Since enduring one of the most straining losses in election history, Al Gore has turned the tides, accruing a hefty fortune since his 2000 campaign-one that reportedly rivals fellow past candidate Mitt Romney.
In a recent Bloomberg Businessweek article detailing Gore's public financial transactions, authors Ken Wells and Ari Levy said that since 2001, Gore has made over $198 million, bringing his $1.7 million fortune up to $200 million.
They're calling former Vice President Gore "Romney Rich."
How did Gore make that much money in that amount of time?
According to Wells and Levy, Gore inherited much of his initial fortune from his father, Senator Al Gore Sr.
But what Gore did with the money is truly what allowed him to amass such a savings: he made himself into a front-runner in the environmental sector and invested in many of the right places.
He almost doubled his net worth in January when he sold his portion of the failing television network Current TV to Al Jazeera-that move made him a cool $70 million.
Two weeks later, he sold nearly $30 million in Apple stocks he had purchased years before, when one share was only $7.50; now, the company shares cost about $450 each.
Surprisingly enough, Gore doesn't make that much money on any of his best-selling books, nor his Oscar-winning moving An Inconvenient Truth. But these climate-related issues do contribute to a big chunk of cash in public speaker fees.
Gore charges about $175,000 to make appearances at events.
Additionally, he has done some serious hedge fund investing, which has been successful, financially speaking. He is a partner at one of Silicon Valley's venture capital firms, called Kleiner Perkins and is an advisor to many computer and green technology firms.
This new information is "pretty impressive for a 'farm boy' from Tennessee," writes Yahoo News.
