DOM JOLY: I REGRET SELLING MY FLAT TO SALMAN RUSHDIE, IT COULD BE WORTH MILLIONS NOW

In our How I Manage My Money series, we aim to find out how people are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals.

This week, in our celebrity version, we speak to comedian and writer Dom Joly who speaks about ignoring parental advice on money and why he finally plans to start saving, at 58.

What did you learn about money when you were a kid?

I remember my dad saying, “Never a borrower or a lender be,” which I’ve definitely not listened to. Aside from that, I really wasn’t taught anything and I think this is why I am very un-businessy.

I got given £5 a month pocket money, and that was it. I just didn’t think about money even at boarding school in the UK, which I started at age seven, although I still returned to Lebanon in the holidays.

When did you first really think about money?

I had no concept of money until I left school. I went to university, then to Paris for a year and then I got a job at MTV making sandwiches. I’d applied for a position with the European Commission while at university, and then forgotten about it. Suddenly it came through and I went off to Prague to work in the Commission’s embassy for a year on an internship.

How did you end up doing comedy for a living?

I knew that from an early age I’d not end up in the family business, which was a shipping agency in Beirut. And as much as I loved politics, and working in diplomacy and Westminster, I wasn’t driven by it. So, I sent my CV to various places because I wanted to make political documentaries.

I eventually got to Channel 4 soon after they’d been taken to courts and were keen to avoid further cases, so I was asked if I could just make my stuff funny, not satirical. That liberated me, because otherwise Trigger Happy TV would have been all about having a pop at the government, rather than just striving to be funny.

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Were you concerned about pursuing a career in comedy?

I went from a very low income in a series of steady jobs to making loads of money, so no, I wasn’t concerned. My trajectory was insane. I went to Paramount Comedy Channel, taking the piss out of Cool Britannia. Channel 4 spotted it and asked if I’d like to make a one-off, which I did. Two weeks later they gave me £1m to make Trigger Happy.

‘Trigger Happy’ must have benefited you financially as well as professionally, right?

Yes. The show opened an insane number of doors for me, all of which helped boost the coffers. It led to my column in a national paper, my travel books, the 10th of which, The Soul Tourist: In Desperate Pursuit of Happiness, is out later this year. It’s basically about me, a grumpy middle-aged goth, going off trying yoga and all sorts of crap, only to find nothing helps.

Do you manage your money or leave it to financial advisers?

I don’t have a financial adviser, but I have an accountant who deals with my finances because I am just terrible with money. Providing I have enough money to do what I want to do next that’s all I think about.

What’s been your best purchase?

We were filming a sketch with an ice cream van for Trigger Happy outside the Tate Modern, and during a break I went in and there were five signed prints of an early Banksy, a helicopter with a pink bow. I absolutely loved it and bought it for £70.

And your savviest investment?

The best thing I’ve done is housing, really, because I think I am the person who moves to an area before it becomes cool. I bought a top-floor flat for £90,000 in Notting Hill, and then bought the flat below for £200,000 five years later. I put them together. Two years later, I sold the whole, new, uber flat to Salman Rushdie for a lot, lot more.

Do you regret selling the place?

Let’s put it this way. I regularly get emails from the estate agent informing me of just how much is keeps growing in value – it’s definitely in the millions.

What’s been your worst money decision?

Selling that flat! If I’d not sold it and just sat on this chair for 20 years, I’d probably have three times more money than I actually have.

Are you a spender or a saver?

A spender, 100 per cent. I really like spending money and I’ve saved nothing. I have no safety net, but on the other hand I’ve had the most fantastic life, and my kids have had the most fantastic life. I’ve taken them around the world, we’ve lived in incredible houses, they’ve been to the best schools.

It means I still have to earn money, but in a way, I really like that because I think hunger creates art. The times when I’ve had the most money coincide with my most creatively lazy moments.

Aren’t you concerned about a lack of provision for the future?

I am now. I’ve always been a jack of all trades, writing travel books, columns for newspapers, TV, getting asked to do weird stuff, and for a long time that mix has worked out. I generate most of my work, so I’m not lazy, I don’t just sit back and wait for the work to come to me.

Michael Caine told someone I know that the secret to financial success is to make money whilst asleep. I’ve not managed that yet, so I’m constantly thinking of new things.

What do you enjoy spending money on most?

Food, travel, furniture.

What are you up to next?

People think I’ve literally spent my career shouting into a mobile phone, but I only did two series of Trigger Happy, before killing it dead and doing other stuff. But when it came to 25 years, I thought we should do something to celebrate it, and as I love being on tour, we thought, why not do a 100-date tour?

What will you do when it’s all over?

You mean death?

No! Will you save or splurge?

I’ll make some pretty-good coin out of the tour, and being aware that I am mortal, I will probably try to save what I earn so I have a buffer zone to stop me from panicking about money. Yes, I’ll probably start saving, although I suspect I’ll be a bit rubbish at it.

Tickets for Dom Joly’s mammoth 100-date tour to mark 25 Years of ‘Trigger Happy TV’ are available via www.domjoly.tv or www.awaywithmedia.com. The Soul Tourist: In Desperate Pursuit of Happiness is out in November

2026-02-28T07:19:03Z