Expelled from school for fighting at 15 and earning £50,000 a year as a mechanic and bouncer aged 19 to hundreds of thousands as the World’s Strongest Man before he turned thirty, Eddie, ‘The Beast,’ Hall has always punched above his financial weight.
Now, sharing screen time with Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham in this month’s action-adventure movie Expend4bles, the record-breaking athlete and property mogul’s finances are as solid as his biceps.
What’s in your wallet?
I don’t have a wallet. I just have a little pocket on the back of the phone, that I keep my credit cards in and perhaps keep a ten-pound note and a twenty-pound note. No coins.
I prefer contactless to cash anyway as there’s less germs and you know what’s going in and what’s going out.
Are you flashy or frugal?
In between maybe. I’m not really a show-off guy although it is hard to say that when I’ve got an army tank sat on my drive. It’s a boy’s toy. I’ve spent my whole life really wanting these things and not being able to afford them and then when you get to a place where you can afford them it’s like, ‘right,’ why not,’ I bought mine for quite a low price – still well over six figures – just before the war in Ukraine started, but prices have gone through the roof now.
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Most people would buy a sports car or a motorbike, but I fancied a road-legal tank and that’s what I’ve got. I collect my son up from school in it and pick up a pint of milk from the local shop in it to a pint, which does leave quite a few people’s jaws on the floor. I regularly see old women just standing there going, ‘What the f**k is that?’
What was it like growing up?
Growing up was tough. Dad was a health and safety officer, and Mum was a swimming teacher, and then aged 53 she became a firewoman. They had a decent income but lived in a house that probably stretched beyond their means, so food and entertainment were scarce. I remember seeing my mom cry at petrol stations because we didn’t have enough money to fill the Mini up.
I guess growing up in that environment, you just want to steer clear of it as best as you can because you know how miserable it can be, not just for the parents but also for the kids.
How did your income increase from your early days as a mechanic to becoming the world’s strongest man?
Aged 16, I did an apprenticeship as a mechanic then when I got my qualifications aged 18, I was initially paid about £18,000 a year then twelve months later I moved elsewhere to earn about £30,000.
I supplement that by moonlighting as security in nightclubs and pubs so from the age of 19 I’ve been used to earning fifty grand a year. I only quit my job in 2014 to become a full-time athlete and then I lived off sponsors, endorsem*nts, appearance money, and prize money and set up my full-time business, Eddie The Beast Hall, to manage all my finances in a more tax-efficient way.
When I won the World’s Strongest Man in 2017 was amassing hundreds of thousands very quickly.
You also worked with Sylvester Stallon, Jason Statham, and Megan Fox in this year’s Expend4bles. Were you paid as much as Sly?
No, I very much doubt it. I was only in a small scene, and I was on set for ten days and probably earned about £300-£500 a day. People think it’s a dream world when you hit Hollywood, it really isn’t. If you’re Sly or Arnie, you can earn millions, but if you’re not and you demand any more than five grand you’re laughed at.
I did get to left up Jason Statham with one and nearly hit him but then I was shot and then I got to charge Sylvester Stallone and hit him, and he then threw me over a rock.
Do you own a property?
I was expelled from school aged 14 or 15 for fighting and started going to the gym, and some wise older body builders and strongmen in their 30s, 40s and 50s in the gave me some great advice: ‘Don’t pay into a pension, buy a house.’ It was a lightbulb moment and I thought, ‘Why would you give your money as somebody else to look after, and then they hold it to ransom until you’re nearly dead, and then they give you back?’
So, the day I turned 18 I bought a three-bedroom semi-detached house in my local area and then immediately rented it out to get on the property ladder.
I bought my second house a year later and so on and so on and gradually build up quite a decent property portfolio. Today I live in the property I’m in today and my business own quite a few properties.
Do you invest in shares?
No, I’m at the point in my career where I’m just building up capital, ready to invest into bigger businesses. I’ve also just invested into a protein business, Pharm, which launches this month.
I’m also planning to open a major 60,000 square feet gym somewhere. I’ve also got investments in the Middle East in gold mining companies.
Have you ever struggled financially?
When I quit my job in 2014 to commit myself to win the World’s Strongest Man, I went from working 80 hours a week earning fifty grand a year to just dropping everything and lived off savings.
I had no real back-up and I had mortgages to pay and kids to feed but in the end it came good.
How much do you spend monthly on food?
Now not so much now but at my biggest at 32 stones I was spending consuming 12,000 calories a day, so I was spending £400 a week on food. Just for me. Not the wife and kids. Plus £250 a week on physios, gym memberships, supplements.
Probably £900 a week every week just on getting my body into shape.
What’s been your most lucrative work?
The most moment for the least effort is probably companies paying me £5,000 just to share a story on Instagram. A couple of those a month, and you’ve paid the bills.
What’s your best investment?
Investing in myself. When I quit my job, I had to have hyperbaric chambers. I had to have a hydro pool. I had to have saunas. Ice baths. That level of investment was insane, but it was necessary to win the World’s Strongest Man, which in the end has paid off massively.
Whatever I was charging prior to winning went up by about five times after I won. No one gives a sh*t about the runner up.
What’s your money weakness?
Cigars. And not cheap ones. I generally spend a grand for a box of 25.
What’s your greatest extravagance?
My gaming set-up is insane. I’ve got the world’s most powerful gaming PC with a massage chair, and three screens that wrap around your head. It’s ultra-high end.
What’s your best for retirement: property or pension?
Definitely not pensions. Pensions aren’t worth a pot to piss in these days.
Most likely property. I’ll just keep investing in property. You just can’t go wrong. Property is the safest place to invest your money.
Eddie Hall– and his fleet of Beast vehicles work– is an ambassador for In www.inxpress.com
