“Nerdection Must Read”
In this review, we delved into the world of US presidential finances by Megan Gorman’s “All the Presidents’ Money.” This non-fiction work takes readers on a riveting journey through the personal financial sagas of American leaders, uncovering their successes, struggles, and the impact of wealth on their legacies.
Spoiler-free Plot
A journey through the personal money stories of the US presidents and how they built wealth—or didn’t.
Was Harry Truman really our poorest president or simply a man up at 2 a.m. struggling with financial anxiety? Did Calvin Coolidge get bad advice from his stockbroker to buy stocks in 1930 as the market continued to crash? Is it true George Washington enhanced his net worth by marrying up?
We often think of the US presidents as being above the fray. But the presidents are just like us—worried about money, trying to keep a budget, and chasing the American financial dream. While some presidents like Herbert Hoover and Gerald Ford became wildly successful with money, others like Thomas Jefferson and Joe Biden struggled to sustain their lifestyle. The ability to win the presidency is no guarantee of financial security, although today it’s a much easier path to monetize.
In All the Presidents’ Money, tax attorney and wealth manager Megan Gorman takes us on a journey to understand the different personal money stories of the presidents. Grit, education, and risk are just some of the different ways that the presidents over the last 250 years have made (or lost) money.
With lively storytelling and rigorous research, All the Presidents’ Money reveals how some of the greatest leaders are the worst money managers and our least favorite presidents are good at making money.
My take on All the Presidents’ Money: How the Men Who Governed America Governed Their Money
The author (Megan Gorman) is a financial specialist, having spent big part of her career in financial planning firms and even having her own. This career path has allowed her to work with many of the most important and wealthy people in the United States, making her an authoritative voice recognized by Forbes—among others. Her professional training was initially as a lawyer, although she also has studies in History, which makes her an appropriate person to discuss the fortunes (or not) of presidents.
The theme and idea behind All the Presidents’ Money is quite interesting and original as it focuses on a side of the history of the United States presidents that is not usually seen, however, at the same time, it is quite difficult to develop in an impartial way due to the increasingly polarized political map of the country, something that the author handles in a fairly acceptable way. At the same time, we are talking about people whose reality, during their period as candidates and then as presidents, takes them to such a high position that at the end of their presidential term, they become practically historical figures.
Although presidents are widely studied, the focus of these studies is not usually on their financial life, and that is why the author delves into an investigation that allows her to get to the beginning of everything, which has allowed her to reach a conclusion that is one of the lessons of the book: Presidents are like us, they are always thinking about money. Despite these difficulties in finding information, Gorman manages to offer a work that contains elements that can be very interesting and attractive to those readers who are interested in History, Economics, Finance, and even Psychology.
All the Presidents’ Money tells us many stories almost in the form of anecdotes to exemplify how presidents thought and behaved in situations not necessarily related to the position of world leader. The structure of the book, in a certain way, classifies the presidents according to their way of handling financial issues, finding that decision-making (correct or not) does not depend on a specific time. All of this allows us to understand a little more about the personality of each of the presidents, which can help us develop greater empathy or not with them. However, the highlight of the book is possibly the relationship that can be established between the ways of being and thinking of these leaders with their respective administrations, helping us to understand the reason for some decisions taken during their mandates, especially in the economic aspect.
The author’s mix of expertise and the particularity of the stories that unfold in the book, mixing the anecdotal with the financial insight, make it a title that can leave some important lessons. such as that a regular and responsible person is not far from some President of the United States, which can lead us to feel better about ourselves, something curious when dealing with a work with a financial focus.
About The Author Of All the Presidents’ Money: How the Men Who Governed America Governed Their Money
Megan Gorman is the founder and managing partner of Chequers Financial Management, a female-owned high-net-worth tax and financial planning firm in San Francisco, California. Megan’s clientele ranges from entrepreneurs to corporate executives to inheritors of family wealth. An attorney by training, she is passionate about the problem-solving required to work in the world of complex financial planning. Megan has been named to the Forbes 2022 and 2023 lists of America’s Top Women Wealth Advisors—Best in State.
Megan spent the first twelve years of her career as a Vice President at Ayco, A Goldman Sachs Company. She was also a Vice President at BNY Mellon Wealth Management prior to launching her own firm. She has a BA in History from Bryn Mawr College and a JD from Rutgers School of Law.
She is a senior contributor at Forbes and writes on personal finance and income tax. She is frequently quoted across prominent financial media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, CNBC, and US News.
Megan is currently serving on the Board of Trustees for the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE). She is chairwoman of the Investment Committee for the $200 million endowment.
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