Just looked at some historical data on U.S. presidents' wealth before and after their time in office, and it's pretty wild how different the outcomes were. Thomas Jefferson is a perfect example - dude went from around $3M to basically $200K after his presidency. That's a massive hit.

Some presidents actually came out ahead financially though. Lincoln nearly doubled his wealth despite the Civil War, and Grant managed to stay relatively stable. But then you've got cases like Monroe who dropped from $1M to $50K, and Jefferson's situation where the presidency seemed to drain everything. Guess running the country wasn't always good for the wallet back then.

What's interesting is the pattern - some left office richer, most came out poorer. Makes you wonder what changed between then and now with modern presidents' net worth trajectories.