How JD Vance Made All His Money

Republican JD Vance has come a long way from his modest and oftentimes turbulent upbringing. According to CBS News, Vance has an estimated net worth between $4.8 million and $11.3 million. His massive fortune was earned through a combination of savvy business decisions, powerful connections, and his political career, which found considerable momentum in the 2020s.

Vance started seeing the beginnings of his multi-million dollar earnings when he started working with Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel. USA Today reported that Thiel gave a speech to Vance and his fellow students at Yale University in 2011. "I had no idea what to expect at the time," Vance wrote about his and Thiel's initial meeting. The mogul's lecture not only inspired Vance to find a new purpose but also started their business relationship. Thiel kicked off Vance's lucrative career as a venture capitalist by hiring him for his Mithril Capital firm. Although Vance didn't stay with Mithril for long, his bond with Thiel was permanent and invaluable. Thiel helped Vance win his seat in the U.S. Senate in 2022 by donating $15 million to the Political Action Committee Protect Ohio Values, which allowed the organization to spread more awareness of Vance and his policies. With Vance now securing the vice presidency, it seems Thiel's contributions paid off significantly in the long run.

Additionally, the success of Vance's hit 2016 memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," also significantly added to his fortune. Yahoo Finance asserted that Vance earned $475,380 in royalties alone in 2022 after the book's success. A lot of his net worth is also tied to his many assets. The publication noted that he owns an investment account, Charles Schwab, that could be worth anywhere between $2.6 million and $7.7 million. He also owns between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of bitcoin. His dealings in real estate, his own venture capital firm Narya, and his other accounts help Vance earn hundreds of thousands of dollars individually.

JD Vance's motivation for making his millions could be summed up in one word: stability. In his interview with The New York Times, Vance noted that his childhood was full of uncertainties thanks to a lack of financial resources. He had to move around often, which created insecurities when comparing his own life at the time with other kids his age. Vance didn't want his own family to live through similar conditions. "I mean, look, I wanted to make money — I'm not saying I'm anti-making money," Vance said. However, money was just a means to provide his wife Usha, who he met in college, and his family, the kind of financial security he was sorely missing in his childhood. "And I wanted to raise our kids in stability," he added.

Thanks to his earnings, Vance managed to meet and perhaps exceed even his own previous expectations. But his fight against poverty hasn't ended. Helping working-class Americans has been one of the main and recurring talking points in his political campaign for the vice presidency. In fact, it's been an important topic for Vance years before he ran alongside Donald Trump. In an interview with Philanthropy Roundtable, Vance believed there are some areas in the country where the economic climate made it even harder for young Americans to rise out of poverty. "There are a number of factors that make it hard for poor kids to do especially well. The one that gets talked about the most is the decline of regional blue-collar economies. Coal-mining jobs have been shuttered. Manufacturing jobs in steel, paper, and other fields have disappeared or moved overseas," he said, speaking from experience.

It seems through politics, Vance believes he can help create the same stability for working-class citizens that he did for his family.