Soul singer Mica Paris, 52, released her debut album, So Good, in 1988, which went platinum. Since then, she has released seven more albums. As an actress, she has starred in the musicals Fame, Chicago and Love Me Tender, the play The Vagina Monologues and EastEnders. In 2020, she was appointed MBE. She lives in west London and has two daughters.

How did your childhood influence your attitude to money?

My maternal grandmother and grandfather brought me up and they were from the Windrush generation. I watched how my grandmother would take a small amount of money and stretch it forever.

They both worked for British Rail and were so careful with their money, they were able to buy a beautiful five-bedroom house in Brockley, south London, where I was brought up. They taught me about saving.

Did that early advice stand you in good stead when you started out?

It all went to pot, really. When you get your first record deal as a teenager – I was 17 – suddenly, it’s like, “Oh my gosh, I can get everything!” I started to make £1,000 per session as a backing vocalist, so I was on Carnaby Street buying designer outfits.

But I was sensible enough to buy my first flat when I was 18 with my advance. It was just off Hackney Road and cost £30,000. I decorated it myself and sold it for £50,000 two years after that and bought a house in Forest Hill.

My grandma was well proud of me, although I started freaking out when I saw the bills come in, but my grandma said, “Just be calm. Pay what you can, but don’t ever not pay. Always make sure you save a little bit.”

She was the one who taught me how to manage money. Of course, I wish I’d never sold that first flat when you see what Hackney is like now.

Have you made any financial mistakes?

Giving teenage kids all that money is not a sensible thing to do, so I made a lot of mistakes. I spent far too much money on cars. After I bought the flat, I bought a BMW 3 series for about 20 grand.

When you’re young and the money just keeps coming, you think it always will. When you’re flying to America, ­living in New York and touring, it’s glamorous and you’re not thinking about the business side of things.

It’s very hard to be a creative and try to be a business person at the same time. It’s a real challenge. I would like to be on stage all day long and never even look at my finances.

You had to declare bankruptcy in the late 1990s…

I was renting out a flat in London to ­people who weren’t paying the rent, and I didn’t have anyone to manage the flat, so I got into arrears on the mortgage. I couldn’t get them out. So the bank took the property back and I was advised to declare bankruptcy.

I was badly advised. The bankruptcy taught me a lot: that you really have to be on top of your game with your money, and that you need a good financial adviser, not just an accountant. What I really needed was someone to sit me down and tell me how my money should work for me. It took me years to get that right.

You don’t go to school and get taught about money management. You have to learn the hard way. I always say, “Bankruptcy really only means that you made a lot of money.” It’s nothing to feel bad about. A lot of successful business people have been bankrupt.