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<\/p>\nThe rugby legend opens up about whether he is a spender or a saver – and the best financial advice he’s ever received<\/p>\n
09:14, 24 Apr 2026Updated 09:28, 24 Apr 2026<\/p>\n
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Donncha O’Callaghan(Image: Instagram)<\/p>\n
Donncha O’Callaghan considers himself to be saver rather than a spender as he opens up on his financial habits.<\/p>\n
The Ireland rugby<\/a> legend and presenter prefers to plan how he will spend his money, rather than splurge. Donncha told RSVP<\/a> Magazine: “I’d like to think I’m a saver. I will plan the spend, if that makes sense.<\/p>\n “I don’t like to be sporadic with money. When different work projects come in, I like to think of the treat at the end of it. My wife Jenny and I are looking at getting an awning in the back garden.”<\/p>\n The biggest purchase Donncha has ever made is his house, but he admits to spending money “like confetti” when he started out in professional rugby.<\/p>\n “There was a lovely time at the start of my rugby career when I started getting a steady income and I spent the money like it was confetti \u2013 buying all of the latest DVDs, video games, just daft stuff,” he said. “But when you knuckle down to taking out a mortgage, you’re like, oh, I have to be serious and proper with my money now.”<\/p>\n The best financial advice Donncha has ever received was while he was playing rugby. He said: “I got good advice from the former Ireland team manager Mick Kearney when I was playing rugby.<\/p>\n “He told us to try to pay back as much of your mortgage as you possibly can within your window of play. You’re on a good salary and it’s a good opportunity to take some of that financial pressure off when you come out of it.”<\/p>\n If Donncha won the Lotto, what would he spend the money on?<\/p>\n “Experiences and time with my family,” he answered. “I’d probably be a little bit obnoxious if I won it! There’s no way I’d be able to keep it to myself.<\/p>\n “I would look at different charities and projects I’m involved in and would like to help. I would certainly make sure my family was secure. But money doesn’t have all the answers, sometimes you have to learn the lessons by grafting, and I wouldn’t want to take that drive to graft away from anyone.<\/p>\n “I would definitely buy something silly too, like a giant hot air balloon that would be my only mode of transport.”<\/p>\n Spending money is a necessity most of the time, but there are things Donncha doesn’t enjoy parting ways with his finances for. He said: “There is some stuff you buy for the kids, but you know it’s a fad and you know it’s going to be covered with the dog’s hair down the back of the couch in about three weeks.<\/p>\n “But you just have to go through it! My brother has a problem spending money on bottled water, because you can get it out of a tap, which I have always found funny.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rugby legend opens up about whether he is a spender or a saver – and the best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,11897,174,175],"class_list":{"0":"post-415275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-munster-rugby","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}