "rich" because they're doing the only legally expedient form of retirement savings is absurd, I agree.
I think my point is more along the lines of "I don't even have half a million dollars" doesn't imply to me that they have half a million dollars.
Hmm to me it implies it's close though. Maybe 300k, maybe 400k. At her age it would be an impressive where I come from.
I think if she anchored it different, I might think like you. But "I don't have a million; not half a million either" doesn't imply to me it's close. Maybe like 100k. But saying that she said she's worth so much and quoting her saying "I'm not even worth X" as the proof is nonsense. Especially in response to someone with quotes from the article stating that it's like $125k.
Cripes read, she has 170k total.
Who said it does? You're confusing me here
Sigh...
Even when putting up literally text and numbers, you can't read or math.
Alright let's break it down.
45,000 savings + 125000 government 401k = 170,000
Now let's compare numbers here. 500,000 is a bigger number than 170,000
So what she said, given our known facts and assumptions, what she said is absolutely true. She's not with half a million, she's worth 170,000 USD and a 125,000 of that isn't even really available to her because it's a retirement savings account.
For fucks sake, she's wasn't saying she had 500,000 dollars in cash on her. She was being ever so slightly hyperbolic to make a point that she's not rich.
Cripes, reading is so fundamental.
I don't know if you get that I'm reacting to what she said. Saying she isn't worth "even" half a million sounded a lot to me since I didn't realize the average was so high in the US. It sounded high for saying you're not worth "even" that. Idk if you get what I mean.
But really you're getting bent out of shape over something very unnecessary. I suggest calming down.
RTFA.
It's amazing that you still don't get what's happening.
It's amazing you still can't math.
What do you think needed math..? It's just my first reaction to how high the $500,000 seemed that she talked about. I really don't get it. Maybe there's some American political shitflinging going on that I don't know about since this has got a load of people upset without any reason that I can figure out.
She doesn't even own her own home, or she lives in a shark at that value. No second property: no cottage or landlording.
lives in a shark at that value.
Well that's certainly a choice...
It's gonna bite her in the ass.
She has to have two places one in DC and one in her district. She like.y cannot afford that at her salary as both places are extremely expensive
Well, according to the rules, she does. A lot of congress critters live in their DC office. It's against city health code regulations, but there's nobody who can tell them no. It's the worst kept secret in Washington.
I don't know if AOC herself does this or not.
Damn renting twice?
Yeah Manhattan rent for office and home plus DC home. That has to be half of that salary right there.
edit: Two rents Im wrong about the office apparently.
District offices are paid for from House office budgets.
Thanks I edited my comment
I was hoping she lived in a van down by the river.
Man, starting to show your age there. :)
I'm not old. It's still a relevant reference that is used now a days. Right?
Man Americans are worth a shitload on average
Anywhere property is massively over valued this is going to be true.
Even taking off what I owe in mortgage my net worth would make me look pretty well off in the UK, but I earn a pretty below average wage.
Oh, you just gave me the thought she might be underwater on a mortgage,
You have to fund your own retirement. The social safety net is constantly threatening to be removed and it doesn't cover much to start with. And homes are stupid expensive. Especially in the places where AOC has to have places to live.
That we can't afford to use because we don't have a safety net.
My net worth is probably just under half a million but I'll be working until I'm over 70 if I want to be able to pass anything useful down to my kids.
I have one with special needs that likely won't be able to work, much less manage a portfolio.Without my help he could be homeless soon after I pass.
It's amazing how so much of our wealth is tied up in "assets" as opposed to liquid cash. I probably have just slightly less in assets than AOC at the moment, but I also don't own a home, so if I ever managed to buy one my net worth would skyrocket beyond hers but I'd be housepoor and most likely living paycheck to paycheck. I'm not even close to being considered conventionally wealthy, and the distance between me and a billionaire is almost literally unfathomable.
Anyone who owns a home is probably worth more than that.
Do you live in the USA? That's not even the price of an "okay" median house in a middle-class neighborhood. That's a nice chunk to have in the bank or have in investments, but if you ever want to retire at a decent age and not spend your later years eating canned beans in a mobile home, you need to save up more than a million unless you have some specific plans for your future.
A lot of people have a lot of huge misconceptions about the wealth in the US. We may be the richest nation but we spend the most also, and the costs are skyrocketing beyond even the highest normal wages. You simply cannot own a house on a single income. In many other countries $20 USD will get you a week's worth of hot meals, here you can accidentally spend $50 running out to the grocery store for several ingredients for dinner or a half dozen frozen meals.
No, I live in Finland