Education Secretary Betsy DeVos's extravagant multi-billion dollar lifestyle comes with a yacht scheduler, a gift buyer and a toy repairer, according to a new report detailing her family's astounding fortune.
DeVos disclosed her family's wealth and all its trimmings, including $580 million in assets, when she stepped into the role of education secretary in February, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal dug into her family's office to reveal the many assistants they hire on, from a household administrative assistant to a personal assistant to take care of all their Christmas season needs from suggesting gift ideas, buying gifts and wrapping presents.
And if the Christmas toys get broken, they have a property manager who takes care of that along with other duties like ensuring that "doors are well-oiled to avoid squeaking." With all holiday season quickly approaching, the DeVos clan has assistants to help with travel, too.
The DeVos's household assistant helps the teens pick out "clothing and personal items to pack for travel" and another assistant helps schedule trips on their 10 boats, including a 164-foot boat named the "Seaquest." An associate captain oversees the scheduling of their yacht trips and a boat maintenance assistant coordinates their meals aboard while also following "proper table etiquette, service and entertaining protocol."
When they're not on the water, they can use their four airplanes and two helicopters to travel in style. DeVos even travels via private plane for her government travel.
Aside from traveling, the DeVos family likes to spend money on entertainment. The couple invested in the Orlando Magic basketball team, distilleries, a hard cider company and a brain performance company, Neurocore, which was recently being investigated by the Better Business Bureau for its claims that it could improve illnesses like depression and anxiety by retraining the brain.
DeVos was born wealthy and the education secretary married wealthy. DeVos's father owned Prince Corp, an auto-parts company, and her husband's father co-founded billion dollar marketing firm, Amway Corp, while her brother, Erik Prince, founded the billion-dollar government security company, Blackwater USA.
DeVos and her husband have a net worth estimated at $5.1 billion. The Education secretary, who is part of one of the wealthiest presidential cabinets in modern U.S. history, has been heavily scrutinized as the billionaire without any education-related experience. She has used her wealth to contribute to education by donating millions to charter schools over the years.
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