Are you a financial adviser? What are the daftest things you’ve done with money

The silliest thing I do with money is football.

I can spend all day telling clients to understand their spending, avoid emotional decisions and make sure every pound has a purpose. Then Chelsea, Arsenal or a random women’s game appears and suddenly tickets, travel, food and everything around it become completely “reasonable”.

I genuinely refuse to calculate what football costs me over a year because I suspect the answer would annoy me.

What has it taught me? People are not spreadsheets. We all have something we value enough to spend irrationally on.

That has actually influenced how I advise clients. I do not believe good financial planning means stripping every bit of fun out of life.

The goal is not to stop spending on what you love. It is to know what you are sacrificing to pay for it.

My professional advice: budget for your weaknesses. Mine happens to kick a ball.

I’ve made several daft decisions with money, although fortunately most were cheap lessons.

One was getting carried away in an eBay bidding war over a Talbot Sunbeam postcard from Germany. I paid about £5, instantly regretted it and, when it arrived, put it straight in a drawer. The lesson was simple: don’t let emotion, competition or ego drive a financial decision.

Another was in my early days as a trainee, when I wandered into a dubious High Street auction during lunch. We thought we were bidding on TVs and electronics; in reality, we were bidding on mystery boxes. I paid £5 and got a useless plastic camera.

But the whole thing was brilliant theatre: excitement, urgency, planted confidence and the promise of a bargain. The organisers were so sure of themselves they even recorded it and offered a copy to anyone who thought they’d been scammed.

For £5, it was a superb lesson in how easily people can be scammed.