Investment: Jenny Powell owns four buy-to-let flats
The best money decision that TV presenter Jenny Powell ever made was buying her own home following her divorce. Despite being a ‘hormonal divorced wreck’ with two young children, she managed to buy a £940,000 house that now, just over a decade later, is worth around £1.5million.
The savvy property investor also owns four buy-to-let flats outright that are providing her with a handy income.
Powell, 52, who rose to fame presenting programmes No Limits, Wheel Of Fortune and Wordplay, spoke to DONNA FERGUSON from her home in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, where she has been busy recording her ‘Hot Mess Mums’ podcasts. The free podcasts, aimed at mums, have proved popular during lockdown.
Has your work been affected by the coronavirus pandemic?
Yes. I normally work for an events company called ‘An Experience With…’ interviewing celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone on stage for 90 minutes. Those were cancelled. I was also booked to host lots of award ceremonies. They are not happening either. I’ve had to recognise that my work affects my state of mind: it gives me a lift and a buzz. I do miss it. But I’ve got my podcast which keeps me sane. We look at what mums are going through during lockdown and have a laugh.
What did your parents teach you about money?
That if you can’t afford to buy something, you shouldn’t. That’s a mantra I still live by. I don’t use credit cards or loans to pay for things. I don’t think money was tight when I was growing up. My father was a hard-working, self-employed builder – a one-man band. My mother was a stationery clerk in a shipping company. We weren’t rich by any means, but we weren’t hard up either. I’d say we were a middle-class family who lived within our means.
Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
Yes. When I was 20, I spent six months on benefits. Until then I had been lucky and got my first job as a TV presenter when I was only 16. For four years, I went from one job to the next – and then everything went quiet.
I had rent to pay and it was hard because I was quite well known on TV at the time. That industry was my whole world, my social life, everything. Then it all disappeared along with my income.
My parents advised me not to feel bad about claiming benefits because that’s what they are there for. I think I had about £250 a month to live on and that helped me to get by. I kept looking for jobs and eventually got one in a pantomime before finding work as a kids’ TV presenter. That put me back in the running again.
Have you ever been paid silly money?
Yes – in the mid-1990s when I did a commercial for Head & Shoulders shampoo. It took three days to shoot and they paid me £60,000. I felt like a movie star. I had to sit in this bubble bath with manufactured bubbles that last longer than real bubbles and then rise up flicking my hair around. It was quite saucy for Head & Shoulders. In the end, it was never used.
A new boss came in and decided to run a different advertising campaign. But they still paid me.
What was the best year of your financial life?
It was 1998. I was doing five episodes a day on the gameshow Wheel Of Fortune, working from three o’clock in the morning until four in the afternoon, but only for six weeks. It was intense but I was getting paid a lot because you get a certain amount per programme.
So that was pretty lucrative and I still had the rest of the year to do other things. I remember flying to the Caribbean and getting paid a daily rate to shoot promotional videos for a holiday company. I was also getting the top billing in pantos and getting well paid. On top of that, I was doing a show for Sky twice a week. I’d rather not say exactly how much I earned that year, but it was a six-figure sum. I’m glad I did all those things when I did because a couple of years later I had my eldest daughter, Connie, and it all changed. Those kinds of schedules are impractical when you have a young child and you are a hands-on mum.
It was worse after Pollyanna was born because I got divorced. Then I was really manic about being there for my children. There were a lot of things I decided I couldn’t do career-wise because I had an eight-year-old and a baby, and I was on my own. At the back of my mind, my priority was always my children.
What is the most expensive thing you bought for fun?
It was a Range Rover Vogue two years ago. It wasn’t brand new, but it still cost £56,000. It was a true indulgence, but it was my treat to myself for working really hard.
The best money decision you have made?
Buying my home. I bought a five-bedroom, semi-detached house in a very good spot in Altrincham for £940,000 in 2008. I think it’s now worth between £1.4million and £1.5million. Twelve years ago, I was a hormonal divorced wreck with an eight-year-old and a baby, and I had to make a decision about where to buy quickly. Considering all that, I chose well.
Do you save into a pension or invest in the stock market?
No. I’m not a great believer in saving into a pension and I think you have to be careful when you invest in the stock market. But funnily enough, because everything’s crashing, I’m considering doing it for the first time. I’m tempted, but every time I want to, I get scared and turn to bricks and mortar.
I own four buy-to-let properties in the North-West which I see as my pension. One is a two-bedroom apartment in the centre of Manchester that I bought off-plan and three are small flats in Burnley, Lancashire. They are mortgage-free so they have provided me with an income during lockdown.
What is the one little luxury you treat yourself to?
Holidays abroad with my youngest daughter. We’ll sneak off to a lovely hotel for five days just as winter begins in October and lie on sunbeds by the pool together or go for walks to the beach. I’ll let her choose the restaurants. It’s bonding with a bit of luxury and typically costs about £3,000 in total.
If you were Chancellor what is the first thing you would do?
Increase funding for schemes that help young people who have been at university during the pandemic.
I have a 19-year-old who has been torn away from university and it is all very vague about what’s going to happen in the next academic year.
Her age group is the future and if we want the economy to grow they have to have good opportunities.
They need reassurance that they should continue their education and that universities have the funding to carry on.
What is your number one financial priority?
Not to get into debt – that’s always been a priority of mine. I also want to make sure I leave enough money to my kids to provide them with a financial springboard in life.
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