ME AND MY MONEY: OLIVER COLE,musician, discusses financial matters
Are you a saver or a spender?I am most definitely a spender. I don't buy much but I seem to spend loads. It's a mystery to me.
Do you shop around for better value?Nope. I always buy something as soon as I can. I know you can find things cheaper on the web, but what good is that when it's a sunny day and you need sunglasses right away? I wish I did shop around. They seem to charge pretty much the same for whiskey everywhere, though.
What was your most extravagant purchase ever and how much did it cost?I once paid €3,000 for an acoustic guitar – but because I use it for "work", maybe that's not extravagant. I bought a pair of boots for €700, and that's a lot for a boy to spend on shoes. Mind you, I still have them and, due to regular trips to the cobblers, they are still perfect five years later.
What purchase have you made that you consider the best value for money?I bought a Yamaha upright piano from a farmer in Roscommon. He had got it for his missus because she wanted to learn how to play piano. Anyway, as he told me himself, "she never touched the feckin' thing". So, after it had sat gathering dust for a year or so, he put it in the Buy and Sell. Well, if Roscommon men are cute, Meath men are cuter, because I charmed it off him for less than €2,000. I reckon it must have cost him at least five or six grand new.
Do you haggle over prices? Nah... Does anyone?Maybe at a flea market, but not at the tills in Tesco. We are not a nation of hagglers. If we got a good deal we'd have nothing to give out about and, God, do we love to give out.
Has the recession changed your spending habits?I still go out the same number of nights and I am still broke, so I guess it hasn't changed me at all.
Do you invest in shares?No, but I wish I did. I had a big payment of cash when I signed one of my first deals, and I should have invested in shares instead of an expensive girlfriend. I have a brother who is a financial adviser and he was trying to get me to invest it. I was very young and I thought there would always be that kind of money around the music business. Silly me.
Cash or card?Usually cash.
Is money important to you?I never cared about it before; it went against my spiritual ways. It's starting to become more important now, as I want to have a nice home and some kids, etc.
How much money do you have on you now?€90.
Ollie Cole’s latest album is We Albatri. See olivercole.ie
