Fox News host Maria Bartiromo has disclosed that she achieved her first million dollars by matching her employer's contributions to her retirement fund each year. The financial reporter shared this advice while interviewing Republican Senator Tim Scott about the Trump administration's policies on 401(k) investments on Thursday.
'When I started my career, I put money in my 401(k), and I was advised - my mother told me - match it, 100 percent, whatever your company puts down, match it,' she said. 'That's how I got to my first one million dollars. I'll say it, that's how I got to become a millionaire.'
The Fox Business anchor earns an estimated $10 million annually, according to TV Insider, hosting several programs including Mornings With Maria. Bartiromo, 58, does not hide her wealth. At this year's Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland, she wore a full fur coat and hat combo with pearl earrings, rose-gold glasses, and a satin scarf, a characteristically extravagant outfit.
The MAGA firebrand used her personal experience saving through her 401(k) to commend Trump for his recent pledge to enhance retirement plans. 'This is so important that the president is looking at people and saying, if your company doesn't give you a retirement plan, we will,' Bartiromo stated.
In his State of the Union speech in February, Donald Trump promised to match retirement investments up to $1,000 for those without employer contributions. 'Your 401ks are way up, yet half of all working Americans still do not have access to a retirement plan with matching contributions from an employer,' Trump said during his speech. 'To remedy this gross disparity, I'm announcing that next year my administration will give these often forgotten American workers, great people, the people that built our country, access to the same type of retirement plan offered to every federal worker.'
Trump did not specify which part of the federal budget would fund the proposed matching. The proposal has not yet taken effect. This policy could benefit around 40 million Americans who lack employer-sponsored retirement plans, according to the Economic Innovation Group. The Daily Mail has contacted the White House and the Department of Labor for an update on the proposed policy.
Trump also signed an executive order in August allowing people to use their 401(K) funds for private-market and cryptocurrency investments. Bartiromo has been a staunch Trump supporter since his first presidency and has conducted several unchallenging interviews with him.
Along with Mornings With Maria, Bartiromo presents Maria Bartiromo's Wall Street on Fox Business and Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo on Fox News. Nicknamed the 'Money Honey', the stock market guru started as a producer at CNN before working on-air at CNBC for 20 years from 1993.
In a rare departure from the GOP line, she admitted last year that Trump's aggressive tariffs could have triggered a recession in the US economy. Bartiromo is married to Jonathan Steinberg, CEO of WisdomTree Investments and son of billionaire financier Saul Steinberg. The couple owns two homes: a five-story townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side and a beach house in Westhampton, New York.
