Are you a spender or a saver?<\/p>\n
I think I\u2019m in between. I like to save for a rainy day; I save for the kids\u2019 birthday parties in a separate pot throughout the year and I save for Christmas so I know that\u2019s there, which is important because I host Christmas and there are almost 30 of us clinking through to the new year.<\/p>\n
My daughters\u2019 birthdays are January and February, so that\u2019s next. It\u2019s almost like hosting a wedding \u2014 everything is priced per head. For Jemima\u2019s 11th birthday, we closed the restaurant for the day and she had a bubble tea-making party with 15 children on a big table. It cost about \u00a325 a head, and that\u2019s only because my restaurant was supplying the food. This year I have to do a K-Pop Demon Hunters slime party.<\/p>\n
What was your first job?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve only ever had two jobs. I worked in All Sports in Ilford and then, the summer before I started my PhD, I worked in the Harrods furniture department. I was the top seller that summer. People would come in and want four beds and two sofas. I don\u2019t think we got commission, sadly. I\u2019m not sure what I was paid \u2014 maybe a bit more than minimum wage?<\/p>\n
I never finished my PhD, I put it on the backburner and that was 20 years ago. That summer I met a band who needed a saxophone player and I happened to play. I only had lessons for a year when I was 13 but my parents bought me a sax and I just used to play. It was therapeutic to me, but I never thought it could be a career. When the band fell apart, the manager asked if I\u2019d ever thought about a career in music. I said no, but I\u2019ll do some gigs if it helps me raise some money as a humble student still paying off my credit cards. Soon I was touring, playing in Russia for the prime minister, in Jamaica, touring the States. It all happened very organically. In 2007 I booked the Mermaid Theatre in Blackfriars and just hoped 600 people would turn up so we could pay the venue and the band.<\/p>\n
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YolanDa Brown with Brian May at Buckingham Palace<\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n
When I got my OBE, Brian May was also getting his knighthood. I told him he was my inspiration \u2014 he had put his PhD on hold for Queen and went back and completed it 30 years later, so I\u2019ve still got ten years left!<\/p>\n
Do you own a property?<\/p>\n
Yes. My parents helped me with my first property, when I was at university, a one-bedroom flat in Grays, Essex, which cost about \u00a3100,000, that I still own. Getting on the ladder early, being able to have tenants and have that as an income stream, has been really helpful.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think I fully understood the weight of their help at the time \u2014 it was at a time when it was easier to buy property \u2014 but now I do. It\u2019s a lovely little flat; I thought I would live there but it\u2019s too far out of London for me. But it\u2019s been great to be able to keep it, the tenants are lovely and it\u2019s gone up in value a lot.<\/p>\n
Have you ever been hard up?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never seen it as being hard up because I have that long-term vision. If it meant I couldn\u2019t have that pair of jeans because I was investing in an album, then that didn\u2019t feel like being hard up because I was working towards something. As a creative, you\u2019re so focused on what you\u2019re doing that you will easily sacrifice a personal purchase or go eat at Mum and Dad\u2019s while you\u2019re saving for the next gig.<\/p>\n
Are you better off than your parents?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know. I remember talking to my mum in my late teenage years about being black Caribbeans, and how that meant as a parent you always want your children to do better than you did and to have more opportunities than you had, and you work hard to achieve that.<\/p>\n
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The Empire Windrush arriving at Tilbury docks from Jamaica in 1948<\/p>\n
GETTY<\/p>\n
My grandma left school at six and came here in the Windrush generation. She worked really hard to own her own property, be a seamstress and raise kids. My mum came to England when she was six. She was the first in her family to go to university and became a teacher. She\u2019s still a governor, inspects schools and does appraisals. My dad had his own advertising agency in the West End. Now he is the \u201cmanny\u201d \u2014 he looks after all the grandchildren and they come on tour with us and on holidays.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Matt Edmondson: \u2018I\u2019ve invented 16 or so board games, including Obama Llama\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Do you save into a pension?<\/p>\n I have done when I\u2019ve been in employment, but not as a self-employed person. We have some investments, mostly in property. I\u2019d love to take more of an interest but I don\u2019t have the time, so we have advisers. I\u2019m more likely to follow the investments of the charities I\u2019m on the board of.<\/p>\n What\u2019s better for retirement \u2014 property or pension?<\/p>\n Property. My dad saved into a pension scheme and it went bust. Just as he was about to draw his pension, there was no money. I can\u2019t get my head around that. I\u2019m still so hurt for him and so I can\u2019t bring myself to do it.<\/p>\n How much did you earn last year?<\/p>\n I\u2019d rather not share that.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your money weakness?<\/p>\n
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