My father was a self-employed, commission-only salesman. He sold double-glazing and fitted kitchens, amongst other things. As he never declared himself unemployed, there was never recourse to benefits, so if money was tight, money was tight. It taught me that we were a closed unit, and that we had to be resourceful.

I'm wary of the new contactless ways of paying. The idea of paying with your phone is a little worrying: I have lost more than one over the years.

I trust to luck. I am planning to be a millionaire before I die but I don't have a plan as to how that will happen.

It is security that I crave and money provides security. What is that old line about money? "Some is good, more is better and too much is just right."

After I graduated from the University of Glasgow, I was a self-employed archaeologist going from dig to dig around Scotland, and it was not well-paid. I was an excavator, not a lecturer as well, so paying rent on a flat was tricky. In the end I decided to retrain as a journalist as I couldn't see a future in it.

Television came looking for me; it was never a plan to become a presenter.

I worked on local papers, before taking a job as a webmaster with a very well known telecommunications company in London, as I thought the internet was the future.