Teamwork: Clare Nasir with DJ husband Chris Hawkins
One of the best cash determination the meteorologist and TV presenter Clare Nasir ever made was marrying the BBC radio DJ Chris Hawkins.
The 52-year-old tells Donna Ferguson that her husband, who’s 46, is so good at dealing with the family funds, he’s just like the BBC Radio 6 Music equal of money-saving skilled Martin Lewis.
The couple reside in Cheshire with their daughter Sienna, and Clare is a patron of the environmental charity Phrase Forest Organisation.
What did your dad and mom educate you about cash?
To be beneficiant to a fault. They taught me that there’s extra to life than cash. Once I was very younger, my dad was a automotive mechanic and my mom was a nurse. My father went on to run a enterprise and my mom grew to become an HR director for an NHS hospital.
They’d humble beginnings, however each did extremely properly. Once I was rising up, cash was tight. I do not actually need to go into the small print, however we had been considerably affected by the recession of the early Nineties when rates of interest went by the roof, and firms failed and went bankrupt.
I keep in mind asking without cost faculty meals at some factors. At this time, lots of people are hovering across the poverty line and that is one thing I can actually relate to. It was a very long time in the past, although, and I by no means went hungry. I do not suppose it was one thing which badly impacted me. My household could be very tight. We do not actually need a lot to be completely satisfied.
Have you ever ever struggled to make ends meet?
I do not suppose so. However after I joined the Met Workplace after ending my grasp’s diploma, I went into my overdraft often. I earned a reasonably fundamental wage and was renting in London. I wished to drive an honest automotive, purchase good garments and reside a enjoyable, good life. So I all the time wished an additional tenner in my pocket.
Have you ever ever been paid foolish cash?
Working in TV, you will get paid quite a bit for public appearances and you will get superb freebies, too, for instance being flown first-class to Los Angeles or New York for photoshoots.
The silliest cash I ever earned was for a chunk to digital camera about environmental points for a giant vitality firm. It took me an hour they usually paid the equal of a month’s wages.
What was one of the best 12 months of your monetary life?
It was final 12 months. I’ve developed a portfolio profession so I am not beholden to 1 organisation. My principal job is my work for the Met Workplace and Channel 5, however I decide up company work on a regular basis. I’ve acquired a inexperienced display at residence and we have constructed a TV studio.
The costliest factor you got for enjoyable?
When my daughter was 9 months previous, I spent £25,000 in money on a three-bed, second-hand caravan. It was subsequent to the seaside, close to Whitstable in Kent. Kate Garraway [the TV presenter] would carry her children down, too, and it was great.
We bought it two and a half years later when my husband’s job on the BBC moved North and we relocated to Cheshire. By then its worth had deteriorated so we acquired half of what we would paid.
Once I requested my husband afterwards whether or not we must always get one other caravan, he stated completely not. In impact, we spent £12,000 on these caravan holidays over two years – we would as properly have rented each time. It was heaven, however very expensive.
What’s your greatest cash mistake?
Not opting into the pension scheme after I joined GMTV. I believed it wasn’t price it as I did not suppose I used to be adequate to final a 12 months. There have been so many gifted individuals coming by the ranks and tv is a fickle trade.
It was a silly mistake. In the long run, I used to be there for 11 years. All that point, I saved into a non-public pension and did not get any employer contributions.
One of the best cash determination that you’ve got made?
Marrying my husband, the DJ Chris Hawkins, as a result of he’s good with cash. He is the BBC 6 Music equal of Martin Lewis and manages our family payments extremely properly.
We acquired married in 2005 and the very first thing he did was to repay my bank cards. He hated the truth that I used to be solely paying the minimal quantity every month.
I had so many several types of insurance coverage insurance policies, and Chris streamlined all of them and saved me some huge cash.
Do you save in a pension or put money into shares?
I make investments some huge cash in pensions. I need to have safety and a very good way of life after I’m older.
I do not put money into the inventory market outdoors my pension. I’ve by no means seemed into it. I realise many individuals discover it attention-grabbing and earn a living out of it however it has handed me by. Perhaps I have been wanting on the clouds for too lengthy.
Vibrant outlook: Clare, who joined the Met Workplace after ending her grasp’s diploma, offers a climate forecast on ITV1
Do you personal any property?
Sure. We personal two homes in Cheshire. We hire out one and reside within the different.
The home we reside in is a big four-bedroom property in central Wilmslow, which we purchased a 12 months in the past. We now have renovated it so now we have elevated the ground plan by a 3rd and it is positively gone up in worth.
The one little luxurious you deal with your self to?
A pleasant bottle of crimson wine. I’ll fortunately spend over £30 on an honest bottle of Barolo each couple of months, however I do it sneakily so my husband would not know the way a lot I paid. I am going to simply not inform him.
However on the similar time, I might be very upset if he drinks greater than half the bottle, pondering I might solely spent a tenner, so I usually solely drink it when he goes away!
For those who had been Chancellor what would you do?
I might nationalise all of the railway community and make investments into it in order that nobody needed to spend greater than a tenner on any journey, and I might guarantee it was all fuelled by renewable vitality. I might additionally enhance wages for railway staff.
The largest frustration for me, making an attempt to conduct enterprise in London, is the practice service. Trains preserve getting cancelled and the costs are ridiculous.
We’d like an honest service so that individuals haven’t got to leap of their automotive and use big quantities of petrol getting across the nation, once we’re making an attempt to get to web zero carbon emissions.
The answer is a nationalised system the place earnings will not be being made and each citizen has a proper to a seat.
Do you donate cash to charity?
Sure, I’m a patron of the Phrase Forest Organisation, an environmental and schooling charity that works to fight local weather change and international warming.
They’re based mostly in Britain however do nice work in Kenya, planting forests and constructing faculties. I donate to this charity and attempt to do my bit for them, too.
What’s your primary monetary precedence?
To make sure my household is protected – and that after I’m not round, my daughter has the monetary freedom to make selections that imply her life is superb.