Jaume Clotet: "With my first salary I rented an apartment in Barcelona. Now it would be unthinkable"
The journalist, historian and writer speaks about the relationship he has had throughout his life with money
The journalist, historian, and writer Jaume Clotet (Barcelona, 1974) grew up in a family of bankers – both his father and mother worked there –, but that world never appealed to him: “They had a good understanding of family economics, finance, investments, bonds, stocks... and I’ve been quite uninterested in that in life”. He did inherit the values of saving and prudence: “If my mother invested in the stock market, it was in very controlled and prudent things”, he explains in statements to Empreses.
His first contact with money came in a capitalist way, as a reward based on school performance: "My father gave me money every quarter for my school grades, I don't remember the scale, perhaps it was 50 pesetas for each excellent and 25 for a very good. My sister earned a lot more money because she got very good grades." And he kept his Christmas money in his savings account.
Before entering the workforce, he found an unconventional way to earn money: participating in clinical trials. "I was the guinea pig for the pharmaceutical industry," he explains. In a few days, he could cover significant expenses: "In one or two weeks, I paid for my entire summer or an Interrail trip." His first job came after university, with an internship at TV3 that was extended. Although it was part-time, he had a good salary because it was night work.
The first stable contract was at the newspaper Abc. That period coincides with a decision that today he sees as almost impossible for new generations: "With my first salary, I rented an apartment. That is, I was earning a base salary as a reporter for a newspaper in Barcelona and I was able to move to the city center. The apartment was small, but at 26 years old, I was able to do it." "Leaving home with just one salary is unthinkable now," clarifies the journalist.
In the financial sphere, your best investment has been precisely housing: "I bought an apartment at a very good time, with a very tight mortgage". He assures that he was not in a hurry to buy and was able to benefit from it. In fact, he doesn't remember ever losing money: "Never getting my fingers caught, nor taking too many risks. I don't bet, I don't gamble on any of that." "I have never taken out a loan other than for the apartment, not even to buy a car. It doesn't leave until the vehicle falls apart," he assures. He maintains the philosophy with which he was educated: "In my house, you don't kill the inheritance you receive, you keep it, and what my mother left me will go to my daughters".
On a professional level, Clotet, in addition to being a writer, has embarked on very different projects: "I have been deputy director of the Catalan News Agency or section head of a newspaper; I have done so many different things that I never have the same salary. Sometimes it is higher, sometimes lower. Now I am in a phase where I earn less than before." But he compensates for it with more personal balance, far from the demanding schedules he has had in previous stages.
The passage through the Government
In this sense, he talks about his time in Government: "People say that you lose money in government. That's a lie. Government people earn more than in private life. I have earned more money than in the years I was in journalism," he says, being a writer. Clotet was indicted in 2017 for the referendum and that also "harmed" him in some aspects of his professional career: "It affected me when signing some contracts. But I already knew what I was going to do." And, therefore, he does not regret it.
He is currently self-employed and, in addition to collaborating with media, he also writes books. A more vocational than economic activity: "In Catalonia, only one out of every three books sold is in Catalan." "You can't make a living writing books here. Nor is that my intention. For me, it has always been an addition, and I only do them when I have time or ideas [...]. I've done things so much because I like them that if I look at what I've written, it has no coherence whatsoever. I have written an essay with Quim Torra on Francoist censorship, I have written children's books, I have written an essay on military policy in the independent state, and I have written novels of different types." The last work he has written –before he was awarded the Premi Josep Pla de narrativa, for the work The Brotherhood of the Fallen Angel (2024)— is The King's Sword (2026).