A Look at Barack Obama’s Net Worth, Education and Family Life

Obama was born on August 4, 1961, making him 63 years old. If one’s height is of any importance in winning a leadership position, then Obama’s 1.85cm (6ft 2in) sure brought him the advantage of winning the presidential election in 2008.

According to political observers, the taller of two major-party candidates tend to prevail; this is believed to be so due to the public’s preference for taller candidates.

Early Life and Education

Obama was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii (he is the first Hawaii-born US president). He started school at the age of three and attended St. Francis Pre-Education until he was five. Thereafter, he enrolled at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School, a local Indonesian School known in the local tongue as Sekolah Katolik Santo Fransiskus Asisi. 

For about a year and a half, he schooled at Sekolah Dasar Negeri Menteng 01, a state elementary school located in the Menteng Dalam neighborhood of Tebet sub-district in South Jakarta, Indonesia. He had relocated there with his mom to live with his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro.

Because he attended local Indonesian-language schools, he became fluent in Indonesian while his mother home-schooled him in English. Obama returned to Honolulu, the capital city of Hawaii in 1971. There, he lived with his maternal grandparents and continued his education. This saw him attend Punahou School, a private, co-educational college preparatory school. As Barack was a brilliant student, he was able to study on a scholarship from fifth grade until he finished high school; this was in 1979.

Harvard Isn’t the Only College the Former President Attended

Earlier in 1975 when his mother and half-sister Maya Soetoro returned to Indonesia, Obama refused to move with them, choosing to live with his grandparents in Hawaii. His mother would spend about 20 years in Indonesia which saw her divorce Lolo. She died in 1995 following a battle with cancer.

It was after he graduated from high school that he moved to Los Angeles where he attended Occidental College. It is said that he attended the private liberal arts college on a full scholarship. 1981 came and he transferred to New York City’s Columbia University where he majored in political science with a concentration in international relations and English literature. He obtained his BA degree in 1983.

Barack Obama worked for a while before he decided to further his studies at Harvard University, this was in 1988. By 1991, he graduated magna cum laude and obtained his JD degree. While he was an undergraduate, Obama became the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Before Obama went into politics, he was a senior lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He lectured at the institution from 1993 to 2004. After he rose to great fame as a US senator, he received multiple honorary degrees from various universities.

Some of the Honorary Degrees He Received

• Doctor of Laws from Knox College, Illinois (2005)
• Doctor of Laws from the University of Massachusetts Boston (2006)
• Doctor of Laws from Xavier University of Louisiana (2006)
• Doctor of Laws from Northwestern University, Illinois (2006)
• Doctor of Laws from Howard University, Washington, D.C. (2007)
• Doctor of Laws from Southern New Hampshire University (2007)
• Doctor of Laws from Wesleyan University, Connecticut (2008)
• Doctor of Laws from University of Notre Dame, Indiana (2009)
• Doctor of Laws from the University of Michigan (2010)
• Doctor of Law from Morehouse College, Georgia (2013)
• Doctor of Laws from Ohio State University (2013)
• Doctor of Laws from Rutgers University, New Jersey (2016)
  

Obama’s legacy has also been made manifest by the many converted awards he has received.

List of Awards Barack Obama Has Received

• 2020 – Oscars’ Best Documentary Feature for American Factory (the 2019 film was made by Higher Ground, the Obamas’ production company)
• 2017 – Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service
• 2017 – FIRST’s Make It Loud Award for contributions as President supporting FIRST and STEM education
• 2017 – John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.
• 2014 – Ambassador of Humanity” Award from the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education
• 2014 – The Streamy Awards for Best Collaboration with Zach Galifianakis
• 2013 – NME Award for Hero of the Year
• 2013 – Israeli President’s Medal of Distinction
• 2013 – Freedom of the City of Cape Town (with Michelle Obama)
• 2011 – Transparency Award
• 2009 – Nobel Peace Prize
• 2009 – Mashable Open Web Awards for Tweet of the Year (https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/5523912708)
• 2008 – Harold Washington Award
• 2008 – Phoenix Award from the CBC Foundation, Inc
• 2008 – Daytime Emmy Award for his concession speech after the New Hampshire primary
• 2008 – Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album (audiobook version of The Audacity of Hope)
• 2007 – NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Nonfiction for Dreams from My Father
• 2006 – Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album (audiobook version of Dreams from My Father
• 2005 – NAACP Image Award (Chairman’s Award)

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When he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, it made him the 4th US President to receive the coveted award and the 3rd to receive it while in office.

Analysis of Barack Obama’s Net Worth and Salary

Barrack Obama’s net worth is estimated at $70 million as of 2021. What constitutes his net worth comes majorly from his salaries and sales of his books.

While studying at Harvard, Obama worked as a community organizer for low-income residents in Roseland and Altgeld Gardens. After law school, he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago (1992-2004) and worked as a civil rights activist.

From 1997-2004, Obama served three terms as the US Senator from Illinois representing the 13th district, receiving an annual salary of $174,000.

He was subsequently elected the 44th President of the United States in November 2008, after emerging as the Democratic nominee beating Hilary Clinton and winning the US presidential election against Republican nominee John McCain. He ran again in 2012 and won, beating Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

As president of the United States, Obama was paid a basic salary of $400,000 per year, plus a $150,000 expense account, a tax-free travel account of $100,000, and an entertainment budget of $20,000.

Income from Book Sales

Obama’s salaries from his various elected positions are quite substantial but it is the money from the sales of his books that contributed more to his net worth. His first book “Dreams of my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance” written in 1995 increased in sales after he gained popularity in 2004 for his speech at the DNC. It saw his income rise from $200,000 to almost $2 million in 2005. When the book was republished in 2005, he received an advance of over $800,000 and royalties of over $370,000.

His second book “The Audacity of Hope” (2006) sold millions of copies netting $4.2 million. Obama has also received acclaim for his writings. Time magazine named his first book among the top 100 non-fiction books. The audio version of the first book also won him a Grammy for the best-spoken word album. Barack continues to receive $3.75 for every hardcover copy sold and $1.12 for every paperback sold. He received a total of $258,000 in 2012 and $104,000 in 2013 from book royalties.

Also, President Obama makes negligible amounts of money from stocks, dividends, and bonds. He has assets in 3 financial funds, each worth between $50,000 and $400,000. He is also under a mouthwatering paid speech delivery contract with Crown Publishing.

Meet the Biological Parents of the Former President

Barack Obama comes from quite an extended family made of people from Kenyan and English ancestry. He is not the only child of his mother, Ann Dunham. Just as he is not the only child of his father, Barack Obama Sr. The former president has half-sisters and half-brothers from both his father and mother, including stepmothers and a stepfather.

His biological father was married to four women in his lifetime, including Barack Obama’s mother. What this means is that three women (Kezia Aoko, Ruth Baker, and Jael Otieno) can claim they are Obama’s stepmoms. In all, Barack Obama Sr. fathered 8 children; the implication of that is that Obama II has seven half-siblings from his father’s side.

Barack’s mom got married to Lolo Soetoro after her divorce from Barack Obama Sr. With the Indonesian man, she had a daughter named Maya Soetoro-Ng, the only maternal half-sibling of the former president.

Barack Obama Was Mostly Raised By His Mother and Maternal Grandparents

Obama only had few, short encounters with his father, Obama Sr., who later died in a car crash in 1982. He was raised by his mother and spent most of his early life with his maternal grandparents, Stanley Armour Dunham and his wife, Madelyn Dunham.

Ann Dunham, the mother of the 44th President of the United States was quite an accomplished woman before her demise in 1995 after battling ovarian and uterine cancer. She spent most of her adult life in Hawaii and Indonesia; studying, working, and specializing in economic anthropology and rural development.

Obama’s mother earned her Ph.D. degree from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, where she met and married Obama Sr. Ann worked with the United States Agency for International Development, the Ford Foundation, and Women’s World Banking, to promote the use of microcredit in combating global poverty.

To honor her professional achievements, the Ann Dunham Soetoro Endowment in the Anthropology Department of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, and the Ann Dunham Soetoro Graduate Fellowships at the East-West Center (EWC) in Honolulu, Hawaii, were named after her.

The former President has credited his success and character to her. He once said: “The Values she taught me continue to be my touchstone when it comes to how I go about the world of politics.”

Michelle Met Obama in 1989 While Working for Sidley Austin LLP

• Full Name: Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama
• Date of Birth: January 17, 1964
• Duration in Office as FLOTUS: January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2017
• Duration of Marriage: 1992 – Present
• No. of Kids: 2 (Malia Ann and Sasha Obama)

Barack Obama’s immediate family revolves around his wife Michelle and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha. The former First Family was the first of African-American descent the United States has ever had.

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Michelle is admired as much as her husband and the reason for that is not far-fetched. They share the same ideology, are passionate about making the world a better place, and are really cool as a couple.

While she is known as the wife of Barack Obama and the first African-American first lady, Michelle Obama has a lot to brag about careerwise. Beyond being an American lawyer, she is a writer and university administrator.

A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, she met Obama during the early days of her legal career. Working for Sidley Austin where Obama was a summer associate, Michelle was appointed to mentor the man who would become her husband in years to come.

Michelle was reluctant to date Barack but after she had lunch with him and attended a community meeting where he impressed her with his speech, they became lovers. Barack and Michelle got engaged at a fancy restaurant in 1991 and became life partners the following year. The couple has two daughters who were named among the Most Influential Teens of 2014 by Time Magazine.

Malia Obama

• Full Name: Malia Ann Obama
• Date of Birth: July 4, 1998

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The first child of the former president and his wife, Malia was born in Chicago, Illinois. She schooled at Sidwell Friends School before moving on to Harvard University. She has made a few public appearances alone but has largely evaded getting the attention of the public.

Sasha Obama

• Full Name: Natasha Obama
• Date of Birth: June 10, 2001

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Also born in Chicago, Illinois, Sasha attended The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a private, coeducational day school affiliated with the University of Chicago before she transferred to Sidwell Friends School after her father became president. It remains to be seen if she would school at Harvard like her parents and sibling.