Peter Buttigieg Net Worth: Democratic Presidential Hopeful

Peter Buttigieg was a Democratic Presidential candidate for the 2020 race. At only 37 years old (born January 19, 1982), Buttigieg is ranked a surprising #4 in CNN’s Power Rankings out of currently 24 candidates.

Buttigieg dropped out because he was simply too young and inexperienced to become President. Further, there was a big uproar on his fancy wine cave fundraising incident that made him seem out of touch with normal people. The wine cave with crystals really wasn't too fancy. But the pubilc got a hold of the fundraiser and ran with it.

The Democratic Presidential candidate is Joe Biden. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have the full mental capacity and energy to compete against Donald Trump. Let's take a look at Buttigieg's net worth given Financial Samurai is a personal finance site.

Below was the CNN Democratic 2020 power rankings. Now there is only Joe Biden to lead the charge.

Democratic Presidential Candidates Top 10

Who Is Peter Buttigieg?

Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg is an American former naval intelligence officer who has been the mayor of South Bend, Indiana since 2012.

Buttigieg graduated from Harvard College and received a Rhodes Scholarship, from Pembroke College, Oxford. From 2007 to 2010, he worked at McKinsey and Company, a top management consulting firm.

From 2009 to 2017, Buttigieg served as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve, attaining the rank of lieutenant and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014.

Buttigieg was first elected mayor of South Bend in 2011 at the age of 29. He was reelected in 2015. Buttigieg also campaigned for Indiana State Treasurer in 2010 and for chair of the Democratic National Committee in 2017, losing both elections.

In a June 2015 piece in the South Bend Tribune, Buttigieg announced that he is gay. He also is the first openly gay presidential candidate for the Democratic Party

On April 14, 2019, Buttigieg announced he was running for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2020. 

His platform includes support for universal healthcare; reducing income inequality; pro-environmental policies; dialogue and cooperation between the Democratic Party and organized labor; universal background checks for firearms purchases; the Equality Act; and preserving the DACA program for children of immigrants.

Buttigieg also supports reforms that would end gerrymandering, overturn the Citizens United v. FEC decision, and abolish the Electoral College. In other words, Buttigieg is running on the same platform as all his other Democratic Presidential Candidates.

As a result, Peter Buttigieg really has no chances of winning the Democratic Presidential Primary, let alone defeating Donald Trump for the Presidency.

At 37 years old, Buttigieg is seen as too inexperienced and too unoriginal to lead the Democrats to victory. Being another white male Democratic is not what the people are looking for or what will make him memorable.

However, if Buttigieg could end up as the Governor of Indiana. If he does a good job from there, he will have another legitimate shot at President in the future.

Peter Buttigieg Net Worth

Given Buttigieg graduated college in 2005 and finished his Rhodes Scholar time in 2007, he's only had 12 years to earn and build his net worth.

Peter Buttigieg Net Worth

First year analysts at McKinsey make on average a base salary of $83,000 today with a $18,000 performance bonus and a signing bonus of $5,000. Let's assume Buttigieg received the maximum compensation at McKinsey and saved and invested 25% of his gross income, Buttigieg would have a net worth of roughly $80,000 – $100,000 by the time he left in 2010.

As the Mayor of South Bend, took a pay cut and earned $104,847 per year his first year. But he has continued to earn a six-figure salary until now. His current salary as Mayor is $149,000.

Therefore, let us continue to assume that Buttigieg saved 25% of his gross income since 2011, he would have added another $250,000 in savings to his net worth.

Let us also assume Buttigieg wisely invested his savings that grew at a 7% compound return from 2007 – 2019. Buttigieg would have a current net worth of roughly $550,000.

The reality is that although a 7% compound annual return since 2007 is reasonable since we've had a bull market since 2009, saving $25,000 a year from a ~$100,000 salary may be a little aggressive since the national savings rate is only about 6%.

If we estimate Buttigieg only saved on average 15% of his gross salary a year, or $15,000 – $22,000 since 2007, Buttigieg's net worth would be closer to $350,000. It is unclear what type of side income Buttigieg earned on the side while in politics.

According to a financial disclosure released in May 2019, Pete Buttigieg earned $75,000 as an advance for his book “Liveright Publishing Corp”. The filing also showed that Pete and his husband own as much as $50,000 worth of Apple stock and as much as $15,000 in Google stock.

Finally Pete disclosed that he has somewhere in the range of $100,000 and $350,000 worth of student loan debt that is due over the next 25 years.

In conclusion, Buttigieg is estimated to have a net worth of between $400,000 – $550,000 as of 2020.

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