Martin Lewis’ journey to multimillionaire Money Saving Expert after losing job

2022-10-13

Martin Lewis has been helping the nation with his money saving tips for years, but this year the Money Saving Expert has been going the extra mile to help millions of people struggling with the cost of living crisis.

Tonight he has a chance of earning some recognition for his hard work after being nominated for a National Television Award as part of a new Expert category added this year.

Lewis has some tough competition as he goes up against The Repair Shop's Jay Blades, Sir David Attenborough and Kaleb Cooper, the breakout star from Clarkson's Farm.

The winner of the new category will be announced live at the NTAs tonight in an evening celebrating the best contributions to British television this year.

Martin has been nominated for the expert advice that he has been offering on The Martin Lewis Money Show, which has seen him provide help with pensions, the energy price cap, student finance and much more.

Here's how Martin Lewis became the Money Saving Expert.

How did Martin Lewis start his career?

Martin moved to London at the age of 19 to study Government and Law at LSE and spent a year as general secretary of the students union.

After graduating, he went on to work as a spin doctor in financial public relations and later returned to university to study broadcast journalism at Cardiff University.

After graduating for the second time, he secured a staff job in the BBC's Business Unit, which saw him working on personal finance and business programmes.

While there, he spent time as a business editor for Radio 4's Today programme as well as reporting for BBC One, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5.

He left the BBC in 1999 in favour of moving to a small digital television channel called Simply Money, and it was here where he first became the 'Money Saving Expert'.

However, after poor viewing figures the channel's main backer withdrew their financial support and almost all of the staff, including Martin, lost their jobs.

From there, he began contributing to a Deal of the Week column in the Sunday Express and started presenting Money Saving Expert slots on Channel 5's Open House with Gloria Hunniford. He also returned to the BBC to work as a business and finance reporter.

In the meantime, Martin set up his site, MoneySavingExpert.com, from his living room back in 2003 — spending just £80 to get the site up and running.

The website focused on tips for cutting bills without cutting back and soon saw huge growth, quickly becoming the UK's biggest consumer site.

How much did Martin Lewis sell MoneySavingExpert for?

In 2012 Martin sold his MoneySavingExpert website to Moneysupermarket.com for a massive £87million.

He received £60million upfront in a mixture of cash and shares as well as a further £27million for meeting targets over the three following years.

Following the sale, he promised £10million of the the money to charity, including £1million for Citizens advice.

Despite selling the site, he stayed on as editor-in-chief and in 2015 he took on the permanent role of Executive Chair.

In the same year as selling the site, Martin also began presenting his own prime-time ITV series, The Martin Lewis Money Show, which has been broadcast live since 2020.

He also continued to act as a resident expert on many other shows, including Lorraine, Good Morning Britain and This Morning.

He also currently writes a column published by over 50 regional newspapers and magazines and makes a weekly appearance on BBC Radio 5 Live's Ask Martin every Wednesday.

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