How Kamala Harris Manages Her Money: Index Funds and a 2.625% Mortgage

The only dull part of Kamala Harris’s life right now might be her investment portfolio.

The vice president and her husband, Doug Emhoff, are fairly conservative investors, federal disclosure records show. They keep much of their money in plain-vanilla index funds—with a fair amount in cash. As Harris makes her case to run the country, voters can also look at how she manages her finances. The couple earned around a half-million dollars last year, and have assets worth somewhere between $3.6 million and $7.36 million, plus real estate, an analysis by The Wall Street Journal found. Much of their wealth is in retirement accounts, not unlike the average American, financial advisers said. They also have a 2.625% mortgage rate, something most current home shoppers would envy.

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Harris and Emhoff together earned $450,299 in 2023, according to a jointly filed tax return. That consists of the $218,784 Harris reported earning in wages as vice president and $174,994 Emhoff made as a visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Around $6,000 came in from royalties on Harris’s books. They made $50,603 in taxable interest on bank accounts and other investments.

The couple’s income is significantly lower than it was before Harris took office as vice president. Emhoff, who was a partner at the corporate law firm DLA Piper, left the practice in August 2020 before Harris was inaugurated. He made more than $1.2 million in partnership income at DLA Piper in 2020. Harris was also making more from her two books published in 2019. She has profited a total of $749,484 since 2020.

They gave $23,026 in charitable contributions in 2023. Their largest gifts went to two colleges in California and Howard University, and they contributed to six nonprofits and religious organizations.

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The couple’s portfolio, including their retirement and bank accounts, is fairly conservatively allocated, with roughly half in stocks, about one-third in cash and the rest in bonds. They hold a broadly diversified portfolio that includes several low-cost index funds. Harris has one thing many Americans lack: pensions. When she turns 60 in October, she will be eligible for $3,981 a month from a state of California pension plan, although it isn’t clear when she plans to start her benefits. Harris’s disclosure forms calculate the lump-sum value of a second pension, from the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System, at between $250,001 and $500,000.

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