PLACE IN THE SUN STAR’S MONEY
TV presenter Jasmine Harman travels the world helping others buy holiday homes, but she has one regret...
Q What did your parents teach you about money? A NOT to be too frivolous with it. When I was growing up, we did not have money. I had to work and save up for things or I just could not have them. It made me careful with money and frugal. It also made me ambitious. I realised from an early age that having money makes life easier.
My dad was a musician, a drummer in a band. My mum had four children and worked as a childminder and carer for disabled and elderly people. Both were hardworking but did not earn lots of money. I had to have vouchers to buy new school clothes and shoes each year. Money was a worry. Q What was the first paid work you ever did? A WHEN I was 14, I worked after school in a pizza delivery place three days a week. I answered the phone and placed the orders for £2 an hour.
I loved earning money of my own and every night I got a free pizza to take home. As a 14-year-old, it was one of the best jobs you could get. Q Have you ever struggled to make ends meet? A YES, a couple of times. The worst was when I was 28. I was temping in London while trying to break into television as a presenter. I had spent all my savings making a show-reel and I had a lot of credit card debt, so I gave myself a daily allowance of £1 for my lunch. All I could afford to eat was egg and cress sandwiches. Q Have you ever been paid silly money for a job? A NO. Sometimes I have done corporate jobs where I have been paid £5,000 for a morning’s work, presenting or hosting a talk. But I would not call that silly money compared to what some TV presenters get paid. Q What was the best year of your life in terms of money you made? A PROBABLY 2008. It was a year when I recorded 55 episodes of A Place In The Sun. Bear in mind it usually takes us about a week to film each episode. We had to cram the schedule so much that over the year, I was only at home for two weeks. The rest of the time I was working on location.
I made a lot of money – probably £100,000. It was definitely the best year of my life financially but the worst in every other way. I had no work-life balance. The only people I saw were people I worked with – luckily my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, was one of them because he is a cameraman on the show.
At the end of the year, my grandmother passed away and I had not seen her. It made me realise money is not everything. Being with family is what is important. Q What is the most expensive thing you have ever bought yourself for fun? A ON my 40th birthday party. I hired a venue in Central London and put some money behind the bar for drinks. All in, it cost £4,000 but because I was heavily pregnant with my son, I only had one cocktail.
I spent most of the time wishing I was in bed while everyone else enjoyed themselves. But I do not regret spending the money. Q What is the biggest money mistake you have ever made? A NOT buying a holiday home sooner. I go all around the world to help people buy properties but until I had kids, I had not felt the need to have a holiday home.
Now I have two small children and my husband and I lead such busy lives, I realise the value of it. I wish we had a home on the Algarve in Portugal with a swimming pool and close to a beach. We should have bought one eight years ago when the exchange rate was better and prices were cheaper. Q What is the best money decision you have made? A BUYING properties. I have bought four properties in and around South London since 2004 as homes to live in. I now let three of them and see them as investments, and we live in the fourth. They have all gone up in value. The three investment properties cost me a combined £550,000 and are now worth £1.5million. I hope they will provide me and my family with future security in an uncertain world. Q Do you save into a pension or invest in the stock market? A I INVEST in the stock market via a self invested personal pension which I started when I was in my early 30s after taking financial advice.
But I do not feel I can rely on my pension to provide an income when I retire. I feel safer with my money invested in bricks and mortar.
I do not have a clue what funds my pension is invested in. The pension company decides. I am not savvy about money – just frugal. Q What is your home like? A IT IS a big five-bedroom house in Surrey that was built in the 1930s and extended in the 1980s. We have just finished doing a lot of work to it.
It is now all open-plan downstairs with a big kitchen and a modern design – with glass doors all along the back. It has an annexe, a lovely
garden and a swimming pool. We bought in 2013 for £575,000, have spent £250,000 on it and I think it is now worth close to £1 million.
Q What is the one little luxury that you treat yourself to? A I CANNOT think of the last time I treated myself. I love a day of pampering at a spa but I probably only manage it once every ten years.
Q If you were Chancellor of the Exchequer, what is the first thing you would do? A I WOULD ensure the National Health Service could provide people with the right treatment, care and education so they could stay healthy.
Many chronic diseases in this country are preventable and result from lifestyle choices. We are so lucky to have an amazing service like the NHS and the funding is not there at the moment.
Q Do you think it is important to give to charity? A YES. I give regularly to the Dogs Trust and the Royal National Institute of Blind People. I am also an ambassador for Veganuary, a campaign that ran last month to encourage people to go vegan.
Q What is your number one financial priority? A TO have enough money not to have to worry about it the way my parents did when I was a child.