Nikki Haley Lives An Incredibly Lavish Life

Presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has been making strides in closing the gap between herself and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, particularly in New Hampshire. She's running against some big-monied candidates — Trump is frequently on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest people in America with assets worth upwards of $2 billion during his third presidential run, and Vivek Ramaswamy, who Haley has a deep rivalry with, has made hundreds of millions of dollars in biotech and pharmaceutical investments. While Haley doesn't have that kind of cash, she's still doing pretty well for herself. Haley is worth around $8 million, according to Forbes. 

But Haley hasn't always been a millionaire. When she was U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during Donald Trump's presidency, she was worth decidedly less than that. After leaving that office in 2018, she was estimated to have had below $1 million in net worth, as reported by Forbes. How did she get from under $1 million to $8 million? Upon leaving political office, she joined a number of corporate boards, including at Boeing, which earned her over $250,000 a year, and at Great Southern Homes, a home building company that became United Homes Group in 2018. She also owns stock in the company, worth between a quarter and half a million dollars.

Clearly, Haley's investment and employment moves are really starting to pay off, and the lavish life that she now lives is a reflection of that. How have things changed for Haley since she joined her contemporaries in that top 1%?

Along with her private sector work, Nikki Haley has made a lot in speaker fees. After Haley announced she was running for president, she filed a financial disclosure firm which revealed that she made from $100,000 up to $1 million per event. Not bad work if you can get it! She also got paid $700,000 annually as an adviser for a venture fund. But that wasn't all. Haley wrote two books after leaving the Trump administration — "With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace" and "If You Want Something Done: Leadership Lessons from Bold Women," the latter of which made her over $350,000.

Whether or not Haley gets to move into the White House after the 2024 election, she currently has a pretty nice house in her home state of South Carolina that befits her multi-millionaire status. She bought a four-bed, six-bath mansion on Kiawah Island, South Carolina in 2019 for $2.4 million. The Mediterranean-style house has a living room with a fireplace and picture windows overlooking the river, and a large primary bedroom with a balcony, according to Realtor.com. It's set on a half-acre of land and it's got a pool and an outdoor kitchen — pretty impressive!

Nikki Haley's sprawling mansion on Kiawah Island is nearly 6,000 square feet, but that's not even half as large as the South Carolina governor's mansion where she spent two terms — it's 16,300 square feet on nine acres, though admittedly, some of the house includes public rooms open for tours.

Haley is in good company with her home on Kiawah Island. It's a private community off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, and if the rumors are true, it's been home to a number of celebrities, including Reese Witherspoon and Richard Gere. It's been a vacation destination for a number of additional famous names in the world of politics, including Bill Clinton, President Biden, and Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. The island is also where her daughter got married — the Kiawah Island Golf Resort in 2023 where, according to Wedding Wire, the starting price for a wedding is $20,000.

While Haley would have to give up her seemingly lucrative board seats if she became president, she'd still be pulling in a good paycheck. The president is currently paid $400,000 per year. And, regardless of her current or future political status, her lifestyle shows no signs of downgrading anytime soon.