{"id":52203,"date":"2026-05-30T06:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T06:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/52203\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T06:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T06:59:09","slug":"mark-steel-i-bought-a-london-flat-for-59000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/52203\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Steel: I bought a London flat for \u00a359,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our How I Manage My Money<\/a> 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, author and broadcaster Mark Steel<\/a>, who talks about living in a squat before comedy took off, buying a flat in Crystal Palace, London, for \u00a359,000 and why he has never paid into a pension.<\/p>\n

What was money like growing up for you?<\/p>\n

My dad had a working-class job. He was the insurance man for the area, going round knocking on doors, collecting insurance money<\/a>. My mum mostly stayed at home, though she had odd jobs here and there as a dinner lady or receptionist. We didn\u2019t have much money and we never went on foreign holidays or anything like that, but I don\u2019t remember there being huge crises either. We had a two-bedroom bungalow with a garden on one wage, which now just seems impossible.<\/p>\n

Before comedy took off, what were some of the strangest jobs you did?<\/p>\n

The longest proper job I had was working for London Transport in an office. A depot would send us a form asking for things like washing supplies for the canteen, and my entire job was copying the details from one form onto another form. I never once found out why. That was the whole job. I got a free travelcard, though, which felt quite exciting at the time.<\/p>\n

Do you remember the first time you got paid for comedy?<\/p>\n

The very first time was actually when I was eight. I entered a talent contest at a holiday camp and did a poem I\u2019d written about animals. I won 10 shillings<\/a> (50p). Then later, in the early 1980s, I started getting paid proper money for stand-up \u2013 maybe \u00a310 here and there. It was unbelievably exciting.<\/p>\n

What did you spend the money on?<\/p>\n

Because I\u2019d been unemployed for a while and living in a squat<\/a>, most of the money just went on paying off debts. People don\u2019t really understand that when you finally start earning again, you don\u2019t suddenly become financially secure. You spend months catching up \u2013 paying people back, replacing clothes that are falling apart, sorting out bills.<\/p>\n

Did you ever worry comedy wouldn\u2019t work long-term?<\/p>\n

There was a brilliant scheme called the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, where you could get the equivalent of unemployment benefit for a year while trying to become self-employed. Loads of comics and musicians were on it. I remember thinking: \u201cRight, I\u2019ve got one year to get to the point where I can survive from comedy.\u201d By the end of the year, I thought, \u201cActually, I can do this now.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does the money side of stand-up work?<\/p>\n

In comedy clubs, everybody might get something like \u00a3150 for a gig. But once you\u2019re touring, it becomes more like running a small business. You sell tickets, then you take off VAT, the theatre\u2019s cut, agency fees, travel costs and everything else, and whatever\u2019s left is yours. You don\u2019t really want to think about comedy like that, but that\u2019s basically what it is.<\/p>\n

What was your biggest financial win?<\/p>\n

I remember doing a university gig when I was completely broke. Because of an administrative error, the organiser thought myself and the other comedian were also collecting payment for a band that didn\u2019t exist. We just nodded along and ended up getting about another \u00a3100 each. At the time, it felt like winning the lottery. I used it to pay off some debt and bought a cassette deck for my stereo.<\/p>\n

When did you first feel financially stable?<\/p>\n

Once I started doing the Comedy Store regularly, I was earning enough to actually save money. I lived in a council flat in the 1980s and the rent was about \u00a340 a month, so it was possible to put money aside. One day, I realised I had \u00a312,000 saved and thought: \u201cI can buy a flat.\u201d So, I bought a two-bedroom flat in Crystal Palace, London, for \u00a359,000. I sold it in 1992. That same flat would probably be worth about \u00a3400,000 now.<\/p>\n

Has your attitude towards money changed over time?<\/p>\n

Well, once you\u2019ve got children and then grandchildren, you stop thinking entirely about yourself. If someone gave me half a million quid tomorrow, my first thought would be about helping the kids. My mortgage is paid off now, so obviously, that gives me a level of security, but I also think what\u2019s changed is that life feels much less secure now. My son earns more than I did at his age, but he still can\u2019t afford to move out and buy somewhere. I had cancer and couldn\u2019t work for nine months. Even when you\u2019re doing okay financially, you realise how quickly things can go wrong.<\/p>\n

Did you ever save into a pension?<\/p>\n

No, honestly, I never really thought about pensions at all. I don\u2019t have a private pension. But I\u2019m lucky because comedy isn\u2019t the sort of job you necessarily want to retire from. I still enjoy doing it.<\/p>\n

What does success mean to you now?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think success is financial security on its own. Elon Musk is one of the richest men in the world and I wouldn\u2019t describe him as successful in any meaningful sense. Obviously, everybody wants stability and security, but if money is the only thing you aim for, I think you end up living a pretty strange life.<\/p>\n

Mark Steel is currently touring the UK with his latest show, The Leopard in My House, based on his experience of throat cancer. Tour dates and tickets are available via Mark Steel\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In our How I Manage My Money series, we aim to find out how people are spending, saving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[2587,3784,27],"class_list":["post-52203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-comedy","tag-how-i-manage-my-money","tag-london"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116662237259200383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}