Easy ride: Matt Edmondson earned enough to pay a year’s mortgage from a scooter ad
The best financial decision that the comedian and TV presenter Matt Edmondson ever made was to set up a board games company during lockdown.
Edmondson, 35, a Sony Award-nominated radio presenter, came up with game ideas when his TV work got postponed because of the pandemic. He told Donna Ferguson the company he co-founded, Format Games, is now a thriving global business.
The celebrity podcast he hosts, Not Another Love Song, is available to download now and his bestselling trivia game, So Wrong It’s Right, is priced at £15.99 on Amazon.
What did your parents teach you about money?
They encouraged me to save. My mother, who was an English language teacher at the University of Portsmouth, is extremely cautious with money. My dad was a resources manager and a German languages lecturer at the university. He is a trawler of car boot sales and loves a bargain.
They both save their money, and I’m the same. I never buy things on a whim.
Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
No, but I did come close. At age 20, I was let go from my job on Children’s BBC. I was spat out with no qualifications and few transferable skills. For six months, I burned through my savings and started having sleepless nights. I still wanted to be a presenter, but I had nothing in the bank and I needed to pay my rent.
As a teenager, I’d had a part-time job selling magic tricks in a joke shop. So I set up a stall in Greenwich market, demonstrating and selling magic tricks. I earned more from that than working at CBBC.
Have you ever been paid silly money?
Yes, to do a fun campaign for Curry’s PC World about scooters. I spent half a day being filmed riding around on one. I probably earned enough to pay my mortgage for a year.
What was the best financial year of your life?
It was the 2016/2017 tax year. I presented several TV shows, including the Xtra Factor, as well as my show on BBC Radio 1.
I genuinely couldn’t say how much I earned. I am not that money driven. I vividly remember my mother telling me that it didn’t matter what I did as long as I …….
