Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a $500 million man when he entered office, said he’s about to discover how much of his fortune remains after two years of financial market turmoil.

“I’ve got to find out where my money has been invested,” Paulson, 62, said today after a speech, drawing laughter from the Washington Economic Club.

The former chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. sold his 3.23 million shares of the investment firm before he was sworn in as Treasury secretary in July 2006. As a government worker, he’s bound by ethics rules that require him to put his wealth in a blind trust and in assets that don’t present conflicts of interest.

“You know the old joke about how you make a small fortune? And that is, give a large fortune to a person in a blind trust,” he said today. “I haven’t even thought about how I’m going to be investing my money.”

According to disclosure filings he signed in May 2008 that list his financial assets in ranges, more than $50 million of Paulson’s money was in the HMP Qualified Blind Trust.

Between $25 million and $50 million was in institutional shares of the Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund. The fund last year returned 2.8 percent, down from 5.1 percent in 2007.

Another $1 million to $5 million of Paulson’s money was in the Vanguard STAR Fund, which lost 25 percent in 2008 after a 6.6 percent gain a year earlier.

Goldman Shares

Before taking the Treasury job, Paulson sold his Goldman Sachs shares and wasn’t required to pay capital gains taxes, according to a June 2006 divestiture notice about a stake that was valued at the time at about $485 million. If he had held onto them, his shares of Goldman today would be worth $278 million.

He also had a $5 million to $25 million interest in Little St. Simons Island, a 10,000-acre nature preserve accessible only by boat off the coast of Georgia. Paulson, the former chairman of the Nature Conservancy, has said his next endeavor will include work with the environment.

“I’m not contemplating a line of work in government and I’m not contemplating a line of work that’s commercial,” he said when asked about his future. “I’m going to look for other areas of engagement.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Rebecca Christie in Washington at Rchristie4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 7, 2009 15:18 EST