I knew that the Obama’s became wealthy after he was president. This came as no surprise. Both Barack and Michelle landed lucrative book deals during the presidency and afterward (reportedly $60M +). They also signed a huge deal with Netflix (reportedly $80M?). I’ imagine’m sure they made a bunch of money being paid for speaking engagements following the example set by the Clintons. Add in a lifelong presidential salary, secret service protection, staff salaries, and other benefits/perks and former presidents are set up nicely to live quite a comfortable life.
So when I heard they kept two expensive homes – one in Martha’s Vineyard and another in DC it was not a surprise. When I learned their daughters attended expensive private schools before going to out of state colleges, it was no shocker. They can afford it.
But a news article today did surprise me. The Obama’s personal chef accidentally drowned. According to the article, he was a White House chef during Obama’s presidency. After Obama left office in 2012, they liked him so much, they hired him as their private personal chef. He served them in that capacity for the last 11 years until his unfortunate death this week.
They have a personal chef? On staff? Full time?
Wow.
To me this is unbelievable.
I suppose their are some big social/political/business events hosted by the Obamas where they need caterers, waitstaff and cleaning crews.
But a personal chef for normal daily life?
My financial reality is so different from the wealthy that it never occurred to me to have a personal chef.
I’ll bet there are a lot of other services that the ultra wealthy have that would never cross my mind.