A MAN who left school at 16 and launched an empire from his spare room is now worth £900million – but he hates spending it.
Peter Hargreaves’ multi-billion pound company all started from a flat in Bristol 42 years ago.
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The savvy young entrepreneur, who had trained as an accountant, launched Hargreaves Lansdown with co-founder Stephen Lansdown.
By 2007, the dynamic duo had watched their business grow to an eye-watering value of £800million.
Now, the investment brokerage company is worth nearly £3billion and Peter’s stake is understood to be around a whopping £900million.
Nevertheless, humble Peter, who was born and raised in Lancashire, admits he doesn’t like to splash the cash.
He told The Guardian:”If I lived abroad, I would be £6million better off by reducing my tax bill.
“But why would I want do that? I only spend a minuscule amount of my capital, my wife likes clothes, but she doesn’t go for the top designers, and we both have amazingly modest cars [a Peugeot 308 and a five-year-old Range Rover].
“When I go to a race meeting, I only put a fiver on to win. Then you’ve got a stake in the race. You don’t have to spend a fortune.”
The business titan’s “greatest pleasure” is doing a spot of gardening outside his seven-bedroom renovated Georgian mansion, to gather vegetables used for a Sunday feast.
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“I like doing it because it’s so different to what I do in the week,” he added.
“The same hold for cleaning the car or shining my shoes.”
As well as refraining from buying luxury sports cars and fancy overseas pads, he doesn’t spend much time with London’s fellow multimillionaires.
According to the humble businessman, he finishes work at around 5.pm most days after stepping down as chief executive earlier this year.
It’s a short commute home, as the devoted co-founder only lives a few miles from the company’s Bristol offices.
He explained he enjoys investing his money rather than splurging, with much of his income is tied up in assets and trusts.
I only spend a minuscule amount of my capital, my wife likes clothes, but she doesn’t go for the top designers, and we both have amazingly modest cars [a Peugeot 308 and a five-year-old Range Rover].”
Peter Hargreaves
And, it appears Peter applies the same money-saving philosophy to his business too.
“We have never taken more out of the company than it can afford,” he explained.
“We have always been in a situation where we could survive for a year without any new business.
“And we are very cost-conscious. I still look at every purchase invoice.”
Peter’s journey to success started as he trained as an accountant in the 1970s.
However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing and he was eventually sacked.
But, he claimed this was the best thing that could have happened.
“I have wanted to run my own business since my time at Clitheroe grammar school,” explained Peter,
“I remember thinking if I could get a penny from everyone in Britain, I would earn £208,000 a year.
When I go to a race meeting, I only put a fiver on to win. Then you’ve got a stake in the race. You don’t have to spend a fortune.”
Peter Hargreaves
“That set me thinking: how could I establish a business where I made a small amount of money from a huge number of people?”
Peter said it was a “straight line” from that moment on.
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More than 50 years later, the dedicated business mogual is still clocking into work.
Looking to the future he said retirement would make him “miserable” and the process will have to unfold slowly over time.
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