Putin On The Ritz

The president of Russia doesn't care about money. He simply collects emotions. Andrew Leci provides some investment advice after due consultation with Vlad the Consultant.

- Andrew Leci

Vladimir Putin is a shining example of the prudent saver.

According to my sources, which are relatively unreliable, his ‘take home’ pay from his job as president of Russia is around US$140,000 per annum. It’s a decent wage for quite a high-profile job with a fair amount of pressure, but it’s not stratospheric.

He also has some assets, but even they are unremarkable; three cars (marques not specified); an 800 sq ft apartment in St Petersburg; and a trailer (presumably for family holidays).

It’s all relatively modest, so we have to admire the man for being able to put enough money aside (on a regular basis one has to assume - in a low-risk fund of some description) to be able to afford the timepieces he is seen to be wearing when dispensing his worldview and wisdom on the international stage. One-piece that he occasionally sports, I gather, is an A Lange & Söhne Tourbograph, which the above-average person would be hard-pressed to acquire for less than US$500,000.

Assuming that Putin, as the consummate saver with a frugal disposition, sets aside a positively thrifty 50 percent of his salary each year for the purchase of a highly desirable luxury item – he doesn’t have to pay rent and there’s almost certainly a vending machine in the Kremlin that dispenses reasonably priced borscht – it would only have taken him seven years to get his watch.

This is the kind of financial planning to which we should all aspire. To get what you want, you have to make sacrifices, and it’s clear that Putin knows how to tighten his belt when there’s something that he craves.