WITHNAIL STAR’S TOP LUXURY
is Christmas pudding every month, says Withnail star Richard E. Grant ‘because they practically give them away in the January sales’
Q What did your parents teach you about money?
A THAT it ‘does not grow on trees’ and ‘neither a borrower nor a lender be’.
Q How much pocket money did you get as a child?
A EXACTLY the same amount as all my friends as our parents collectively agreed on a weekly stipend. When I tried to buy perfume for a girl I had a huge crush on when I was 12 I did not have enough money, so I tried to make the perfume out of rose and gardenia petals boiled in sugar water and stored in jam jars.
Q What was the first paid work you ever did and how old were you?
A I DID ‘Bob a Job’ as a ‘Cub’ in the Boy Scouts, when I was ten years old, picking snails from gardens to earn a ‘bob’.
Q Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
A I WORKED as a waiter in Covent Garden for seven months when I emigrated to London from Swaziland in 1982 and I had to be very parsimonious then.
Q Have you ever been paid silly money for a job?
A I DID a voiceover for a television commercial once that paid ludicrously well.
Q What was the best year of your life, in terms of the money you made?
A IT was 1988, just after the release of Withnail & I. Previously, I had been scraping a living in the theatre, but then I starred in four films in a year – and I made more money than I had ever dreamt possible.
Q What is the most expensive item you have ever bought yourself, just for fun?
A IT has to be Concorde tickets for my family to fly to the Caribbean.
Q What is the biggest money mistake you have ever made?
A I GAVE two friends money when they were in desperate financial circumstances. Sadly, their subsequent ‘resentment’ ended our friendships.
Q What is the best money decision you have made?
A AS I failed all my maths exams at school, I bought property for fear of not understanding anything about the stock market. It’s proved a winning strategy.
Q Do you save into a pension or invest in the stock market?
A NEITHER as the stock market is for gamblers. Having worked in a casino during my university holidays, I never once met a winner.
Q What property do you own?
A A HOUSE in Richmond and a holiday home in the South of France.
Q Do you pay off your credit cards in full?
A I PAY for everything by debit card and only use a credit card to hire a car in the United States.
Q How much cash do you typically carry?
A A TENNER and some change.
Q What is the one little luxury that you like to treat yourself to?
A IT HAS to be Christmas puddings. I have one a month as they practically give them away in the January sales.
Q If you were Chancellor of the Exchequer, what is the first thing you would do?
A I WOULD reduce foreign aid as I believe it props up dictatorships and does not often reach the people it is meant to help.
Q Do you think it is important to give to charity?
A YES – on condition it reaches those people most in need. I am appalled by the full colour brochures and ‘gifts’ often sent by charities, wasting their money instead of using every penny for the actual cause.
Q What is your number one financial priority?
A NEVER to borrow money. I have been self-employed all my life, so I have never borrowed any money for fear of not being able to pay it back. Richard E. Grant was talking to Donna Ferguson.