MSE Discussion: MoneySavingExpert.com to join the MoneySupermarket.com group

tyllwyd

I do think it is going to be difficult to be taken seriously as a moneysavingexpert when he is a multi-millionaire - if I see a blog about switching to value baked beans, or saving petrol by driving at 50mph, I'm just going to think what do you care, you don't have to do that. And, 18 years on, when it comes to student loans - will he be telling his kids to take out loans or paying up front? Still, probably just sour grapes on my part, I'd love to have that problem.

Looksguywalker

How many jobs will go at MSE Towers?

pink_princess

Looksguywalker wrote: »

How many jobs will go at MSE Towers?

Hopefully none, I hope not as I think the staff work incredibly hard, especially the ones who run the forums.

meher

tyllwyd wrote: »

I do think it is going to be difficult to be taken seriously as a moneysavingexpert when he is a multi-millionaire - if I see a blog about switching to value baked beans, or saving petrol by driving at 50mph, I'm just going to think what do you care, you don't have to do that.

Er really would you think that about a GP for instance who might not be a depressive, with a reputation of being a drug addict or a cancer patient himself/herself? 'He hasn't experienced unwellness, therefore he isn't going to understand my experience of feeling unwell or painful existence.'

The moneysaving expert's or his teams' financial status has never occured to me; actually now that it is the focus of discussion, I'd never, for a moment, have thought that he would be a mere mortal like the vast majority of us. Actually if he were, then he doesn't have the qualification to tell me how to save money. He needs to be an expert at it, filthy rich preferably and damn clever to qualify to tell me how to save money. I don't think people who think with their belly have a lot to offer but project their own failure onto the rest of us - we suffer a lot of that over dt discussions, from the victim champions, but that's only imo. Being wealthy means they have the luxury and time for empathy and civilsation - not me Oscar Wilde said so

tyllwyd

meher wrote: »

Er really would you think that about a GP for instance who might not be a depressive, with a reputation of being a drug addict or a cancer patient himself/herself? 'He hasn't experienced unwellness, therefore he isn't going to understand my experience of feeling unwell or painful existence.'

The moneysaving expert's or his teams' financial status has never occured to me; actually now that it is the focus of discussion, I'd never, for a moment, have thought that he would be a mere mortal like the vast majority of us. Actually if he were, then he doesn't have the qualification to tell me how to save money. He needs to be an expert at it, filthy rich preferably and damn clever to qualify to tell me how to save money. I don't think people who think with their belly have a lot to offer but project their own failure onto the rest of us - we suffer a lot of that over dt discussions, from the victim champions, but that's only imo. Being wealthy means they have the luxury and time for empathy and civilsation - not me Oscar Wilde said so

No, I don't expect a GP to have experienced the same illness as myself, I am relying on their professional training and experience. But Martin Lewis' image is very much the bloke next door, the consumer champion. Although I never imagined that he was on the breadline, I would still say that a multi-million pound fortune doesn't sit well with the image of the moneysavingexpert that he has built up - swapping food brands to cheaper ones, driving a Smart car, avoiding 0800 phone lines and all the rest of it.

gavpowell

tyllwyd wrote: »

Martin Lewis' image is very much the bloke next door

Knightsbridge has next doors too

CFC

barmonkey wrote: »

have you ever read such b00l0ck5
it was a privately owned company, Martin can do whatever he wants with it, you are not paid to be here, or pay to use the site, so you have no say at all in what is done with it.

You don't seem to understand the difference between

STAKEHOLDER
and
SHAREHOLDER.

JimmyTheWig

tyllwyd wrote: »

I do think it is going to be difficult to be taken seriously as a moneysavingexpert when he is a multi-millionaire - if I see a blog about switching to value baked beans, or saving petrol by driving at 50mph, I'm just going to think what do you care, you don't have to do that.

Martin became a millionaire some time ago through money he made from this site.
I think there have been public decisions in the past that have reflected his wealth (e.g. he buys his shirts in Gap and buys branded Sugar Puffs) but in general I do believe that he believes in what he says. I think for Martin MoneySaving is more a principle than the necessity it is for many of us.

John_Pierpoint

I think there is a danger in MSE becoming main-stream media.
Up to now it has had the advantage of being a bit out of control interweb style.
The inherently bad guys have found it difficult to run off to their lawyers and get an injunction, the way that "Captain Bob" (aka Robert Maxwell aka Jan Ludvik Hyman Binyamin Hoch) used to respond.

Many a lawyer would have warned against spending a fortune in legal fees and get little chance of enforcing judgement to obtain damages; meanwhile the information would have "gone viral" [Just how many attempts have been made to close down this site, both legally and illegally by denial of service attacks and possibly malicious postings? ]

Now that the site will be owned by shareholders and it clearly has wealth worth seizing, it will be forced to become "mainstream".

There is nothing more nauseating than those self congratulatory pieces that appear where "Widow Twanky has lost her husband in a horrific accident and his insurance company discovers that the insurance policy is not effective for deaths on holiday in the Isle of Man where the holiday maker is now "self employed" having been made redundant and anyway he was 24 hours over his 60th birthday".
Isn't it wonderful, the moment Honest Ed writes on the headed notepaper of Mirror/Sun/DM/Telegraph the widow is showered with bouquets of flowers and ex gratia payments.
There we are the problem is instantly solved - are we not all wonderful ? **

Well actually no !!! Because the same old attitude keeps on cropping up again and again and we all know there are other similar cases unsolved in the files.

Far better to have a slow but burning thread there on MSE that flushes out all those other desperate little people. They are still being fobbed off by middle management, while their directors are concentration on a place in the birthday honours.

John

** ............(and please don't cancel the advertising contract).

John_Pierpoint

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Martin became a millionaire some time ago through money he made from this site.
I think there have been public decisions in the past that have reflected his wealth (e.g. he buys his shirts in Gap and buys branded Sugar Puffs) but in general I do believe that he believes in what he says. I think for Martin MoneySaving is more a principle than the necessity it is for many of us.

Bringing up the child will be a challenge - I am sure both parents will want the very best for him/her.

[Tip: you can get some remarkably good branded stuff second hand, if you join a circle in a wealthy middle class neighbourhood and if you get good at sniping on Ebay - though some shallow people will never believe that something branded at Lidl can be as good as the brand leader - just try doing a blind test "find the lady" style and watch them trying to argue that black is white].

Avoid discussing world resources with someone needing a 4 wheel drive people carrier for their brood; they just know God will fit out their kids with tickets for planets 2 and 3 when the time comes.