Sometimes I feel over-rewarded for what I do
...especially compared to my brother who is a firefighter
What did your parents teach you about money?
TO WORK hard for it. There was not a lot of it about when I was young and my parents literally worked round the clock. My mum was a dinner lady and a cleaner while dad worked night shifts as a hydraulic engineer. They did not have a lot of spare cash and only ever bought what they could afford. We never had a car and cycled everywhere. We never went to restaurants. I did not know what Chinese food tasted like until I was 15.
How much pocket money did you get as a child? I NEVER got any. What was the first paid work you ever did?
I GOT a Saturday job in my auntie’s hairdressing salon when I was 12 and I have worked ever since. I also had a paper round and would knock on doors around the neighbourhood with my brother and offer to clean cars.
At 16, I got a part-time job selling double-glazing door to door. That was soul destroying but the worst part-time job I did was at university working on reception in a sexually transmitted disease clinic. Because no one else wanted to do it, they paid £8 an hour.
Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
GOD, yeah. The worst time was when I was 20. I was living in London earning £10,500 as an editorial assistant on a national magazine and I had to pay my rent and travel out of that.
I lived on baked potatoes and beans – I must have eaten my body weight in baked beans. It is amazing I did not end up with scurvy. But I never got into debt because my parents had drummed into me at a young age: if you can’t afford it, you can’t have it.
Have you ever been paid silly money per hour for a job?
YES. It would be vulgar to discuss the details but there are times when I feel over-rewarded for what I do for a living, especially when I compare what I can earn to what my brother earns as a firefighter. Having said that, I have never taken a job because of the money.
The most lucrative work I have done is presenting primetime TV shows. I do not know what other people earn but a six-figure salary is not uncommon. However, the pay is not as ridiculous as some of the phone numbers you read about – at least, not in my case.
Voiceovers for radio commercials can be well paid. You can earn anything from a couple of hundred quid to £2,000 for an hour or less of your time. Sometimes it only takes 20 minutes.
Q What was the best year of your life in terms of money you made?
A SOMETIME around the mid2000s. I was presenting The X Factor and with that came lots of other work – TV presenting jobs, voiceover work and opportunities to host corporate events.
Q What is the most expensive thing you have ever bought yourself just for fun?
A IT IS a freestanding polished nickel bath for my house. It is handmade and was expensive – just under £3,000 – but I managed to get a 20 per cent discount by buying it in the sales. It is beautiful. I love having a bath and I just thought: I’m having it. I sit in it every day and enjoy it. Q What is the biggest money mistake you have ever made? A INVESTING a lot of money in a pension. A few years ago, I got a letter saying you cannot take any money out at 50 any more, you have to wait until you are 55. I think it is outrageous – to lock people’s money away and change the rules on them. So, on point of principle, I stopped putting money into my pension. Any money I saved went into property instead. I now consider the money I put into my pension to have been a mistake. I have enjoyed a higher return from property, I can access it relatively quickly and it provides a vital income. What is the best money decision you have made? INVESTING in property in London. I have got a couple of buy-to-let properties, a two-bedroom converted flat I bought three years ago and the house I used to HEAVEN SCENT: Kate loves candles and her nickel bath live in. They are both in my local neighbourhood. There is a protected bubble around London properties that you may not get in other parts of the country. It seemed silly to pay an agent to manage the properties so I do it myself. Do you invest in the stock market? NO, never. I just do not understand the stock market. It is like reading Russian.
Do you pay off your credit cards in full?
I NEVER use credit cards. I run a cashback website, TBSeen, so I do not bother to try to get cashback through my credit card. My business was born out of my frustration with other cashback schemes. I wanted a more curated service than the other sites offer.
Q What is the one luxury that you like to treat yourself to? A SCENTED candles. I spend hundreds of pounds a year on candles
and it is such a waste of money. It is burning cash whatever way you look at it but I love them. I go for Jo Malone, Jo Loves and True Grace. My house is almost cathedral-esque, there are so many candles dotted around the place. Q Do you think it is important to give to charity? A YES and I do, every month. I do not think anyone should feel pressured into doing it but I am the sucker who will stop on the street and sign up to direct debits. I donate to Cancer Research, British Heart Foundation and the NSPCC, plus I support two young boys in Uganda who I met on a Comic Relief shoot. Q What is your number one financial priority? A SECURITY. Not having to worry about how I am going to meet the bills and not owing anybody anything. I keep my outgoings as low as possible and save as much as I can. I have a fall-back fund for the quiet months. I am a single working parent and it gets lonely when things are insecure. Kate Thornton was talking to Donna Ferguson.