Kate Crowhurst
Bite-Size Read:
- Love Island is one of our reality TV guilty pleasures to watch.
- This year Love Island will provide its reality TV stars with a financial education.
- We discuss this new wellbeing measure and what every Love Island contestant needs to know when they leave the villa.
I’ve got a text!
That’s a line you can expect to hear regularly on one of our favourite TV shows, Love Island. The show is a cultural phenomenon in which young single people compete to find love. The impossibly good-looking contestants all state that their goal is to find a relationship.
However, the goal of Love Island is ultimately financial.
The final objective of the show is to receive the £50,000 or $92,000 prize money, which you can only get by being one half a popular couple. Most of those couples on the show don’t end up in a relationship. Applicants having only a 1 in 35,000 chance of finding love of finding love, and a mere 7% of couples are still together when the cameras stop rolling.
It’s no surprise to us that Love Island needs to provide financial education.
The experience of previous contestants revealed the need to do more to reduce the risk of harm to contestants, including their financial status. Islanders will have access to training in financial management once they’ve left the show. There are at least 5 financial tips that a contestant should pack in their Love Island suitcase when leaving the villa..
Here’s 5 Love Island financial education tips for this year’s contestants:
1. Look into a sponsorship deal
If you’re popular on the show, you have a 100% chance of getting a sponsorship deal. Contestants gain large social media followings, earning them thousands of pounds in sponsorships, depending on their number of followers.
2. Create a plan to build their career
Love Island contestants can earn them up to £5,000 per hour from club appearances. The contestants impacted by the COVID pandemic lost up to £500,000 in earnings because they couldn’t make these appearances. All contestants should have a plan for how they want to build a career, particularly before the next series of the show.
3. Build an emergency fund
The COVID pandemic showed why an emergency fund is crucial to cover life emergencies. Contestants should direct some of their earnings towards that emergency fund and build this up over time. Fame is fleeting and having an emergency fund means that they will have the money to look after themselves and others when needed.
4. Montior their spending habits
Club appearances can mean pressure to spend more on clothes, make-up and hair to look perfect. However, this can reduce wealth over time, which Is why a budget can be useful to ensure expenses don’t exceed your income. That includes having budget-friendly dates nights if they leave the villa with a partner and don’t have the red rose budget of the Love Island production crew.
5. Move towards financial independence
With every series of Love Island, more reality TV stars launch their TV career. That work gets more competitive each year as more contestants join the show alumni. While some contestants go on to star on other reality TV shows, it’s worth them looking into developing financial independence, including whether they should retire early.
We’re fully in favour of Love Island becoming more financially lit.
I feel much better watching Love Island, knowing that these reality TV stars will have a financial education to support their wellbeing. This means that future contestants have a good chance of being the best-dressed grandparents in the retirement village, each shouting out, “I’ve got a text!”.
