The President's Paycheck

How is it that a man who earns $135,000 a year after taxes can save al most nothing and has, with his wife, only $1,239 in the bank? That question was put to President Ford at last week's press conference, after he had disclosed his financial status.

Ford is paying all or most of the expenses of his four grown children and footing the bill for the education of three of them (Susan, Steve and Mike). Be sides, for each one he buys a $50 Government bond and puts $100 into a mutual fund every month. Press Secretary Ron Nessen had further explanations:

Betty Ford buys her clothes out of the President's pay, and the Fords' person al expenses for food (about $800 a month) and entertainment of private guests (including overtime paid to White House servants) also come out of his $1 1,250-per-month income. The same is true of vacations and insurance, taxes and upkeep on the Fords' 1971 Mus tang, two Jeeps, and residences in Alexandria, Va., Vail, Colo., and Grand Rapids -- all of which add up to an eminently comfortable lifestyle.

So this week, when Ford collects his Government-green monthly checks, marked with his Social Security number (372-28-6832), he may reflect, al most like anybody else, about the difficulties of saving and the pangs of inflation -- fortunately diminishing.

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