FORMER newspaper editor Piers Morgan has become a television personality, judging Britain’s Got Talent as well as the American version.

His editorship of the Daily Mirror was at times controversial: he bought £67,000 worth of shares in the computer company Viglen just before the Mirror’s City Slickers column tipped the stock.

Morgan was fired in 2004 for publishing faked photos of Iraqi prisoners being abused by British soldiers.

He is currently promoting the paperback version of his second volume of diaries, Don’t You Know Who I Am?

Born and brought up in Newick, East Sussex, he keeps homes there and in London. He has three sons: Spencer 14, Stanley 10, and Bertie, seven.

How much money do you have in your wallet? I’ve got about £300, but it’s all in new Scottish £50 notes. I spent 10 minutes this morning trying to persuade a Sri Lankan newsagent it was legal tender, but he was having none of it. “They’re euros in disguise,” he concluded, bafflingly.

Do you have any credit cards? I’ve got a gold American Express, a gold Coutts Mastercard, a normal Coutts bank card, and an Arsenal Mastercard.

The last one is just for sentimental reasons and I like using it in places like Tottenham and Millwall. Sometimes the joke is on me, though. A West Ham supporting manager at The Ivy once gleefully held it aloft when it failed to go through his credit-card machine, and said in a very loud and jubilant voice: “Sorry Piers, but it’s been rejected.” I always pay off my bill in full each month.

Are you a saver or a spender? Both. I like to be in charge, and I know exactly what I earn and how much I have in the bank. I don’t put money aside on a regular basis, but I’m always careful. Having said that, I also like being impetuous with money, otherwise there’s no point in working so hard for it, is there?

How much did you earn last year? I don’t want to reveal too much as I’m going through a divorce, but it’s a good six figures – several multiples of the prime minister’s salary.

It’s far too much when you consider that most of the time I am sitting in a large leather chair in Hollywood, judging dancing horses and Mongolian contortionists.

I earn money in a variety of ways these days – TV, books, magazine columns and interviews, newspaper articles, speeches and other commercial stuff. It all adds up to a fairly repulsive sum, but then I pay a fairly repulsive tax bill, too.

How much was in your first pay packet? I got paid £15 to write a 1,500-word article for the Mid Sussex Times about my village cricket team’s trip to Malta. I was so excited that I framed the cheque, and still have it. I was 15 at the time.

Have you ever been really hard up? I spent one summer logging trees in a forest just to pay my rent at Harlow journalism college when I was 18. I got paid £35 a day, developed very large forearms, and nearly died when a giant conifer fell the wrong way and missed my head by three inches.

What is the most lucrative work you have ever done? Did you use the fee for something special? I get paid ridiculous amounts of money occasionally to go and make speeches in places like Dubai or Stockholm – up to £50,000 a time, including first-class flights and six-star hotels.

What is the most extravagant thing you have ever bought? I spent £10,000 on four season tickets at Arsenal’s new Emirates stadium for me and my three sons. I guess they will cost me at least £500,000 by the time I leave this world because I intend to renew them every year. I don’t mind, though – it’s the best father-son bonding exercise you could possibly wish for.

Are you financially better off than your parents? I probably earn more than my parents do. My father still runs a meat, poultry and game distribution business and my mother is an artist.

Do you own a property? I bought the other half of my parents’ house in the East Sussex village of Newick around the turn of the millennium. It’s a Georgian Grade II-listed building that cost me about £380,000, but is worth around £1.3m now – and that’s just for the half that’s mine. I also converted the garage into a cottage for my grandmother three years ago, so it’s a bit like the Waltons there now, especially when my brothers and sister come to stay with their seven kids.

I also own a studio flat on the river near Chelsea Harbour. I’ve had that for about four-and-a-half years. I paid about £550,000, which included £50,000 worth of furnishing. It’s probably only worth around £550,000 now without the furnishing.

Do you invest in shares? What do you think? No, not after Viglen. It was a nightmare.

What’s better – property or pension? I have a couple of pensions from my newspaper days, but certainly not enough to live off. I don’t pay into a pension anymore. I see property as a safer long-term investment. I think there’s going to be a correction more than a crash in the property market, but I think in places like London, there’s always going to be high demand.

What’s been your best investment in life? Buying Simon Cowell dinner at Cipriani about three years ago. He had spaghetti bolognese, I had the veal, and it cost me about £126. It ultimately landed me lucrative judging roles on Britain’s Got Talent and America’s Got Talent.

What about the worst? The day I decided to purchase shares in Viglen will probably go down as the least well advised business decision made by a journalist. I sold all the shares and gave the proceeds to charity. I also lost about £250,000 on Press Gazette, the trade publication I bought with Matthew Freud in 2005. We revitalised the magazine and transformed the British Press Awards into a great event again. The only problem was that many of my old Fleet Street mates decided to knife us squarely in the back, for which I will be eternally ungrateful.

Do you manage your own financial affairs? No, I leave it all in the capable hands of my PA, and my long-term (and long-suffering) accountant.

What is your financial priority? I haven’t had to worry about paying a bill in 20 years, and I want to keep it that way. There is nothing more soul-destroying than fearing that you can’t make ends meet.

What is your money weakness? Good wine, bad women and song. I always try to drink the best wine I can afford now, preferably with a beautiful and mischievous woman.

What aspect of our taxation system would you change? I’d make the rich pay more tax, and lower tax for those in the £30,000-£50,000 a year bracket. The very poor would pay nothing. I’d then abolish inheritance tax altogether, and make billionaires pay 99% of their wealth to the NHS if they ever needed emergency life-saving medical treatment. Why? Because they’d pay it.

What is the most important lesson you have learnt about money? It’s complete nonsense that money can’t buy happiness. I always remember having a long, hilarious lunch at the Savoy with the Chelsea football tycoon Matthew Harding. “I live every day as if it’s my last,” he said, as the bill arrived at 4pm. “Why?” I replied. “Because one day I’ll be right.” And we ordered another bottle of Dom Perignon. Four months later, Matthew was killed in a helicopter crash coming back from a game. He was 42, but had lived the life of a 90-year-old.