Rufus Hound is an actor, comedian and presenter, writes York Membery.
He was a regular panellist on the ITV show Celebrity Juice and won the 2013 Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special.
The 46-year-old, who lives in London, got engaged to actress Sally Hodgkiss in 2024. He has two teenage children with his ex-wife, Beth.
What did your parents teach you about money?
I was one of two boys, and until my teens enjoyed a comfortable upbringing in suburban Surrey. My father Bob was an accountant in the days when you could leave one such job and walk straight into another – he consequently had a bit of swagger. But my civil servant mother Lynn was much more cautious money-wise.
Their advice to the young me? To treat money with more respect than I did – advice which I’ve not taken at any point.
People I’ve met who prioritise money have only seemed to lead half a life.
Having a laugh: Comedian Rufus Hound enjoys what he does and has no plans to retire, so expects to be working into his 60s and beyond
Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
My family’s finances went pear-shaped when I was 14. Dad lost his job, we were plunged into debt and we had to downsize from a five-bedroom house with a huge garden, to a diddy three-bedroom semi. My parents split, too.
I also struggled in my early days as a stand-up. I was permanently overdrawn and was lucky to make £30 a gig. I spent a year or two sofa-surfing because money was so tight. It wasn’t until I got regular TV work that I started to make anything like a liveable wage.
Have you ever been paid silly money?
Yes, after touring in a Wind In The Willows musical, written by Julian Fellowes [the creator of Downton Abbey] in 2016, there was a big thirst to take it to London.
The producer announced I’d be reprising my role as Toad before we’d signed a deal. So rather than me having to ask, ‘How much can you pay me?’ I was able to say, ‘This is what I want!’ I made five figures a week during its summer run at the London Palladium.
What was the best year of your financial life?
I was a team captain on the TV panel show Argumental from 2008 to 2011, and a regular panellist on Celebrity Juice from 2009 to 2012, so those were good years.
But I was paid a couple of grand, at most, for doing Strictly in 2013.
Around the same time I made a few pilot TV shows, which was quite lucrative. Sadly, UK channels face more competition from US streaming services now, so there’s not as much money around.
The most expensive thing you bought for fun?
A British-made 1969 Triumph Tiger T110 motorbike, which cost me £1,700 in 2012. It had been customised and turned into a US-style chopper.
It was only when I started taking it apart to restore it to its original glory that I discovered it was a hunk of junk. Sadly, I’ve never had the money to fully repair it, so 14 years on it’s still lying in chunks on a garage floor.
My most expensive holiday was a week-long family trip to the Maldives in 2014 costing £7,000, but it was the closest thing to paradise and the memories will last for ever.
What has been your biggest money mistake?
I’ve always been terrible with money, so when I changed accountant, while busy with my TV work, I told him I was as financially astute as a PG Tips chimpanzee and that he needed to make everything super simple for me to understand. I didn’t want any nasty shocks.
Lo-and-behold, I was subsequently clobbered with an entirely unexpected £140,000 tax demand on earnings from previous years.
When I did a theatre tour that year, I paid myself for only one out of every five weeks I worked – the rest of the money went to HMRC.
Best money decision you have made?
We bought our first family home, around the corner from a waste treatment plant and in the Heathrow flight path, for £250,000 in 2007.
But with property prices being what they are, it turned out to be a surprisingly good buy, and we sold it for around £100,000 more ten years later.
Will you pass your money down or spend it all?
What with all my live work drying up during Covid and today’s high cost of living, I don’t have a spare farthing to my name right now, so the idea of passing on anything to my children is a bit far-fetched. Theatres are still struggling to get over the long-term consequences of the pandemic.
Do you have a pension?
I don’t pay into a private pension. But I enjoy what I do, so I’ll probably be working into my 60s and beyond.
If you were Chancellor what would you do?
Ensure that online businesses paid the proper amount of tax. We’ve murdered the high street in favour of online shopping, but most of these US online giants are getting away with paying about £2.50 in UK tax each year.
What is your number one financial priority?
Making sure that my children don’t starve!
- Rufus Hound is appearing in The Mesmerist at Watford Palace Theatre from March 2 to 21.