George Washington
Though at one time George Washington was considered the richest man to have ever held the office of president, he’d had a brush with financial trouble in his earlier years.
Washington went broke in the 1760s when his tobacco farm failed. The debt lingered for years, and the Revolutionary War took a toll on his finances, too. His funds were so scant that he had to borrow money to make the trip to New York for his inauguration.
But the Father of Our Country felt so confident about his financial position that he initially refused his presidential salary of $25,000, a substantial amount of money at that time.
