My $1m in 1967 only bought me a new car
Q What did your parents teach you about money?
A THAT if you do not have any, life is tough. I was born in 1940 and grew up in the war years in Australia. My mother had to do serious household budgeting.
From a young age, I understood money was a precious commodity and should be spent carefully. Mum worked in the postmaster general’s office and my dad was in the navy. They split up when he came back from the war. He had been kamikazed and bombed and it took its toll on him. He moved away and I only ever saw him three or four times during my childhood.
Q What was the first paid work you ever did?
A PICKING peas as an 11-year-old for a market gardener near home. I earned ten shillings and sixpence for six hours’ work and got sunburned and blistered. I learnt a lot about the amount of effort you have to put in to earn a little – and that you do not always get paid what you think you are worth.
Q Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
A NO. I have been fortunate. I started earning money from my music when I was 16. I have been lucky.
Q Have you ever been paid silly money?
A YES. Recently, an Australian multi-millionaire wanted to put on a special Christmas gig for his mother. We sang ten songs and he paid us a silly amount of money: a six-figure sum. On the night, he said he would have paid absolutely anything to have us there. HITS: athol, top left, with The Seekers in 1964
Q What was the best year of your financial life?
A IT was 1967. That was the year Georgy Girl became a big hit in America. But the problem was that we were living in England and in those days you had to pay a supertax on your income: up to 90 per cent. So it was the best and worst year.
I do not know exactly how much I earned gross, but it certainly would have been over a million dollars, which is the equivalent of earning about £5.6million today. All that was left after the taxman, my agent and everyone else, was enough to buy a really nice car: an Aston Martin DB5. I eventually brought it home to Australia.
Q What is the most expensive thing you have bought for fun?
A IT was a horse to breed racehorses from. I paid £2,500 for her in 1975 – the equivalent of paying £20,000 for a horse today. She was a beautiful black little filly who was only nine months old when I got her. Her name was Ponton River and her stallion was a racehorse called Forlorn River. I brought her out to Australia and she created a dynasty of winners.
Q What is your biggest money mistake?
A NOT holding on to property, in particular a beautiful one I bought in Kyneton, Australia, for A$80,000 in 1974. I spent a lot of money building stables, but I sold it for A$150,000 in 1979. It would be worth A$2 million today.
Q The best money decision you made?
A SAVING for my retirement in a trust that is protected from tax. I have been doing that since I was 50.
Q Do you save into a pension or invest in the stock market?
A I AM no longer saving into a pension and in general I have always felt more comfortable having cash in the bank than in the stock market. Stocks and shares have never excited me and I think you have to study the market to understand it. I am not making much money from my savings because interest rates are so low, but at my age that is less important than knowing I have cash if I need it.
Q Do you own any property?
A YES. I have got a threebedroom family home outside Melbourne. We have been living there for 40 years. I do not have a clue how much it is worth.
Q What is the one luxury you treat yourself to?
A AFTER seeing everyone else enjoy success with the horses I bred, I thought I would hold on to one and see if I could make it pay off for me. I have put one of Ponton River’s progenies to the track and won eight races in the last year alone. I love it. I have had some wonderfully exciting times in my life but there is nothing like seeing the colours of your horse hit the front halfway down the straight. Win, lose or draw, it is enough to make you go quite hysterical.
Q If you were Chancellor, what is the first thing you would do?
A I WOULD make sure that everyone who is a pensioner gets a mandatory five per cent annual return on their money in the bank. The interest rates offered by the banks should be topped up by the government and funded from all the tax pensioners have paid in their lives.
Q What is your number one financial priority?
A RIGHT at the end, not to own anything and not to owe anything.