Mitt Romney: Richer Than You Think

[highplainsdem]

Source: Mother Jones

Is Mitt Romney richer than he's letting on? It's generally agreed that, if elected in November, Romney would be the wealthiest president in American history, but the extent of his wealth goes well beyond what is normally reported in the press.

According to the Romney campaign's most recent disclosure of his personal finances, he's worth between $190 and $250 million. However, those figures only include financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and cash. Presidential candidates are not required to disclose a variety of other potentially high-value holdings, including family real estate and money in certain trusts and charities. Here are some of the Romney assets that don't show up in typical measures of his wealth:

Houses: +$18 million
Unlike most Americans, Romney keeps only a small portion of his wealth locked up in residential real estate—"small" being a relative term here. In 2008, the Romneys dropped $12 million on a beachfront house in La Jolla, California ($3.3 million more than it's valued for tax purposes). More recently he ordered a $55,000 "Phantom Park" car elevator— item 27 in our "History of Mitt Romney in 30 Objects"—to move their automobiles in and out of the home's 3,600-square-foot basement garage. When in Massachusetts, the Romneys stay in an $895,000 townhouse condo. And come summertime, the family decamps to Wolfreboro, New Hampshire, where their $8 million lakefront compound includes a six-bedroom house, a horse stable with guest apartments over it, and a $630,000 boat house. In 2009, Romney sold a mansion in Belmont, Massachusetts, for $3.5 million and a 9,500-square-foot ski house in Park City, Utah, for around $5 million.

-snip-

So what is Romney really worth?
Add together all of the above, and Romney is worth up to $378.3 million, some 50 percent more than the upper bound that typically gets reported.

Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/mitt-romney-tax-returns-net-worth

[JDPriestly]

1. I wonder why Romney sold real estate in 2009.

The market was not that great at that time. Very strange to me.

Maybe he got some really great offers. But normally a person who can sell when he wishes sells when he will get a good price, not during a market low.

Odd.

[SoapBox]

2. Maybe wanted/needed a loss to offset some massive gains?

...since it seems he plays the 1% Shell Game, with the taxes.

[closeupready]

3. Very possibly. If a loss reduced his taxable income,

it very likely would have resulted in letting him pocket more of his 2009 income than otherwise.

He's not the type to do ANYTHING without ending up better off materially.

[SoapBox]

4. "without ending up better off materially."

Agreed...just like a CEO.

[Angry Dragon]

11. You can not deduct losses on homes

unless you have declared them as investment and then they would have to show up on your returns

[JDPriestly]

21. Maybe he faced a pretty large tax bill because he had not paid in some years and then

had to pay all of it at once.

[harmonicon]

5. You're definitely still looking at this the wrong way.

The sorts of numbers that these properties are worth are peanuts to him. Why did he sell those houses? Because selling them would make him some money apart from the value of the house, perhaps, or - this is a guess - he honestly thought that a guy with three houses would seem more like an average Joe to the voters than a guy with five houses.

[eggplant]

14. Maybe he sold it to a crony at a lower value as graft. n/t

[harmonicon]

15. No, that's not it at all, I doubt - these numbers are too small.

People like Romney and his associates simply don't care about money the way that you or I do. What's a few million for him? Not a heck of a lot, and it's not just economies of scale. Half of what he makes in a year is not the same to him as half of what you make in a year is to you, because he doesn't need that money - at all. He never has. All of the money he's ever made is superfluous to his needs. He could have lived his entire life as a trust fund kid if he wanted.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

20. when you have that much money

and deal with others of the same type, there is no good or bad market. they are immune to such things..........

[LuckyLib]

6. Of course he is. $$$$ offshore, plus hidden trusts and assets no doubt

put him way up in the stratosphere. We want to see the tax records, and even those will not reflect his actual net worth.

[amerciti001]

7. Please,please,please...

This less than human person, named Willard Mitt Romney....has everyone guesstimating his total wealth as being in the -millions... but I, a person who tends more to be a skeptic, see the biggest deception ever played, in that Willard Mitt Romney is really worth a few -BILLIONS!!!

Not in the league with Buffet or Gates, just a minor Billionaire (perhaps 4-6 billions)

Why do you think he keeps his money everywhere else on this planet outside the good ole USA? Rather hard for Forbes to come up with a good projection, with it stashed everywhere else that you can not get a true accounting of it. Think about it. The Cayman!?!?, Bermuda!!, Swiss bank accounts!?!?, really everyone should give this some thought!?!?

[Bette Noir]

8. What's a hundred million or so between friends?

He'd be the poor relation, among some of his donors.

[kestrel91316]

9. I think $378m is still way too low. I think he's probably a billionaire, and he is hiding his

financials because he knows how bad that information would be for his chances of winning.

[nichomachus]

10. $100 million here -- $100 million there

and pretty soon you're talking real money.

[Helen Reddy]

16. Hah!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. If he doesn't have to disclose real estate holdings he may own a lot more....

It would be something if it turned out he's a slum lord.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. He owns rental investment property in Missouri City, Texas

as well as several horses Ann rides and part ownership in the multi-million dollar Rafalca that Ann doesn't ride.

[julian09]

17. He is hiding proceeds of some pension funds he got for cents on the dollar off shore.

[daleo]

18. Even most of the one percent can't relate to him

He's part of the 1 percent of the 1 percent.

[JRLeft]

19. Romney is a multibillionaire.