Trump Owns More Than $500k of Apple Stock: How Much Should You Own if You’re Middle Class?

Vance Cariaga

Mon, May 19, 2025, 5:59 AM 3 min read

According to Forbes, President Donald Trump has roughly doubled his net worth to about $5 billion over the past year, helped by a legion of followers who have pushed up the value of his crypto offerings and “money-losing” social media platform.

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With that much wealth, a $500,000-plus stock investment might not seem like a big deal. That’s about how much money Trump has in Apple stock, according to regulatory filings cited by US News.

Apple’s stock price closed at 211.26 on Friday, May 16, meaning that Trump’s $500,000 investment gives him around 2,355 shares.

Based on Trump’s estimated net worth, the Apple stock represents roughly 0.0001% of his overall wealth. If you want to know how much Apple stock you should own on a middle-class income, you probably shouldn’t base it on the holdings of a multi-billionaire U.S. president.

The real median net worth of an American family was $192,900 as of 2022, according to the most recent data from the Federal Reserve. Basing your Apple investment on the Trump net worth percentage means you’d own about $19.29 worth of stock.

A better way to determine how much you should invest in Apple is to base it on your income and investment goals. The typical middle-class income in big U.S. cities ranges from $49,478 to $71,359 a year, SmartAsset reported, citing Pew Research studies. Among the states, you can be considered “middle class” with an annual income as low as $36,132 in parts of Mississippi or as high as $280,000 in northern Virginia.

Using the big-city average of $49,478 to $71,359, a middle-class income in much of the country would likely be around $60,400.

Many financial experts recommend putting 10% to 20% of your income toward investments, according to investment and banking platform Stash — as long as you have established an emergency fund and have your debt under control.

On a $60,000 annual income, this means putting $6,000 to $12,000 a year toward investments. Much if not most of that will likely go toward retirement savings. A lot depends on how you prioritize your investment goals.

But if you want to devote about 15% of your investment allotment to an individual stock, that leaves $900 to $1,800 to invest in Apple on a typical middle-class income. Such an investment would buy about four to eight shares.

Whether Apple is a good investment right now is up for debate. The company’s shares have fallen about 15% year-to-date in 2025 and are down more than 18% from their record high of $260.10 set on December 26, 2024.