My safety net? It’s a pension
He’s an expert on risk but stuntman Nicholas Daines is safe with money
Q What did your parents teach you about money? A TO SAVE and not get into debt. It was always drummed into me how much things cost and how important money was. My father was a commercial pilot and my mother was a stay-at-home mum. There were four of us kids and although we always had what we needed, we did not get everything we wanted. Money was tightly controlled. There was not a lot of it to spare. Q How much pocket money did you get as a child? A THREE pounds a week, from the age of nine until I could get a paper round. My parents were keen I worked for any money. I was also acutely aware my gymnastics training was costing them a lot so I wanted to earn my own spending money as soon as I could.
For about three years, from the age of 11, I got up ridiculously early and did at least one four-mile paper round every morning. Because I am small, sometimes on a Sunday I would actually fall off my bike with the weight of the papers.
Then after school, I would do gymnastics training for three-anda-half hours every day. I would get home at 8.30pm or 9pm and be up again at 6am for the paper round. It taught me to be disciplined. Q Have you ever struggled to make ends meet? A YES, when I took myself off to Hollywood when I was 21. I had always dreamt of being in the movies so I went there without much money, not realising how expensive it would be. I ended up homeless. I did not sleep on the streets – I would stay in hostels or sleep on friends’ couches. I did that for five months. It was a tough period.
I used to survive on Doritos, which cost 69 cents. That was the cheapest food I could buy and two bags of those would fill me up. Well, not really. I was always hungry.
Then I got lucky. A friend of a friend offered me the empty basement of his property to live in for free while it was being renovated. It was a wreck, full of rat traps.
Sometimes there would be this strange, horrendous smell where I was sleeping. Then I would wake up and find a dead rat. But at least my housing crisis had come to an end. All I cared about was that I was in Hollywood with an agent, going to auditions. It was exciting. Q Have you ever been paid silly money for a job? A YES. I have done lots of commercials over the years. If you add up all the fees and royalties I get paid, it is crazy money. It is not unusual for me to earn £3,000 an hour. The one that really stands out is a Burger King commercial. I got paid £20,000 for running across some desks and diving through a plateglass window with a burger. The idea was the burger was so cheap it was a steal. Admittedly, it was a dangerous stunt. If you do not detonate the glass with explosives at just the right time as you jump through it, you will just smash into the window. Luckily it all went well and I only had to do it twice. Q What is the most expensive thing you have bought just for fun? A A £6,000 trip to the Galapagos Islands and the Amazon in 2005. I stayed in a five-star luxury resort in the middle of the jungle in Ecuador for a week. Normally, I rough it in the jungle so it was a real treat for me. Q What is the biggest money mistake you’ve ever made? A NOT buying a ten-bedroom property in Cape Town in 2000 for the equivalent of £95,000.
Every bedroom had either a mountain or a sea view. It was a nobrainer but the rand was so volatile at the time I decided not to go ahead.
Today, that place is probably worth £1.7million. Q What has been your best money decision? A BUYING my two-bedroom home on the Welsh Harp reservoir in North London. I love living there. It is private, I have a roof deck with a Jacuzzi where I will sit and watch the sunset, overlooking the water. I bought it off plan four years ago for about £300,000. Judging by how prices have gone up since then, it could well have more than doubled in value.
I knew it was going to be a good investment. It was offered on one of those ‘first come, first served’ sales from Barratt, so the night before the sale I put my sleeping bag on the pavement and slept outside the gate to get it. That is how much I wanted it. I was the first one there. Recently, I bought a onebedroom property in the same development as a long-term buy-tolet investment. Q Do you save into a pension or invest in the stock market? A I STARTED saving into a pension when I was 28 because my dad kept nagging me to do it. I invest a small percentage of my income every month into a low-risk balanced fund. I am too busy to invest in stocks and shares outside of my pension. I sometimes think about getting into it, but right now, I do not have the time.
Q What is your one little luxury you like to treat yourself to? A MY WORK is physically demanding so I will have
a £60 massage once every fortnight.
I also love South African red wine and will often treat myself to a £20 bottle of wine from the Meerlust Estate and drink it sitting in my Jacuzzi. Q If you were Chancellor of the Exchequer, what is the first thing you would do? A I WOULD double the money we currently put into education and the National Health Service.
I think educating the next generation and investing in doctors are the most valuable things we can do as a society. Q Do you think it is important to give to charity? A YES, everyone can do their bit. I am an ambassador for conservation charity Orangutan Appeal and getting involved with it has been the best thing I have ever done.
I drop everything when they call and help in any way I can. I recently helped release two rehabilitated orangutans back into the wild. I am about to go to Borneo again to support the charity.
I donate at least a month of my time every six months. It is rewarding. Q What is your number one financial priority? A TO BUILD up my savings for when I retire. What I do in my work is dangerous. Knowing I have got a pension and some property gives me peace of mind.