Bankrate: What did you do with your money once it started coming in?
Andy Summers: Well, we took advice on this stuff like anyone else. You create a portfolio with stocks and bonds and all the rest, depending on what type of risk you want to take. I always have taken a fairly conservative stance.
Bankrate: Of course, there was the famous case where Sting's accountant was siphoning off some cash.
Andy Summers: Yeah, one thing I will say about getting to this level is, you need to get an education about it all pretty quickly. We would never do anything except sign contracts and it went on for years. It takes a while to learn about finances and investing and all that. I'm not an expert at all. I remember a period, post-Police, when I started to read a few books about investing so that I could really get into it and I finally found that I'm really not that interested. I take a fairly conservative stance and I think I ask the right questions. I had a couple of other problems along the way. I've got it all right now, but it took me a while to get there. You watch over it and be smart about it, I suppose, if you want to continue to keep living the nice life. You pick up a certain amount of wisdom over the years, but there's no fast track. I haven't got the time. I'm a musician. I can take some interest in it but I'm not suddenly going to give it all up to managing money. It was never the driving force, but now that I've got some, I take an interest in keeping it.
Lesson learned:
Even if you hire a professional to manage your money, you need to understand the basics of investing.
