Bankrate: Were you prepared to handle sudden wealth?

Baldacci: You know, over the years as a lawyer, you meet a lot of financial people, too, and I was lucky to meet a couple good ones that I trusted and had actually done legal work for. My philosophy was, at that point in our lives and our ages, we could be a little bit more aggressive as far as the split of equity and bonds, but I've always felt that a diversified portfolio was the best and let professional money managers do what they do. We had a couple that we liked a lot personally and we gave money to them and they've done a great job with it. These days, I would never have to write another book; I could live very, very comfortably just off of the portfolio. But I love writing; that's what I do.

Bankrate: Are you hands-on with your money?

Baldacci: Part of what I do every day is manage this little mini-empire that I have, with money coming in every day from 41 different publishers. I have an office and a staff and we have voluminous files on everything from royalty statements to publishing contracts to film and TV deals to correspondence and fan mail. I have a staff that handles that, but when royalty statements come in, I go over them with my agent, and when contracts are negotiated, I am very much involved with that because, as a lawyer, that's what I did. I tend to manage things pretty tightly, but I have gotten better over the years about delegating.

Bankrate: Your initial success has only grown over the years. Has your investment strategy changed with the additional zeros?

Baldacci: Yeah, the last piece that we've added to it over the years has been alternative investments outside of the ordinary -- investing in nonpublic companies, startups that look really promising in certain fields. We don't do a whole lot of that, probably never more than 10 percent. We've put money into some real estate, which has appreciated quite a bit because we got in at a really good time.

Bankrate: Were you in real estate investment trusts?

Baldacci: We were in REITs a while back and got out before that went to hell. We were in hedge funds for a while and got out before that went to hell. Which was nice; our money guys were really able to respond to those trends. They really are good about seeing an overall economic picture. It's the old adage: When everybody wants to buy, it's the perfect time to sell, and vice versa. We look long-term, and it's not like we try to time the market, because that's stupid. We try to get good investments and a balance between income-producing bonds, large and small cap and stocks that are growth and value. A good mix of companies they think will do well.

Bankrate: Have you picked any favorite companies in which to invest?

Baldacci: I have a couple of those. One of those I got from friends who told me about alternative energy sources that have the potential to change the world. Another one offers financial opportunity for people who are immigrants to this country that don't have access to formal banking. It allows them, through a credit-card-like instrument, to have their salaries download right on to it, to send money home without going to Western Union and paying 10 percent for the privilege of sending money home. It's targeting and providing service to an audience that has been underserved but needs these services desperately. I like businesses like that.