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CELEBRITY MONEY: RICHARD HAMMOND

Age: 30 Status: married to Amanda, with a two-year-old daughter, Isabella Lives: near Ledbury, Gloucestershire Who is he?
Presenter on BBC2's Top Gear Also: presenter on Travel Channel Earns: "Nothing impressive but a reasonable
five-figure sum." Money tip: "Buy a house young and take a lodger." Worst investment: "Fiat Barchetta for £11,000. A year later I sold it for £6,000."

TOP Gear presenter Richard Hammond claims he is a spender and not good with money, but he has done extremely well out of buying four properties in five years.

Richard says: "I am like a lot of people. I always live up to my means, and slightly beyond, so for many years I struggled.

"When I was younger, owning a car or motorbike was my priority, even if there was nothing in the fridge."

While Richard may have taken out unnecessary loans to buy motor vehicles, he soon thought seriously about property. At 26 he paid £49,000 for his first home, a tiny two-bedroom terrace house in Wendover, Buckinghamshire.

He says: "I sold it for £89,000 after two years, having done nothing to it. I always had a lodger, which covered more than half the mortgage.

"That's why I bought a two-bedroom house and not a one-bedroom flat."

At 28, after working in a secure PR job for several years, Richard went freelance as a TV presenter. He bought a two-bedroom apartment in Cheltenham that was new and stylish, for £127,000. He was not destined to stay there long either. "A year later Amanda announced she was pregnant, and that was the least suitable place to bring up a baby. But I didn't sell it for another year, when it fetched £195,000.

"It was more cost-effective to keep the flat and let it out at £1,400 a month, which paid the mortgage with £700 to spare."

By this time Richard was 29. The Hammonds found a four-bedroom town house in Cheltenham for £225,000 and stayed there for 18 months. They sold it for £360,000.

Richard says: "Over the past few years my income has not gone up, only the equity in our homes. Had we not kept on moving we would never be living in our present house, which has six bedrooms, four acres of land, a pool and stables.

"My £4,000 deposit on my first property at 26 has grown into equity worth £450,000."

At 30 Richard does not have a pension. "They don't seem to provide enough money to live on in retirement," he says.

"If I take out the amount I am supposed to for a pension each month, I will be flat broke through the most exciting years of my life."

Richard hopes eventually to afford an investment flat to see the family through old age.

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