ST. LOUIS • Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has bought a house in University City with an eye on practicing law or going into business after he leaves office in January — though he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a place in a Hillary Clinton White House.

What Nixon has ruled out, he said in an interview Monday, is a run for the U.S. Senate in 2018, or any other elective office in the foreseeable future.

“I’ve kept my (law) license. I don’t have gainful employment yet,” Nixon said in a meeting with the Post-Dispatch editorial board and others at the newspaper.

He would talk only in general terms about his plans. “I don’t want to make any ethical mistakes the last 120 days I’m in office, so I’ll begin making decisions later on about what I’m going to do. Certainly the law is one opportunity, (and) there are business opportunities and whatnot. ... I’m not going to be a lobbyist. I don’t have any plans to run for office.”

However, he added: “If a president of the United States asks you to do something significant for the country, then you consider it.”