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8 21 . 09 . 14

FAME & FORTUNEJIMMY OSMOND TALKS TO LORRAINE McBRIDE

I was at No1but I had totidy the yardThe ‘LongHaired Lover fromLiverpool’says his father helped keephimgrounded

I WAS pushing my brand-newhand lawnmower, looking outin case our tortoise had donesomething really stupid.AfewyearsagoIranoverher

withmyhovermower.Shehaddecided to bury herself in thelawn and, without noticingher, I shaved the top of hershell. What a fright, not tomentionwhat she thought. Dotortoises have feeling in theirshells? Anyway, after a fewyears the shell grew back,though today, if you peer hardyou can still see the scars.Yes, I did say hand lawn-

mower,youknow,thesortyoupush. For years I have had oneof those cheapo hover things.Almost everyyear Ihavehad toreplace it, as it packsup, or oneof my grandchildren cutsthrough the cord, doing thelawn for me while talking ontheir mobile. Teenagers reallyare as dopey as tortoises.My new mower was only

£50, and so easy to push. I loveusing it, feeling environmen-tally virtuous, saving all thatelectricity, avoiding the faff ofunwinding the cord, pluggingit in, wrapping it all up again. Ilike the gentle brrrrrrringnoise,somuchnicerthanthoseelectric or petrol, roaringmachines that pollute thenation’s back gardens.My youngest grandchild,

Sienna, 5, came out to watchme, trying to work out what Iwas doing.“Why are you wasting all

that energy, Humpa?”That’s a combination of

Grandpa and Hunter. I couldinsist on Sir, or Your Worship,

but I do encourage theyoungergeneration to be familiar.I went up to my room, to

finish some writing. Siennaappeared, pointing out a fewthings as, of course, she is awhizz on the computer. I havehad this Apple for 10 years, yetI still don’t know what all thekeys do. CMD and CTRL— arethey spellingmistakes ?I toldSiennahowforthefirst

40 years of my working life Iused a manual typewriter,

bashingeachkey,andthebitatthesidetochangetheer,what-ever it was, and how it made aclackety-clack noise. It wasgood fun, seeing your wordsappear, but could be tiring ifthe ribbon was wearing out asyou had to hit the keys reallyhard tomake any impression.She thought for a while,

trying to envisage it.“What a waste of energy,

Humpa.”Downstairs, Iwastakingout

the rubbish, plastic bottles,cans and cartons, telling herwhen Iwas a lad, ourpopcameinglassbottles. Iusedtolabori-ously collect them, then takethem to the nearest shop,which was miles away on ourestate. You would get a pennyback for recycling each bottle.

“What a lot of effort it musthave taken.”And we had no plastic bags,

they’d not been invented. Yougot a pennyworth of sweets orbroken biscuits froma large jaror tin and the shopkeeperwrapped it in a brown paperbag. You kept the paper bag,folded it neatly, perhaps evenironed it, and then used it tocover your school books,writing your name on thefront, perhaps add a few foot-ballers cut out of the sportspages, stuck on with home-made paste, made of flour . . .She was dozing off by then,

but came to and managed tonodwisely.“Humpa,youmusthavewasted somuch time.”How true, I said. We had to

walk to the shops, to school,everywhere. The only time wesaw a car in our street waswhen someone was ill and thedoctor got called.Noonedrovechildren to school in thosedays, I said.“Poor you, you must have

been so tired.”Writing letters, especially

thank you letters, that couldtake forever, for we had notexts or tweets or mobilephones. Pen and ink, as well.But letters got delivered

twice a day, morning andafternoon, so that was good.“You mean you had to wait

half a day for a reply? Howboring . . . ”During the war, I said, we

had no sweets, well therewerepretend sweets, which I thinkwere made of cardboard. Wewere all very thin. No one wasfat, when I was young. Therewas no sugar or chocolate.“That wasn’t fair, Humpa,

poor you.”I know, it was awful. We

were so deprived of so manythings, and so tired, using allthat energy, having to dothings for ourselves. I dunnohowwe survived.

Saving energy is a pushoverwith my hand lawnmower

Four decades after his first hit, Jimmy Osmond is still a performer, but property — including the business bought from his father — provides the financial foundation for his family

JIMMYOSMOND, of the 1970s popgroup of Mormon brothers, has a passionfor property— and aweakness forexpensive cars.The youngest of nine children, “Little

Jimmy”Osmond smashed records agedninewhen he became the youngestperformer to have a UKNo 1 single withLong Haired Lover from Liverpool.He also enjoyed global success with the

Osmonds, who soldmore than 100mrecords and are currently performingtheir farewell UK tour. They finish nextSunday in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.Born in California, Osmond largely

grew up on the road. A naturalentrepreneur, by 14 he developedmost ofthe group’smerchandising range. Soonafter he launched a successful advertisingagencywith clients including Coca-Colaand later representedMichael Jackson.He also branched out into acting, TV,property and bought his own theatrewhere the group still performs.Osmond, 51, and his wife Michelle, 48,

have four children: Sophia, 20, Zachary,16,Wyatt, 14, and Bella, 12. They live inProvo, Utah.

How much do you have in your wallet?I don’t have it withme, but I guess $300.I always have a pocketful of pounds,dollars and euros.

What credit cards do you use?I usemy PlatinumAmerican Express thatI’ve had for ever so I canmake largepurchases. It also lets me into coollounges at airports, so when I’m stuckwaiting it’s always nice to have thatoption. I also have aMarriott Black credit

card because I stay at its hotelseverywhere I go so I can amass a lot of“points”. I pay for everythingwhenwetour and it adds up to quite a bit, so it’sfun to collect them.

After Long Haired Lover became a global hit,did money go to your head?No,my dadwould never let it happen,but I think it would have otherwise. Iremember telling him, “Hey Dad, I’mNo 1!”We lived in an apartment complexwe owned becausemy dadwas quitefrugal and he gaveme this trash stick topick up the rubbish and said: “Go andclean up the yard.”Wenever celebrated itand in someways, I regret it, but in otherways I’m grateful.

Your dad was in charge of the band’s money,how did that work out?Hewas great. He put themoney away forall of us and invested it in a real estateportfolio. However, we lost a lot of moneybecausemy brothers talked him intoentrusting it with other people.But the truthwas, once all thatmoney

was gone, selling our real estate protectedus from going under.Dad owned almond orchards and the

big companies that supplied almonds forairlines such as Blue Diamondwould buythem.We invested in apartment complexes

for students, cattle ranches and ownedproperties that were theWal-Marts of theday, so dadwas pretty smart.We soldmost of it but I was fortunate because Ihadmy own investments includingmyrestaurant, Jimmy’s, in Provo that Ibought when I was just 12.

Are you a saver or a spender?At heart I’m a spender, but usually I’msmart enough to know that I’ll get mymoney back ormake something.

How much did you earn last year?I don’t know but at least seven figures inUS dollars.

Have you ever been hard up?Yes, during the debacle of our family’sfortune in the 1980s.We lost between$80mand $100m (£61m) but I hatedwelling on that becausewe’ve all sincerecovered.We entrusted ourmoney andpower of attorney to our businessmanager, butwe found out later he ownedmore of our companies thanwe did. I onlyblame ourselves becausewe allowed thatto happen, but Iwas quite young so youlearn life lessons.When Iwas 15 I ended up on shows

such as The Love Boat and Fame andmademy ownway.My parentswere on amission for the church inHawaii once andIwas at a club in Californiawhen somekids beatme up and Iwas hospitalised.That night, I sat inmy apartmentwith

nothing in it, nomoney inmypocket andjust sucked it up, but it was probably thebest growing experience.

Do you own property?Myhome in Utah has five bedroomswitha guesthouse that we bought six years agofor $4m. I also bought AndyWilliams’stheatre inMissouri after he invitedme tocheck it out— 22 years later, we still playthere. I purchasedmy dad’s real estatebusiness while hewas still alive and Ihave 65 agents. I have holiday homes inIdaho and Arizona.

What was your first job?I started singing at the age of three and Inever stopped.

Are you better off than your parents?Yes. Mymotherwas a teacher but shealso did the books, whilemy dad had thediscipline and courage to push thingsthrough. Dad had a tremendousworkethic and great people skills and thatcombinationwas awinner.

Do you invest in shares?Not really. I have some but the truth is,the stocks I buy are things I like, such asHarley-Davidson.

What’s better for retirement — property orpension?It’s amix of both. I think if you put all

your eggs in one basket, then you betterreally watch that basket.

What’s been your best investment?Property. It’s funny, that dumb littlerestaurant I hadwhen I was so young hasbeen amazing forme. It’s now calledSwig and sells smoothies. My boyZacharyworks there and loves it. Hedoesn’t make a lot, but he’s learninggreat lessons around a lot of pretty girls.

What about your worst?There are somany, but I think investingin entertainment projects such as TVshows andmovies— if you don’t knowwhat you’re doing, you can losemoney soquickly.

Do you manage your own financial affairs?I have people I trust, but I prettymuchmake all the decisions onwhat I do.

What’s the most extravagant thing you haveever bought?I used to blow somuchmoney on crazycars. In the late 1990smy used TestarossaFerrari cost $100,000.

What’s your money weakness?Still cars!

What aspect of tax would you change?Probate tax is hard for a lot of people tounderstand so I think the inheritance taxlaws need to bemodified.

What’s your financial priority?To getmy kids through college becauseit’s not aboutme anymore.

What’s the most important money lessonyou’ve learnt?You have to keep evolving aswhatworkstoday doesn’t necessarilywork tomorrow.

GABRIELA HASBUN

WE ENTRUSTED OURMONEY TO A MANAGERAND FOUND THAT HEOWNED MORE OF OURCOMPANIES THAN WE DID

My life has been awaste of timeand effort, saysHunterDavies

Green machine: themower makes HunterDavies feel virtuous

ST DIGITALWatch Jimmy and the otherOsmonds perform at

thesundaytimes.co.uk/money

VICKI COUCHMAN