Tim Kaine Net Worth: Career Politician

The Tim Kaine net worth total of $2.4 million comes almost entirely from his salary as a career politician, including a U.S. Senate salary of $174,000. Kaine has earned nearly $2 million in salary since becoming Mayor of Richmond, Virginia in 1998. Before that time he practiced law in Virginia for 17 years. In Kaine’s federal Personal Financial Disclosure forms, he lists assets worth at least $800,000 and at most $2 million. Certain assets like private residences and others held in a spouse’s name don’t have to be listed. Therefore Kaine’s wealth could be substantially higher.

The tables below show all the pertinent Tim Kaine net worth facts, including comparisons to other politicians, net worth through time and yearly salary data. There’s also a list of all of Kaine’s current assets and debts.

My dad Al owned a union ironworking shop in Kansas City. That's where I learned about respecting hard work and hardworking people. pic.twitter.com/LHrOsSUH3H

— Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) October 3, 2016

Tim Kaine Net Worth Facts

The Tim Kaine net worth sum of $2.4 million is small for a career politician. According to OpenSecrets, Kaine’s wealth is ranked 63rd out of 100 in the U.S. Senate. Hillary Clinton’s net worth of $32 million is 14 times bigger than Kaine’s. Donald Trump’s net worth of $5.18 billion is 2,154 times bigger. Trump’s VP pick Mike Pence has a net worth of $700,000. Kaine’s net worth is four times bigger than that, but only about 1/40th the size of potential first gentleman Bill Clinton’s net worth of $100.8 million. Barack Obama has a net worth of $3.2 million, which is 25% bigger than Kaine’s accumulated wealth. Rapper 50 Cent has a net worth of $16 million. That’s seven times more money than Kaine. Rapper and businessman Jay Z has 230 times more money than Kaine with $552 million, while Kim Kardashian has 63 times more with $150 million. Finally, Kaine has 36 times more money than the typical American household with $68,000.

Related: Donald Trump Net Worth

Tim Kaine Net Worth Timeline

The Tim Kaine net worth story started back in 1984, when the future VP candidate passed the Virginia State Bar with a degree from Harvard Law School. Kaine worked as a law clerk in Georgia but then joined a law firm in Richmond, Virginia. He practiced law for 17 years in Virginia before being elected mayor of Richmond in 1998. Since then, Kaine has pursued a successful career in politics. He became Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 2002, then Governor in 2007. He followed that position with a successful bid for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2013. Net worth public disclosures since 2010 show a figure of just over $1 million in 2011, building to $1.7 million by 2016. Those figures are somewhat misleading since they don’t include the value of private residences and certain other assets. We’ve adjusted the table above and chart below to include the value of Kaine’s Virginia home. That dwelling’s value is estimated at $650,000.

What Does Kaine’s Net Worth Mean Politically?

The Tim Kaine net worth figure is most likely a political non-issue. With any public figure, there are always critics eager to use net worth as evidence that a candidate is either rich and out of touch or poor and incompetent. In Kaine’s case that argument will get made, but it’s tough to imagine it gaining any traction. Kaine’s reported net worth of $2.4 million is a lot higher than the wealth of most other Americans, but not obscenely so. Even though Kaine’s disclosure forms almost certainly miss some assets, Kaine still can’t be called super-rich.

Assuming Kaine’s true net worth to be somewhere around a hypothetical $3 million, most criticisms would still fall flat. Kaine isn’t poor enough to be called incompetent or bad at managing money. Compared to other players like Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, he can hardly be called rich at all. Kaine’s wealth is, if anything, evidence of a hard working lawyer who became a U.S. Senator. He neither distinguished himself as a brilliant money manager nor disgraced himself as someone who squandered his earnings. Financially speaking, Kaine is strictly middle-of-the-road.

Tim Kaine Net Worth from Salary

The Tim Kaine net worth figure owes $1,976,000 to his salary as a public figure. Kaine’s salary by year is listed in the table below. The U.S. Senator salary of $174,000 is a matter of public record. The other salaries shown below are loose estimates based on current figures. For example, the Mayor of Richmond, Virginia currently earns $125,000 a year. We found no record of pay for the position back in 1998, so we settled on $100,000 as a good rough guess. The Lieutenant Governor of Virginia currently earns $36,000 a year. We used that figure as Kaine’s pay in that position from 2002 through 2006. The Governor of Virginia currently earns $175,000 a year. We used that figure for the years from 2007 through 2010, though pay for that job may have been lower back then. All in all, the figures we used come to $1.97 million since 1998. Kaine’s pay as a lawyer in Richmond for 17 years is another matter. We have no record of his salary during those years.

Related: Hillary Clinton Net Worth

How Accurate Are Our Tim Kaine Net Worth Figures?

Figuring numbers like the Tim Kaine net worth sum is always a tricky proposition. Public figures like senators and presidential candidates must reveal certain net worth data, but it’s far from exact. In the first place, Kaine was only required to disclose that his net worth in 2016 is somewhere between $800,000 and $2 million. In the second, he didn’t have to include the value of his private residence. Another drawback to the reporting process is that some assets held in a spouse’s name don’t have to be listed. All those problems conspire to create a situation where Kaine’s true net worth could be a lot higher or lower than advertised. We’ve added the estimated value of $650,000 for Kaine’s Virginia home into our net worth calculations. That said, Kaine could have other property and assets in his wife’s name driving his net worth as high as $5 million. His wife could also have massive debts, sinking the couple’s wealth as low as $500,000. Under the current system of reporting it’s impossible to know for sure.

Tim Kaine Net Worth Assets

The Tim Kaine net worth total comes from his official disclosure documents. Those documents list assets with an average value of $1.4 million. The assets shown in Kaine’s 2014 disclosure forms are listed below. They’re mostly stocks, bonds and a checking account balance.

Sources:

OpenSecrets