My Money: ‘My pension plan? To do a Joanne McNally and take my one-woman-show to the 3Arena’

Barbara Scully is a writer, broadcaster and comedy storyteller. She published a book, Wise Up: Power, Wisdom and the Older Woman, in 2022 and is currently touring her first one-woman show, called Older, Bolder, Wiser.

Next year, Scully will take her new show, Because I’m Worth It, on the road. She lives in Cabinteely, Dublin, with her photographer husband Paul Sherwood. For tour dates and tickets to Scully’s shows, visit barbarascully.com.

How did your upbringing influence your relationship with money?

My father thought that the best way to ensure financial security was to join the civil service. He joined what was then called Customs & Excise as a messenger and worked his way to the top. When he retired, he had a good pension, which my mother continued to get half of after he died. So he was right. None of us listened to him, of course.

Comedian Joanne McNally’s live shows have been hugely popular

My mother was a trailblazer, although she didn’t know it. She went back to work in the mid-1970s, when a woman going out to work was seen as something of an insult to her husband.

In 1986, when she was 50, she set up her own business as a word-processing trainer. She showed me it’s never too late to reinvent yourself.

The only direct financial advice I got was from the nuns in school. They taught us that as soon as we started working, we should divide our wages in three: a third to give up at home, a third for savings, and a third to spend. I never took any notice of this, either.

Have you ever felt broke?

Regularly. I’ve always prioritised job enjoyment over earnings, so I’ve worked in jobs that I loved but didn’t pay particularly well. Instead of joining the civil service when I left school, I went into the travel business (much to my dad’s disappointment). It was a job I loved but the pay was shite. My wages (and I did pay up at home) would last three weeks and on week four, I’d cash cheques made out to ‘cash’ in the pub to keep afloat.

We had some money once and spent over €5,000 on a corner sofa

We were also seriously broke when the Celtic Tiger upped and died. We were living solely on my husband’s income as a freelance photographer, and jobs just dried up. The pandemic nearly did us in financially as well – it cost us all the bit of savings we had just to keep our mortgage paid.

What was your biggest ever extravagance?

Outside of buying our house? We had some money once and spent over €5,000 on a corner sofa. We bought it in about 2016 and it’s the best thing we ever bought. One of my daughters recently asked if I’d add a note to our will to say she should get the sofa.

Are you a spender or a saver?

I don’t often have more than I need, but when I do, I chuck some into a savings account ‘til I need it. Which is usually to go to Australia to visit the kids and grandkids.

Do you have a pension?

Not a private one, no. I’m hoping to write a multi-million-euro bestseller in the coming years. Or do a Joanne McNally and take my one-woman shows to the 3Arena.

What three things would you not be able to do without if you had to tighten your belt?

Gin (although, I have enough to keep me going for a while – I’m not a total eejit). My animals – four cats, a big dog, the family of foxes that I feed in the garden. And trips to Australia to see my girls and grandkids. Obviously these are in reverse order.