Sarah Beeny is hosting a new series called How To Live Mortgage Free.
The property guru and mum-of-four talks to Bennett Bonci about her new show and multi-tasking
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO DO HOW TO LIVE MORTGAGE FREE?
Nowadays, house prices are so expensive in this country that people are starting to think: “What are the options?” They are struggling to be able to get a mortgage in the first place, and they’re really struggling to pay it off.
It came from wondering whether there’s another way to own a home other than saving up, getting a cottage, and then getting a mortgage for the rest of it. That’s really where it was coming from: “What are the alternatives?”
WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR AUDIENCE TO TAKE AWAY FROM THE SHOW?
I want people to be inspired to think another way. I did a show recently called Best Places To Live and that was really relevant as well, because I wanted people to ask: “Where do you want to live? Have you thought about where you’re going to live?
“If you moved to another area, might it be a better life choice for you?” This is the same. It’s trying to encourage people to think a little outside the box: to think that there could be another path. We all dream of being mortgage free. No one loves the idea of saying: “Yeah! 30 years of debt!”
The other day, my 10-year-old son said: “What’s a mortgage?” I said: “It’s when you borrow the money to buy a house. Then you pay it back over 25 years.”
He looked at me like I was absolutely mad and said: “25 years?!” And I said: “Yeah, well sometimes 30 years.” From a child’s perspective, it is really horrendous that you would be paying back money for all that time.
CAN YOU SHARE ONE OF THE PERSONAL STORIES FROM THE SERIES?
There’s a really lovely girl in the show who bought a boat. She lived in London, and she was paying 20 grand a year in rent. She didn’t want to pay 20 grand a year anymore, so she bought a boat for £18,000. Then she did it all up, and now she lives on a barge. She bought it for less than a year’s rent, and she owns it outright.
Actually, we have two people who have boats on the show, and that’s an amazing, untapped resource for homes. It does require a certain kind of a person to want to live on a boat, and I’m not saying it’s for everyone. But it’s a really lovely lifestyle, and a really amazing, supportive community.
YOU STARTED YOUR FIRST BUSINESS AT 24, AND YOU’RE NOW IN YOUR 40s. DO YOU FEEL BETTER EQUIPPED TO HANDLE YOUR VARIOUS ROLES THAN WHEN YOU STARTED OUT?
I am probably better equipped now because there is a wisdom with age, and I’m not saying I’m wise, but there is a wisdom with age and part of that is experience. The things I’d get panicked about when I was younger, I don’t panic about. So I’m better equipped to handle it.
I think that if I could go back 10 years, I could definitely do them better, armed with what I’ve got now. As you get older, you add to your arsenal. My grandfather said ‘If you want something done, give it to a busy woman’, and there is a danger there. I could have two children and one business and do great, but then I’d want to have more children and more businesses.
DO YOU EVER FEEL THE NEED TO CUT BACK ON YOUR WORK LOAD?
I do, but I would find it very frustrating. I get a bit bored, and I like new ideas. It’s just a bit tempting, everything out there. I’m not good at turning anything down if I could possibly do it, and there are opportunities everywhere you look.
I see the world as this amazing sweet shop, but if you do eat that many sweets, you feel a bit ill, and that’s the downside.
HOW DO YOU KEEP ON TOP OF EVERYTHING?
Every morning I wake up and wonder who I’m going to disappoint today. If you over-promise, you can’t deliver.
There’s a grown-up way of doing things. They schedule in things… I let lots of people down, which is really annoying for them. I think what happens is you only have one pair of headlights, and you point them in one direction, and that’s normally the area that needs the most help.
And when you get that fixed, you turn around and realise there’s a small crisis in that direction, so you turn your headlights there. You can’t focus on everything, it’s impossible. I try to carve up time and separate work time and kid time, but I don’t always manage it.
