Barack Obama recalls only having ‘three shirts’ and ‘one plate’ when he met Michelle

‘I knew that that there laid temptation,’ former POTUS says. ‘Like if I went down the path of starting to want stuff… That that was a hamster wheel you never got off’

On the latest episode of his Renegades podcast with Bruce Springsteen, former President Barack Obama recalled having very few possessions to his name when he met his wife, Michelle Obama.

“I had like three shirts,” Obama recalled. “I had one plate. And I lived in these scruffy looking apartments and all of my furniture was, you know, scavenged from out of the street.

“I knew that that there laid temptation,” he continued. “Like if I went down the path of starting to want stuff … That that was a hamster wheel you never got off of.”

The discussion was part of a wider conversation between the two men about the role money plays in America. In contrast, Obama described meeting some of Michelle’s friends, who he joked resembled a preppy, 1980s Richard Gere in American Gigolo.

“Michelle, partly because she was very clear about who she was, loving parents, you know, family, community, she doesn’t feel like she needs to get redeemed,” Obama continued. “She feels like, ‘I just need some money.’

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“When I meet her, she is driving a Saab – and she’s joined a wine club. I remember the first time, you know, she invites me to a party with a bunch of her friends, and they’re all these young professionals ... And I walk in ... I had one sports jacket that didn’t quite fit me right – that I’d gotten off some discount store.”

Despite their different views on money and the role it played in their lives, Obama went on to say that he felt his perspective around finances really helped during his years as a politician.

“Ironically, I do think it was part of my power as a politician,” he said. “People could sense that Michelle and I had lived through and understood what it was like to have a whole bunch of student loans to pay, what it was ... what it was like to have some credit card debt and what it was like to have to say no to things.”