Things changed quickly for Chuck Schumer. Two weeks ago, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States was preparing for a book tour to promote his second book, “Antisemitism In America,” which was released on Tuesday. “When things get a little rough, that’s when antisemitism bubbles up,” he told The New York Times on March 10 in an interview about the work.

But his day job derailed his side gig. Schumer, who leads the Democrats in the Senate minority, postponed his book tour after facing outrage from the Democratic base for supporting a Republican spending bill. “The anguish, I appreciate it,” the 74-year-old said on “The View” on March 18, defending his decision by arguing that a government shutdown would only further empower Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. “I wake up at three in the morning sometimes, so worried about the future of the country under these oligarchs. We are fighting them tooth and nail, in every way we can.”

The good news for Schumer: The canceled book tour probably won’t hurt his own bottom line too much. Forbes dug into his financial disclosures and real estate records and estimates that he’s worth about $7 million today. A career politician married to a career civil servant, his fortune is fairly simple. He and his wife, Iris, share a multimillion-dollar condo in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood. Basically everything else is retirement savings: Schumer’s pension and Thrift Savings account, the government’s equivalent of a 401(k), are worth an estimated combined $2.8 million. Iris, meanwhile, has socked away plenty in various retirement accounts over the years as she moved between government positions. Today those accounts, which represent the vast majority of their liquid assets, have between $800,000 and $2.3 million in them according to Schumer’s disclosures, which only require ranges of asset values.

Schumer, a Brooklyn native, was born in 1950. His father, Abe, was a World War II radar pilot who started an exterminator business when he returned; his mother, Selma, was a housewife. Schumer graduated high school as valedictorian and went to Harvard University for undergrad, then Harvard Law School for his J.D., finishing his degree in 1974 and winning a New York state assembly seat that same year at age 23. He passed the bar in 1975, but never practiced law.

In September 1980, Schumer married Iris Weinshall. Less than two months later, he won a seat in Congress. Back then, members of the House were paid $60,662—over $220,000 in today’s dollars, which is more than actual modern congressional salaries of $174,000. It was enough, in 1982, to buy the Park Slope condo he and Iris still live in today. They stretched their finances and paid $157,000 for it, Schumer told The New Yorker in 2010. The property paid off massively as an investment—Forbes estimates that it’s worth $3 million today. Their mortgage, most recently refinanced in 2017, has between $100,000 and $250,000 on it, according to his most recent disclosures.

Schumer spent nine terms in the House, then ran for one of New York’s Senate seats in 1998, winning a safe blue seat that set him up for life. Two years later, his wife, who had served in various administrative roles in New York for years, was tapped by Mayor Rudy Giuliani to lead the city’s Department of Transportation.

Chuck’s career ascended, and he took on more prominent roles in Democratic leadership. In 2007, while running the party’s Senate campaign arm, he published a book called “Positively American” pitching a middle class-oriented economic agenda that sold okay—9,200 copies in print, per data from Circana Bookscan, an industry data service. Iris’s career was progressing as well, and that same year, she became the City University of New York’s vice chancellor for facilities, planning, construction and management. Based on the Schumers’ tax returns (which he began releasing in 2012 during a controversy over then-GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s taxes), her higher education job paid over $200,000 a year. In 2014, she became the New York Public Library’s COO, where she now hauls in upwards of $450,000 annually.

Schumer became Senate minority leader in 2017, just as Donald Trump entered office and longtime Democratic stalwart Harry Reid of Nevada retired. That came with a rare pay boost, to $193,400—Congressional salaries have been frozen since 2009, but the House Speaker, Senate president pro tempore, and majority and minority leaders in both chambers get slightly higher rates than backbenchers. Under Biden, Democrats controlled the Senate, making Schumer majority leader, but after the 2024 elections, he’s back in the minority, leading a somewhat adrift party trying to find a coherent response to unified Republican control of government. Speculation about a 2028 primary challenge to Schumer, now in his mid-70s and on his fifth term, from progressive firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is bubbling.

Were he to retire soon, he and his wife would be more than comfortable. For starters, after 44 years in Congress, Schumer’s pension will pay out an estimated $9,300 a month. He has actually been in office long enough that he likely could have stayed in Congress’ older, even more generous “CSRS” pension system, which Forbes estimates would have paid out almost $13,000 monthly, but his tax returns reveal that he likely switched to the somewhat less lucrative “FERS” system sometime after Congress reformed federal retirement benefits in 1986.

Switching came with a perk: It also unlocked participation in Thrift Savings Accounts, which includes 5% employer matching funds. Schumer’s tax returns indicate that he has contributed generously in recent years; assuming he switched immediately in 1987, met his match most years and ramped up his savings recently, Forbes projects that his TSP is likely worth $2 million or more. Even at New York prices, that, combined with his wife’s savings, is plenty of nest egg for the power couple to rest easy, with or without a book tour.