Paul Clitheroe on 25 years with Money
In honour of the magazine's 25th birthday earlier this year, the Money team has turned the tables on our beloved columnist and founding editor, Paul Clitheroe. Paul, now 69, reflects on the trials and tribulations of his own life and financial journey.
As the old saying goes, better to be lucky than clever. The first piece of luck you need is in choosing your parents. Obviously, we can't do this, but in my case, I got pretty lucky.
I was born in Nottingham, in the UK, on July 7, 1955, so 7/7/55. Astrology, numerology and that sort of stuff are not my thing, but these seem like pretty good numbers.
From England to Australia
Far more importantly, my mum and dad were well-educated people, Mum a nursing sister and Dad a doctor.
My early life in England was very enjoyable. We lived near Nottingham in the little village of Huthwaite.
I had cousins nearby, and one set of grandparents lived close to us in a pretty big country home, so lots to do.
My parents were fond of the warmth, and with quite a few of my dad's mates doctoring in the NSW country town of Griffith, we moved out as 10 Pound Poms in 1963.
As I recall, the 10 quid included flying our family, my mum, dad, me and little sister, to Australia, in one of the early passenger jets, a Comet, while our furniture and cat arrived a couple of months later.
Growing up in Griffith
The next piece of luck was arriving in Griffith - this was great. A few kids at North Griffith Primary were asked to look out for me, which they did and, thankfully, 60 years later they still do. They are great mates.
I found the freedom of an Aussie country town really suited me, learning to swim in rivers, creeks and canals, sailing and water-skiing at Lake Wyangan, plus golf at the Griffith course, made for a lovely life for a youngster.
As is so often the case, these sports are things I still enjoy, though water-skiing changed to snow skiing. This has been a great family activity for us for many decades.
Academically, I cruised along, nothing terrific, but with quite adequate results. This left ample time for sport and time with friends on farms, pushbike riding and socialising. It is fair to say that Griffith High School was a fun place to be in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but it was not exactly a hive of academic excellence back then.
A job to earn beer money
My last year of school required some decisions.
With parents who had benefited from higher education, going to university was a given and Sydney was the nearest place to study then.
So, one of my mates and I jumped in his little Mini Minor and off we went to Philip Baxter College at University of NSW.
My parents paid my fees, a very grand $24 a week in first year (1974), and a bit of spending money, but not too much. Good call on their part.
I got a job at the Regent Hotel serving drinks a couple of nights a week - ironically, serving beers to give me money to buy beers.
I had no idea what to study, so I took my parents' advice and did a general degree, a BA. The 12 hours or so a week were not very taxing, which was not the case for my friends doing engineering, architecture and medicine.
Getting a real job
The next issue as I finally completed my degree was getting a real job, an alarming prospect. Again, in a lucky moment, one of my Baxter mates showed me an ad he had cut out. It was for an investment researcher.
With my BA, I was a bit curious about this, but Col (a lifelong friend and best man at our wedding) said, "You know more about money than anyone I know."
This caused me to scratch my head a fair bit. I suspect Col probably did not know anyone who knew anything about money.
Fortunately, that did not occur to me at the time, so I trotted off, had an interview and got the job.
Grabbing an opportunity
The next bit is really luck.
My boss hated the idea of media interviews, so in about 1981 I found myself doing short and probably pretty terrible radio 'grabs'.
You know the sort of stuff; about interest rates and so on. This led to meeting three terrific guys who planned to start up a fee-for-service investment business, ipac Securities.
The next bit is not really luck. My parents had always put a few dollars into shares each year for me and my sister. They were 'money smart'.
By age 27, this had turned into enough money for my share in the company we started, plus a small deposit for a tiny semi on a busy road in Artarmon, Sydney.
Money (the TV show)
The rest is pretty well-publicised history.
Channel 9 started getting me to pop into the Today Show and Midday to do small segments in about 1990.
Then I was asked to do a part in a pilot for a show called Money. That did not look good.
Channel 9 owner Kerry Packer hated it. But David Leckie, the CEO, persisted and, under the threat of being sacked, he ran the first episode in 1993.
Money rated its head off. With no internet, Foxtel or social media, it regularly attracted more than three million viewers at 8pm on Wednesdays.
For me, TV was a part-time job. My main focus was on growing ipac with my partners, but hosting Money was a hoot.
Warren Buffett, Richard Branson ... and Jennifer Anniston
I got to talk money all over the world with all sorts of people.
A real highlight was a few days with Warren Buffett in Omaha and Richard Branson in London.
As we were wrapping up after a couple of days with Richard, there was a knock on his door.
It was Jennifer Aniston arriving to film a piece with Richard for the TV show Friends.
Money magazine is born
In 1999, we launched Money magazine, which is, of course, the reason I am writing this article.
I really enjoy the magazine. TV is a very short format in which to give people enough information.
The magazine allows us to flesh out what on TV are often pretty skimpy details.
Family is everything
So, at age 69, here I am. Still doing what I love with work and mucking around with my old mates.
But during these decades a really wonderful thing happened. I met Vicki.
We were married in 1982 and have three beaut grown-up kids and are just thrilled to have four granddaughters, aged five, three, two and a baby, and a couple of grand-dogs.
I've been lucky enough to have a bunch of good stuff happen to me outside of my family and work life.
A few highlights: being made a life member of my financial services body (FINSIA); chairing the Australian Government Financial Literacy Board for well over a decade; being appointed by Macquarie University to the Chair in Financial Literacy; and (much to the amusement of family and friends) a professorship - nice recognition from my old UNSW; and an Order of Australia back in 2008.
Winning the Sydney to Hobart
Outside of family and work, one of my fondest and hardest achievements was winning the Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race in 2015.
This was a tough year, with some 32 yachts retiring in a horrible gale, but we battled on through Bass Strait and had the joy of arriving in Hobart mid-afternoon to a horde of well-wishers, to find we had won the overall honours.
This felt a long way from sailing my little boat on Lake Wyangan.
Every life has problems and challenges. The main takeaway for me is an optimistic view, taking a good crack at opportunities and taking sensible risks. We'll all make mistakes and have failures, that is okay.
One thing is for sure. As I look back, valuing and investing time in relationships has made my life much better.
As for money... it gives us choices. But it is just part of the pie, not most of it. Health, family, friendships and a good community around us are the critical things.
One of those important relationships has been with Money and its many viewers, readers and listeners. I thank you for being in this part of my life.
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