During the two years before his presidential run, Obama cemented his wealth. In 2006 he got $147,490 for Dreams From My Father and $425,000 from Random House for The Audacity of Hope.  In 2007, as his presidential run made him a household name, book sales skyrocketed. He got $815,971 for Dreams and $3.28 million for Audacity.
    With the money from this, he made a number of consequential financial choices. He bought somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million worth of U.S. Treasury Notes. He moved the money from the two Vanguard Wellington Mutual Funds to the Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund which invests based on social, human rights, and environmental criteria.