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 edition, entrepreneur and musician Levi Roots, 67, talks about collecting bottles for pennies in Jamaica, the £500 guitar that changed his life, and why he believes making money is easy compared with keeping it. Levi is a father of 8.
What are your earliest memories of money growing up in Jamaica?
My parents had left to come to the UK as part of the Windrush generation, and all six of us were left with my grandmother in Jamaica.
My earliest memory of money was selling bottles as a child. My parents were very poor, and in that sense, kids normally when they get to the age of six or seven, in Jamaica, have to try and look after themselves.
I remember at the age of six, trying to collect a few pennies by selling bottles. It was about picking up bottles off the street, or waiting for somebody to finish a drink and then quickly grab the bottle before some other kid gets it.
I would try and fill up as much of my grandmother’s shed as I could, and after about six months of finding bottles, I would sell them. You would get a penny per bottle at the shop.
Looking back across your career, what has been the most financially rewarding opportunity?
When I appeared on Dragon’s Den in 2007 with my grandmothers-inspired recipe for her jerk sauce and getting a £50,000 investment from Peter Jones.
I think that was me getting to the best version of myself after trying for many years with different jobs and sort of ignoring my passions, which was music and food.
I think even now, when I talk to kids, I say do something that you’re passionate about, because in those early days, when you’re not making money yet, the business is not growing, you need to be enjoying it so you can keep going.
I kept going until eventually, I appeared on the Den, and the rest is history.
Has appearing on Dragon’s Den changed the way you think about money and risk?
One of the key messages is to be yourself and love who you are. Everybody was saying to me, don’t go on the show with a guitar, because nobody ever sang. It’s not The X Factor.
But I wanted to be me, because I’m the best of me when I have my granny’s sauce and I have my guitar.
My mum said to me: “Don’t underestimate who you are by comparing yourself with someone else. It’s because you are different and that’s why you are special.”
If I’d have never done that, I don’t think I would have got the investment with just a bottle of sauce.
Peter has always said to me: “Levi, I invested in you, because you had the audacity to come on the show and do something different.”
What has been the smartest investment you’ve ever made?
Well, it wasn’t me that made the investment, but I benefited from it. It was my mum.
She went to a place called Exchange Mart in Brixton and she paid £500 for a used guitar, which I still have. She bought me a Beatles book of songs too because she couldn’t afford to pay for guitar lessons for me.
I taught myself to play that guitar, and it was that guitar that many years later I wrote the “Reggae Reggae Sauce” song on and took it on Dragon’s Den.
When I think about what my mum did for me buying that guitar, that changed my life 100 per cent.
What did your mum do, and how did she afford it?
My mum worked at King’s College Hospital. My father worked for the council.
We were a very poor family but she had a vision for me. She always told me to never compare myself, that I am who I am.
I think your first mentor is always your parents or your teachers in school. Someone who knows what your potential is because they are seeing you and they are watching you.
Have you ever made a financial mistake?
To be fair, and I know it will sound sort of condescending, I don’t think I’ve made that kind of mistake in my life.
I came out of the Den after being literally nobody. A couple of days after the show was aired on TV, I woke up perhaps the most famous black man that didn’t run fast or kick a ball.
For me, it was really inspirational to be very careful in how I am as a person, what I do and what I spend my money on. I would perhaps think that the only thing I used to buy a lot when I got money was to buy a lot of suits.
I have over 36 Savile Row suits since coming out of the Den. I haven’t got any space to put them anymore.
What do you enjoy spending money on now?
I save my money. I’ve had some really good mentors that have taught me not to waste your wealth away.
When I was younger, I was always looking for the money.
When I eventually became famous and had my business, the key thing for me was not to look for the money, but to learn how to retain it.
Investment has been something that I learned really well ever since I managed to accumulate wealth.
Where do you invest?
It’s a mixture of a few things like the stock market and ISAs, but I think pension funds is always good, because you’ve got to always think about the future.
You’ve got to think about when you’re gone as well. How does your family sit? And that’s about putting money away for the future. But also investing in my business as well.
I want to make sure that it’s not something that is big for two or three years like many brands that come along and create a big hoo-ha, and then after five or six years you never hear of it again.
Especially for my young son, Christopher, he’s now 13, I want him to pick up the business and keep that family name of the Levi Roots brand going.
I also own a property in Croydon, London.
What does retirement mean to you?
For me, retirement is about still continuing to do what I do. The business now runs itself. We have over 50 products under the brand since I came out of Dragon’s Den.
My time is really taken up by going into schools, universities, colleges, prisons, wherever there are young people.
That’s all I do all day long. I’ll never get tired of that, because I don’t see it as work really. I just really go in and say to people, if I can do it, they can do it. I’ll always be working.
Are you a saver or a spender?
100 per cent I’m a saver. Apart from those suits.
If you lost everything tomorrow and had to start again, what would your first financial move be?
I think it would be me starting another business. Business now is in my blood. I’ve learned so much about how to start a business and how to retain the business.
I’d have to write another “Reggae Reggae Sauce” song because I know that works.
The business is Levi Roots, and I recognise that. People are not necessarily buying into my sauce in the bottle. They’re buying the inspiration.
I know how the brand is me. I know I’ve got to be very careful to keep that spirit going.
Levi Roots recently helped launch the National Windrush Museum, located within the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. He also revealed that a feature film based on his life is set to begin filming next spring, with a Hollywood actor already attached to play the lead role.
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