Martin Lewis fan thanks him for simple £1 trick that helps you get on the housing ladder

Martin Lewis shared a message of thanks from one of his viewers who used one of his many helpful pieces of advice to get on the housing ladder.

When it comes to money there are few, if any, more trusted than Martin Lewis and his Money Saving Expert team.

Last night (9 January), he hosted another episode of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live which featured messages his fans had sent in, with some asking for advice and some saying thank you for the tips.

One viewer who wrote in said they'd used one of his pieces of advice to help towards the cost of getting on the property ladder.

They said: "I put £1 in back in 2021/22 when this was mentioned, to activate. Started looking in 2022 and completed beginning of 2023.

"Thankfully I could use the LISA and I got £1,000 for free. Thank you Martin."

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If you're wondering what a 'LISA' is, it's a Lifetime ISA, and Lewis explained why Brits looking to take their first step on the housing ladder should start sooner rather than later.

You can only use this thing to either save towards buying your first property (at least ones costing up to £450,000) or retirement, but for every bit of money you pay in the government also has to contribute a chunk.

Lewis explained that you need the account to be open for a year before you can use it, so starting sooner rather than later is a good thing and all it takes is £1 to open it and start that countdown.

"You put £1 in… the clock is ticking, then when you want to use it, you can add your money in and because it’s been open a year, you can get the bonus," he said of being able to set up the account with just a quid.

That's why one of Lewis' viewers was thanking him, since they'd activated it with a quid a year before going house hunting they were able to take full advantage of the bonus and pay it towards a home.

You can save up to £4,000 a year in a lifetime ISA and for each chunk of money you put in the government will add a 25 percent bonus.

ITV

So if you're sticking the maximum of £4,000 a year into the account then you'll get £1,000 free and you can keep doing this each year.

The Money Saving Expert has more advice in this direction on his site, where his team explains that the LISA bonus will be paid until you're 50 and you must be between the ages of 18 and 39 to open one of the accounts.

At most if you opened the account as soon as you turned 18 and deposited £4,000 each year then you could get £33,000 of free money, though this could be lower depending on when your birthday falls.

Once you turn 50 you won't be able to put any more money into the account, though whatever you've put in there will still gain interest.

However, you can only withdraw the money if you're buying your first home, are aged 60 or over, or are terminally ill with less than 12 months to live.

Lewis warned people planning to stick their money in a lifetime ISA that there was a 25 percent withdrawal penalty for removing the money early, which wipes out the bonus the government added and a little bit extra.

If you stuck £1,000 in the ISA you'd get a £250 bonus, but since 25 percent of £1,250 is more than that same proportion of £1,000 you'd end up with £937.50, losing some of your original money in the mix.