We sold our Sandymount home and moved to Porto for a cheaper and better life

My Money: Triona Campbell

Gabrielle Monaghan

Today at 03:30

Triona Campbell is an author, an Emmy-nominated TV producer, and a director of TV and video games company Roundstone Media. She also created The Adventures of a Young Pirate Queen, an award-winning drama podcast for younger listeners that’s based on the imagined childhood of legendary pirate queen Gráinne Mhaol. The third season of the podcast launched on RTÉjr in February. Campbell’s debut young adult novel, A Game Of Life or Death, was acquired in a three-book deal, and the sequel, The Traitor in the Game, was published in February. A year ago, Campbell moved to Porto with her Portuguese husband Nuno and their two children, Martin and Sofia.

How did your upbringing influence your relationship with money?

My parents weren’t particularly materialistic. My older sister, Keelin, was born profoundly disabled, so growing up the financial focus was on making sure she would be provided for in terms of her care. My parents also put an emphasis on education, and avoiding borrowing.

My dad often quoted that line from Hamlet, “neither a borrower nor a lender be”. It stuck: I avoid loans whenever possible, and I clear my credit cards every month.

When were you most broke?

After college, I worked in theatre before moving into film and television. Traditional theatre shows are rarely profitable, so working on panto at the end of the year was where I made my money. It taught me a lot about what makes or breaks you in the creative industries – the audience.

How did Covid-19 restrictions affect your financial wellbeing?

Covid was a huge financial and quality-of-life reset. The TV series we were shooting had to stand down and RTÉ began to renegotiate our signed contracts to avoid payments due.

The Covid wage subsidy was a lifeline for us. That, and the fact that we owned our home outright, meant we got through okay. But my dad passed away during Covid. It made my husband and I look at the quality of our lives, the work we were doing, and what we wanted going forward.

We were the cliché: time poor, juggling, spending too much on childcare, always travelling and busy. With my dad gone, I had no close family left in Ireland. So, after lockdown, we rented a house for a few months in Porto to see what life might be like if we moved.

At the same time the book I’d written during lockdown got picked up in a six-figure, three-book deal with Scholastic UK. So we sold our house in Sandymount and decided that for the next seven years, we would be based in Porto and fly over and back to Ireland as needed. I now focus on writing and on working as an executive producer in TV.

Moving made us realise how much more we’d been paying to live in Ireland – on healthcare, insurance, food, eating out, childcare, and orthodontics for the kids.

What’s the most expensive place you’ve ever been to?

Cannes during the Cannes Film Festival.

What was your best ever investment?

Our new house – I hope. We’re building one in Porto.

Are you a spender or a saver?

Saver. Working in the entertainment industry, you’re only as good as the last thing you produced or wrote, and to feel secure you need a small cushion for when things go wrong.

Having savings is having freedom and choice – it’s worth more to me that having the latest phone, taking a five-star holiday, or buying a new car.