Brave face: Jan Leeming saved a third of her income into a pension with Equitable Life
The most expensive thing TV presenter Jan Leeming ever bought for fun was a £3,000 sculpture of an endangered bear when her heart strings were tugged at a charity auction.
The 79-year-old former newsreader told Donna Ferguson she lost so much money by investing in a pension with Equitable Life that she will struggle to have enough to live on in a few years’ time – and jokes that she hopes she’ll be dead by the age of 90!
She is a keen supporter of the animal charity Miracle Mission, which provides disabled animals with prosthetic limbs.
What did your parents teach you about money?
To be prudent and live within my means. My father was a soldier in the Royal Artillery and was born and brought up in India. My mother was a draughtswoman who worked for the Woolwich Arsenal. They divorced when I was seven.
My mother left and she took my sister. My father and I stayed in the family home. Looking back, I think maybe that was the seeds of all my insecurity.
I adored my father and I don’t remember being unhappy, but it was an odd childhood. We lived in a rented house with an outside lavatory and no bathroom, but we weren’t poor. That was how the majority of British people lived at the time. I don’t remember ever being hungry, but I do remember being very cold and seeing ice inside windows because we didn’t have central heating.
I had one best dress for Sunday and one pair of shoes. But I didn’t feel deprived because everybody else was in the same boat.
Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
Yes. The toughest time was after my last marriage ended in 2001. It was a very difficult time for me and I didn’t have much to live on.
I had to downsize considerably. I went into the marriage with a beautiful four-bedroom house in Buckinghamshire worth £365,000, but after the divorce, I ended up with only enough to buy a small £135,000 flat and some furniture.
I had to sell jewellery collected over the years, along with a large library of signed books from my days interviewing at HTV West and BBC Pebble Mill.
But, it was hardly a struggle compared with what some people endure. I was never likely to starve.
Have you ever been paid silly money?
I wish. The public perception that anyone on TV must be affluent is quite amusing. All my working life I’ve received less than my male colleagues and you’d hardly believe how little, relative to the eye-watering sums that are paid to newsreaders and presenters today.
I began reading news for the BBC in 1981 on a salary of £10,000 with no wardrobe allowance and no pension. By the time I left in 1987 my fee had risen to the giddy heights of £23,500.
What was the best year of your financial life?
It was 1988, the year after I left the BBC. I was in demand for corporate work, which paid very well.
I hosted a lot of award ceremonies and conferences and did videos for companies. I got paid a couple of thousand pounds a day.
The most expensive thing you bought for fun?
A sculpture of a moon bear I bought at a charity auction for £3,000. The charity was raising money to help rescue moon bears, known for the distinctive crescent shape on their chests and milked for their bile in Vietnam and China. I had no intention of bidding for anything, but my heart strings were tugged and I thought to hell with it.
What is your biggest money mistake?
Investing £1,000 in a company run by a very impressive woman I met at a conference, who was promoting royal jelly. I might as well have burned the money. I’ve never indulged in shares since then.
The best money decision you have made?
Buying that four-bedroom house in Penn, Buckinghamshire, for £83,000 in 1983. It had quadrupled in value by the time I had to sell it in 1997. Mind you, it would be worth around £2million today. Instead, I live in a small two-bedroom house near Dover that is worth significantly less.
Home news: Jan Leeming, on the BBC in the early 1980s, started on a salary of just £10,000
Do you save into a pension?
I used to. I started in the early 1980s, when I was in my 40s. Every month, I saved a third of my income into a pension with Equitable Life. I put in around £200,000 over 25 years. Of course, it went belly up.
I fought for five years to get my money and now I receive an annuity of £7,000, half of what I should have got – but more than some.
I also have a private pension, which I set up with the money earned from doing I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here – a show that I did out of desperation because I had no money. Unfortunately, the income I get from that pension will run out when I’m 87 and my state pension won’t even cover my council tax, food and other essentials. But, I’m not allowing myself to worry about that. I will put the house into equity release and hope that I’m dead by 90!
The one little luxury you like to treat yourself to?
A Clarins facial for £60, every six weeks. Eventually I will be so old and decrepit I probably won’t bother.
If you were Chancellor, what would you do?
I would make sure big companies such as Amazon and Facebook pay a serious whack of tax. At the moment, such firms make huge profits but take advantage of tax havens and hide behind loopholes. It’s invidious. Just think what all that corporation tax could pay for in our country, which needs it more than ever after Covid.
Do you donate money to charity?
Yes. I give what I can and donate my time. I’m a big supporter of Miracle’s Mission, a non-profit animal welfare organisation that works with sick, injured and disabled animals. Its mission is to provide a safe place for animals in danger, to neuter stray pets and provide prosthetics to disabled animals.
