- His disclosures, both from his final year in Congress and his time as Minnesota governor, also show no mutual funds, bonds, private equities, or other securities.
- No book deals or speaking fees or crypto or racehorse interests.
- Not even real estate. The couple sold their Mankato, Minnesota, home after moving into the governor’s mansion, for below the $315k asking price).
I suppose one might imagine the risk that if he doesn’t have “enough” money personally, he will be more susceptible to bribes. The steelman version is that he doesn’t care about money that much.
I think the bigger concern for those unaware he has a pension is that he’s bad at his finances, and possibly even a spendthrift. But with knowledge that he’s set with pensions then it makes perfect sense. I still probably would invest if I had a pension because I know how bad not doing so went for many people in the late 20th century, but especially when done out of conviction and to display unwillingness to be bribed as a politician it’s something I respect.
Yes there seem to be a lot of people of the position that having retirement investments = hoarding wealth…but the majority of us don’t get pensions and not having retirement accounts of any kind under those circumstances is horrible financial strategy if you want to do anything other than subsist after retiring.
Exactly. I’m happy to pay taxes into social safety nets, and I understand that I’m probably approaching an income where I should be paying more in than I expect to get out. But my 401k and mutual funds aren’t wealth hoarding, they’re me acknowledging the system I live in and not betting my future on things drastically improving in the next 30 years.
My financial goals are to have a little to leave to my loved ones or charity once my wife and I pass on assuming we grow quite old.
But yeah with my family history and occupational risk of cancer I’m not risking everything on the hopes that there’s a social safety net before I’m unable to work