How Hughesy turned $100,000 into a dollar
Dave Hughes has opened up about an ill-fated financial investment that saw him lose a six-figure.
The comedian told the Hit Network’s Carrie & Tommy that he sold his share in a business venture, which cost him $100,000, for just a dollar.
“I once invested in a bar and my share – I mean, I’m going to be unrelatable here to some people – my share cost $100,000,” Hughes said on Monday.
Hughes explained that the nightclub, which was in an up-and-coming part of town, did not align with his lifestyle. “I was trying to leverage my profile to make the bar happen, but also I wanted to get joy out of it,” the 48-year-old said.
“I don’t drink and I had a wife at the time … I invested $100,000 for my share and I sold that share for $1.”
The failed foray into the hospitality industry is not Hughes’ only misadventure. In 2017, Hughes bought a five-bedroom house in Elsternwick, Melbourne for $3 million, only to find out later that the bank valued the property at “much less”.
He told Triple M’s Hot Breakfast in January last year that “it took a while” before he could find a tenant for the property, which was renovated by Josh Barker and Elyse Knowles on The Block. “I had trouble renting it,” he said.
“At one point the real estate agent rang me and said, ‘someone wants to move in but they’ve got a dog’. I felt like saying, ‘I don’t care whether they’ve got a meth lab’.”
It was later reported that Hughes found a renter who paid $2,500 to $3,000 per week for the place.