Sir Vince Cable talks to ME & MY MONEY

Sir Vince Cable was chief of the Liberal Democrats from 2017-19, and the Secretary of State for Business within the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition authorities of 2010-15, writes York Membery. 

Born and raised in York, the 80-year-old was an financial adviser to the Kenyan authorities and the Commonwealth Secretariat, and later chief economist at Shell, earlier than going into politics. 

The father of three lives in Twickenham, South-West London, which he represented as an MP, together with his second spouse Rachel. His first spouse, Olympia, died of breast most cancers in 2001, aged 57. 

Sir Vince, who appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010, is a visiting professor on the London School of Economics.

What did your dad and mom educate you about cash?

I used to be one in every of two boys and grew up in York. My dad and mom left faculty at 15 and began out as manufacturing unit staff, and that was in all probability why they had been fairly thrifty and money-conscious. However, my father grew to become a lecturer at a technical school so we step by step progressed from a terraced home with an outdoor lavatory to a indifferent home. 

That mentioned, there wasn’t an excessive amount of spending or something you could possibly regard as extravagant. I labored as a milkman on the weekend whereas in school to make a couple of quid – and we had been normally the final in our avenue to get a family equipment equivalent to a fridge. 

Like my dad and mom, I’ve by no means been spendthrift however on the similar time imagine that life is for residing. I like staying in good inns and went snowboarding till the pandemic and, whereas the spirit remains to be keen…

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

My first spouse, Olympia, and I struggled financially after getting married in our 20s and we initially lived in fairly a poky tenement flat in Glasgow. But I did not let that get in the best way of, as an example, shopping for her a £700 Steinway grand piano on credit score regardless that we could not actually afford it. Everything it’s best to inform your kids to not do, I did.

Have you ever been paid foolish cash?

I’ve finished numerous paid talking however not for astronomical sums. If you are an ex-prime minister you may be paid lots of of 1000’s for giving a speech. But in the event you’re an ex-Cabinet minister and Lib Dem chief like me, you are extra more likely to be paid a couple of thousand.

What was the perfect 12 months of your monetary life?

I loved a little bit of fame and fortune on the time of the monetary disaster of 2008-9 and printed a ebook, The Storm, in 2009 concerning the world financial disaster of the time, which grew to become a best-seller.

It generated quite a lot of invites to look at ebook festivals and I additionally wrote a column for The Mail on Sunday, for a bit of additional cash. So the years 2009-10 had been in all probability my finest. I used to be additionally comparatively well-paid within the 5 years that I used to be a minister in the course of the coalition authorities of 2010-15.

The most costly factor you’ve finished for enjoyable?

Going on the vacation of a lifetime to Cambodia and Laos for a few weeks with my spouse Rachel final 12 months to rejoice my eightieth birthday. It value about £18,000, partially as a result of we flew enterprise class because of the 12-hour flight, however my kids chipped in in the direction of the price.

It was value each penny, although, and we obtained to see Laos’s outdated royal capital Luang Prabang amongst different cultural websites.

What’s been your greatest cash mistake?

Buying and promoting property on the incorrect time. My spouse and I purchased our first property, a pink sandstone Glasgow tenement flat, firstly of one in every of these housing booms for £7,000-£8,000 – large cash on the time, and bought it on the subsequent downturn. I subsequently grew to become cautious about shopping for and promoting properties.

The finest cash choice you’ve made?

Taking weekly dance lessons and having my very own private coach who places me by means of a sequence of gruelling workouts. Together that prices near £200 every week however retains me match. Dancing can be mentally superb for you.

Do you’ve a pension?

Yes – the pension preparations for my technology of MPs had been fairly good so it’s doable to stay comfortably after retirement. I’ve mixed my Shell pension with my MP and Cabinet minister pension scheme.

Do you personal any property?

I personal a four-bedroom Nineteen Thirties semi-detached home in Twickenham which I purchased for £12,500 in 1974.

We’ve made a couple of enhancements and I’m undecided what it is value now, however any household dwelling on this a part of London near the railway station and the parks goes to be fairly worthwhile. My spouse has a cottage within the New Forest.

If you had been Chancellor what would you do?

I’d be trustworthy about the truth that there isn’t any means of sustaining high quality public companies with out a substantial enhance in taxation, however no one’s keen to say that.

The concept that we’re an over-taxed nation is nonsense – it is about 38 per cent of GDP, whereas in Denmark it is greater than 50 per cent. Secondly, taxation must be tweaked in order that it bears extra closely on the older technology, who’ve benefited from appreciating property costs, and does extra for the younger and notably these with households.

What is your primary monetary precedence?

Hoarding cash at my age does not appear very smart, so I’d love to do a bit extra travelling whereas I can. At the identical time, you possibly can’t splash it about as a result of you want to take into consideration the longer term. So it is a case of moderation in all issues.

Thankfully I’ve no aspiration to proudly owning a giant, fancy automobile – I drive a ten-year-old Toyota Yaris.

• How To Be A Politician (Penguin), by Vince Cable, and Partnership & Politics In A Divided Decade (The Real Press), by Vince Cable and Rachel Smith, are each out now.