After graduating from Brown University and Columbia Law School, Yang spent five months as a corporate lawyer (via the Washington Post). After working at two failed start-ups, he founded Manhattan GMAT, a test prep company that was sold to Kaplan in 2009, which is how Yang said he became a millionaire. In one podcast, he suggested the sale had netted him about $11 million, though Forbes wondered what must have happened to that money. He followed that by spending $121,000 to start the nonprofit Venture for America in 2011. 

Yang left Venture for America in 2017. He lives with his wife and two sons in a two bedroom rental in Manhattan, though they own a 2,700-square-foot house upstate in New Paltz that's worth about $500,000. Forbes reported that alongside modest holdings in Lending Club and Google, Yang had between $15,000 to $50,000 in a venture capital fund called Hustle Fund I, LP, which specializes in "hilariously early startups."

All told, Forbes reports Yang's net worth to be $1 million — not exactly chump change, but nothing compared to big hitters like Biden and Steyer.