Yahoo Finance Video
Why you should pay attention to Harris’s, Trump’s finances
As the election lies just six weeks away, Megan Gorman, tax attorney, wealth manager, and author of “All the Presidents’ Money,” joins Wealth! to discuss each of the candidate’s finances. “So when we look at the candidates that are out there today, what you really have to keep in mind is they’re across a broad spectrum. We look at Tim Walz, right? He’s all about stability. He has a pension, which makes sense… On the other end of the spectrum, you have Donald Trump. Donald Trump is an example of generational wealth transfer. He is generation two. His father was generation one. His children are generation three. His job is to get the money down to generation four, his grandchildren. And so he takes on a lot more risk. And there’s a lot of complexity with his finances,” Gorman tells Yahoo Finance. She adds that JD Vance came from a lower-income background, and that after attending Yale Law, he was able to get into venture capital. Meanwhile, Gorman explains that Vice President Kamala Harris is “all about doing everything conflict-free.” She explains, “She’s a good student, right? Very diversified ETF portfolio, has a great estate plan, she’s clearly merged her assets with her husband. We can tell that from the plan she has in California. So she’s much more slow and steady wealth building.” Gorman believes that candidates’ finances give voters insight into who they are as people: “When you carve into their tax returns, their estate planning, their portfolios, what you start to see is who they really, truly are. And so, look, it’s not everything, but money is very humanizing. And what you realize is some of the candidates either today or over the course of history, have struggled with money, just like all of us have.” She continues, “So when you look into their finances, you get a sense of are they willing to sacrifice themselves and be patriots and their money in order to pursue office? And so you can look at people and say, ‘Look, I’d rather have somebody who’s very into risk and chasing return and so on,’ and that turns you on for who you want to vote for. But a lot of people want sort of clean politicians.” For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth! This post was written by Melanie Riehl