“I have a daily limit on my credit card and if I’m really in trouble, I borrow from my mum”

QKate, how would you define inflation?

Inflation is an idea created by governments to keep the people down (laughs).

Any advice on cashflow?

First of all, essential to all business is reserves. You’ve got to have reserves or someone who is in charge of that and takes money away from you without you seeing it. Whether it’s your bank, your accountant, your wife, your husband, you need to have someone who’s looking into the future and has a sum set aside that goes into the things that keep our lives secure.

Share an unconventional money wisdom you swear by.

Love and live in the property that you invest in and make it into something that is exceptional to you and people will see the value of it. I’ve had two houses now and people would come in off the street – and they were just modest homes – and just give me an indecent proposal for it.

How do you budget your own money?

The thing I do that is uncommon is that I give myself a teeny-tiny wage each week, like literally a couple of hundred bucks in my savings account. And then I have a daily limit on my credit card (laughs) and if I’m really in trouble I borrow from my mum.

So, you also use the bank of mum-and-dad?

It keeps me feeling young and a little bit silly, but in truth it keeps me safe. I see so many young women today and they don’t control their spending. They don’t control their credit and they think someone, somewhere, somehow is going to take care of that. But

Listen to our interview with Kate Ceberano on our Friends With Money podcast out this month. To catch her live on her Sweet Inspiration Tour 2022, head to kateceberano.com for tickets and more information. independence and responsibility come with self-discipline and you can only really be a better you if you are checking on those things.

I feel like I’m talking to Kate, the businesswoman, not Kate the artist. Let’s talk tax deductions.

It’s interesting that you say that because in all of my career, I’ve never been able to get tax deductions for my costumes. We spend thousands of dollars every year on musical instruments, we spend thousands of dollars every year on personnel and on wages, and I cannot make my clothing tax deductible and it’s just like, “This is insane!”

How did the lockdown affect you as an artist?

When I knew that Covid-19 was going to continue [after a year of lockdown], I lost all heart to sing and I didn’t want to sing anymore, so I started painting.

How did your fans react?

The network of fans was so remarkable that they all joined together and converted their love and support for our concerts and live concerts into the art and they started purchasing pieces of their own and collecting these objects I created called “My Unsung Songs”.

But music is your bread and butter.

My business has been self-perpetuating because I know it’s the one thing I can do strongly. I don’t try to go outside the lines. I didn’t intend to re-invent myself with art. That happened accidentally. My prime currency, if you will, is song.

But Covid means you have to rein in your business expenses.

If you want to deliver quality, you have to always deliver more than what people expect. It’s the standard rule of business. We’ve played to small golf clubs in Mansfield (in Victoria) to the Byron Bay festivals to 5000 people out in Broken Hill in the desert … it’s the Bonfire of the Vanities, darling, you just have to say “you are who you are” and you can be put in any configuration and you’d still be you.

One last thing, money makes …

Your dreams a lot easier to realise.