Nikki Haley And Her Husband Used To Have Major Money Problems
After deciding to run for U.S. president in 2024, Nikki Haley became the woman everyone wanted to know everything about, and thanks to the rules of ethics for government employees, we know quite a few things, especially where her wallet is concerned. By the time Haley backed out of the presidential race in March 2024, the public had already learned about her finances on two separate occasions.
Haley started her political career in 2004 when she was elected to the House of Representatives for South Carolina. In 2010, she became the governor of the state, making history along the way. She was reelected for a second term in 2014 but resigned two years later when she was offered the role of ambassador, serving as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Haley was selected for the position by then President-Elect Donald Trump and his administration, and received approval from the U.S. Senate, which required her to file a public financial disclosure report for the Office of Government Ethics.
All of the politico's income and debt was recorded in detail and released to the masses. That's how we know that Haley and her husband had some serious money problems by the time she left her ambassadorship in 2018, including loans worth over $1 million.
The couple took on too much debt without enough income to pay it off
In her January 2018 official Public Financial Disclosure Report, Nikki Haley revealed her debt heavily outweighed her income, and that she and her husband, Michael Healey, were in need of a cash infusion. The report stated the Haleys had over $1.25 million in mortgage loans and carried credit card balances as high as $65,000. Husband Michael was reported to have an income of less than $100,000, and Haley herself pulled in under $200,000 as ambassador — not nearly enough to cover their debts.
On top of that, Haley's parents, the Randhawas, were also experiencing money troubles, and Haley wanted to help. At one point, she and her husband gave her parents a loan of $400,000, with the Randhawas putting up their lake house as collateral. In another bail-out, the Haleys bought property from the Randhawas, a strip mall her parents could no longer afford, exchanging $5 for a million-dollar debt that accompanied the portfolio.
In 2017, that $400K loan would come back to bite Haley, when her parents defaulted on the lake house mortgage. In an effort to serve papers for foreclosure, the bank showed up at the United Nations. The Haleys eventually wrote off the loan as a loss, and the Randhawas lost the house months later. While Haley's camp said leaving her position as ambassador in 2018 had nothing to do with her finances, it only took a year in the private sector for the South Carolinian to refill her coffers.
Haley pumped up her income, mostly by talking
After resigning as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley spent 2019 giving her finances a much-needed boost. She joined the Board of Directors for Boeing, and earned over $250,000. She hired out as a speaker for special events, with CNBC reporting her asking rate was $200,000 per engagement. She published the book "With All Due Respect" in 2019, a "New York Times" bestseller.
When she threw her hat in the presidential election ring, Haley was once again required to release a report on her personal finances. Completed in May 2023, it revealed that not only did her money problems disappear, she's earned enough cash to keep her going for some time. The financial statement listed 14 different speaking gigs she was hired for between March 2022 and January 2023, for which she was paid at least $100,000, and as much as $1 million dollars for each.
As a consultant, she's earned up to $1 million dollars, and her book royalties for "With All Due Respect," as well as two others, have earned her at least six figures. In addition, the company owned by both she and her husband Michael, Little Engine Inc., is valued up to $5 million dollars, with the two of them drawing up to a $1 million annual salary. True, she won't be able to call herself President of the United States in 2025, but Nikki Haley will be leading a lavish life without the presidential seal.