How rich is Ohio senator Sherrod Brown; Sherrod Brown’s net worth revealed 2024

With so many of us curious about the financial status of our political representatives, we decided to explore Democrat Sherrod Brown’s net worth, revealing how wealthy the Ohio senator truly is as well as whether he was ever involved in any financial controversy.

Who is Sherrod Brown?

Sherrod Brown is a Democratic senator from Ohio, known for his progressive stances on various issues such as healthcare, labor rights, and trade. Born on November 9, 1952, in Mansfield, Ohio, Brown has served in public office for decades. He started his political career in the Ohio House of Representatives in 1974 and later served as Ohio’s Secretary of State. Since 2007, Brown has represented Ohio in the US Senate, gaining a reputation as a staunch advocate for the working class.

Sherrod Brown’s net worth

Estimates of Sherrod Brown’s net worth vary quite a lot, from $1 million to $8 million. Nevertheless, both these figures place him in the lower to middle range compared to his Senate colleagues. Yet, while not among the wealthiest in Congress, Brown’s financial status is still significantly higher than the average American household.

How did Sherrod Brown make his money?

Sherrod Brown has accumulated his wealth through a combination of his salary as a public servant, book royalties, and investments. Namely, as a US Senator, Brown earns an annual salary of $174,000. But before his time in the Senate, he also drew salaries from his roles in the Ohio House of Representatives and as Ohio’s Secretary of State. Sherrod Brown

Additionally, Brown has authored several books, including “Myths of Free Trade: Why American Trade Policy Has Failed” and “Desk 88: Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America.” Each of these publications has contributed to his income through royalties. Sherrod Brown

Brown’s assets and investments

Back in 2018, Sherrod Brown had assets totaling between $336,012 and $890,000. His assets were in various forms, such as:

• Retirement systems;
• Bank accounts;
• Credit unions.

It’s also worth noting that his wife had a six-figure investment and pension payments, which were not disclosed in past annual finance forms.

Insider trading involvement

There is no evidence or record of Sherrod Brown’s involvement in insider trading. In fact, he has been active in pushing for legislation to ensure fairness in the stock market and prevent insider trading. Brown called for investigations into allegations of insider trading and introduced legislation to ban stock trades and insider trading by Federal Reserve officials.

Sherrod Brown also urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to review and consider reforming policies regarding 10b5-1 plans, which are designed to prevent insider trading.

How much is Sherrod Brown worth?

Although perceived by the American public as a working-class champion, Sherrod Brown’s net worth is far from humble. Namely, estimates suggest that he’s worth $8 million. Of course, although a millionaire on paper, Brown is far from the richest politician in the US Senate. He holds a midrange position, just like the majority of his Senate peers. Sherrod Brown

What Is Investing?

Investing, broadly, is putting money to work for a period of time in some sort of project or undertaking to generate positive returns (i.e., profits that exceed the amount of the initial investment). It is the act of allocating resources, usually capital (i.e., money), with the expectation of generating an income, profit, or gains.

One can invest in many types of endeavors (either directly or indirectly), such as using money to start a business or in assets such as real estate in hopes of generating rental income and/or reselling it later at a higher price.

Investing also differs from speculation, as evidenced by the investor’s timeframe. Speculators are typically looking to gain from short-term price fluctuations that occur in weeks, days, or even minutes. Investors usually consider that a greater period of time, like months or years, is needed to generate acceptable returns.

Understanding Investing

Investing is to grow one’s money over time. The core premise of investing is the expectation of a positive return in the form of income or price appreciation with statistical significance. The spectrum of assets in which one can invest and earn a return is vast. Sherrod Brown

Risk and return go hand-in-hand in investing; low risk generally means low expected returns, while higher returns are usually accompanied by higher risk. At the low-risk end of the spectrum are basic investments such as Certificates of Deposit (CDs); bonds or fixed-income instruments are higher up on the risk scale, while stocks or equities are regarded as riskier.

Commodities and derivatives are generally considered to be among the riskiest investments. One can also invest in something practical, such as land, real estate, or delicate items, such as fine art and antiques.

Risk and return expectations can vary widely within the same asset class. For example, a blue chip that trades on the New York Stock Exchange will have a very different risk-return profile from a micro-cap that trades on a small exchange.

The returns generated by an asset depend on its type. For instance, many stocks pay quarterly dividends, whereas bonds generally pay interest every quarter. In many jurisdictions, different types of income are taxed at different rates.

In addition to regular income, such as a dividend or interest, price appreciation is an important component of return. Total return from an investment can thus be regarded as the sum of income and capital appreciation.

Standard & Poor’s estimates that from 1926 to 2023, dividends have contributed approximately 32% of total return for the S&P 500 while capital gains have contributed 68%. Capital gains are, therefore, an important piece of investing.

Types of Investments

Today, investment is mostly associated with financial instruments that allow individuals or businesses to raise and deploy capital to firms. These firms then rake that capital and use it for growth or profit-generating activities.

While the universe of investments is vast, here are the most common types of investments.

Stocks

A buyer of a company’s stock becomes a fractional owner of that company. Owners of a company’s stock are known as its shareholders. They can participate in its growth and success through appreciation in the stock price and regular dividends paid out of the company’s profits.

Bonds

Bonds are debt obligations of entities, such as governments, municipalities, and corporations. Buying a bond implies that you hold a share of an entity’s debt and are entitled to receive periodic interest payments and the return of the bond’s face value when it matures.

Funds

Funds are pooled instruments managed by investment managers that enable investors to invest in stocks, bonds, preferred shares, commodities, etc. Two of the most common types of funds are mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Mutual funds do not trade on an exchange and are valued at the end of the trading day; ETFs trade on stock exchanges and, like stocks, are valued constantly throughout the trading day. Mutual funds and ETFs can either passively track indices, such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average, or can be actively managed by fund managers.

Investment Trusts

Trusts are another type of pooled investment. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are one of the most popular in this category. REITs invest in commercial or residential properties and pay regular distributions to their investors from the rental income received from these properties. REITs trade on stock exchanges and thus offer their investors the advantage of instant liquidity.

Alternative Investments

“Alternative investments” is a catch-all category that includes hedge funds and private equity. Hedge funds are so-called because they can limit (hedge) their investment risks by going long and short on stocks and other investments.

Private equity enables companies to raise capital without going public. Hedge funds and private equity were typically only available to affluent investors deemed “accredited investors” who met certain income and net worth requirements. However, in recent years, alternative investments have been introduced in fund formats accessible to retail investors.

Options and Other Derivatives

Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from another instrument, such as a stock or index. Options contracts are a popular derivative that gives the buyer the right but not the obligation to buy or sell a security at a fixed price within a specific period. Derivatives usually employ leverage, making them a high-risk, high-reward proposition.

Commodities

Commodities include metals, oil, grain, animal products, financial instruments, and currencies. They can either be traded through commodity futures—agreements to buy or sell a specific quantity of a commodity at a specified price on a particular future date—or ETFs. Commodities can be used for hedging risk or speculative purposes.

Comparing Investing Styles

Let’s compare a couple of the most common investing styles:

• Active vs. passive investing: The goal of active investing is to “beat the index” by actively managing the investment portfolio. Passive investing, on the other hand, advocates a passive approach, such as buying an index fund, in tacit recognition of the fact that it is difficult to beat the market consistently. While there are pros and cons to both approaches, in reality, few fund managers beat their benchmarks consistently enough to justify the higher costs of active management.
• Growth vs. value: Growth investors prefer to invest in companies in their growth stages, which typically have higher valuation ratios than value companies. Value investors look for companies that are undervalued by the market that meet their more strict investing criteria.