Gail Vaz-Oxlade

Gail Vaz-Oxlade
Born Gail Vaz
June 18, 1959[1][2]
Jamaica
Nationality Jamaican, Canadian
Occupation financial writer, television host
Website
http://www.gailvazoxlade.com, http://commonsensedivorce.ca, http://www.debtfreeforever.ca

Gail Vaz-Oxlade (born June 18, 1959 in Jamaica) is a Jamaican-Canadian financial writer and television personality who lives in Brighton, Ontario, Canada. Vaz-Oxlade hosts the Canadian television series Til Debt Do Us Part, Princess and, most recently, Money Moron. Vaz-Oxlade is also a regular columnist for Yahoo! Canada Finance. Previously, she was a regular feature writer for The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine magazine, IE: Money, and MoneySense.ca, among others.[1][3] Gail most recently ventured into the divorce realm by offering financially based divorce services through the Common Sense Divorce.

Career

Vaz-Oxlade began her career after moving to Canada, working as an administrative assistant and later taking a job in marketing.[4] In that role she was asked by a banking client to write a manual for its employees on its Registered Retirement Savings Plan products, which grew into Vaz-Oxlade writing all of the bank's technical materials.[4] Within a number of years, Vaz-Oxlade began freelance writing, ultimately writing 27 columns every month.[1][4]

Citing burn-out, Vaz-Oxlade quit and moved to Brighton, Ontario with her family and over a two-year period did volunteer work and raised her family.[4] After that time, she was asked by a production company to host Til Debt Do Us Part.[4] In her role on that show, Vaz-Oxlade describes herself as a "super nanny for money".[1] After seven seasons of hosting the program, Vaz-Oxlade agreed to continue with the show if the network, Slice, allowed her to do a new show. The network agreed, resulting in the creation of Princess, which focuses on young women rather than couples.[4]

In 2011, Vaz-Oxlade began a campaign advocating for changes in the way lenders assess lending criteria, particularly for credit cards.[5] As part of that effort, Vaz-Oxlade urged Canadian consumers to stop using their credit cards for one week and pay cash only; as well, she urged Canadians to write to their Members of Parliament to urge changes in legislation restricting the use of credit scores in the granting of credit.[5]

Personal life

Born to a wealthy family in Jamaica, Vaz-Oxlade immigrated to Canada with her family in 1977. Born Gail Elizabeth Theresa Vaz.[4] Her family includes Douglas Vaz a former president of the Jamaica Manufacturers Association and former Minister of Industry and Commerce. Her surname is the result of hyphenating her maiden name and her first husband's surname.[4] She has been married three times: the first marriage lasted one year (he was physically abusive towards Vaz-Oxlade) ; the second lasted nine years; and the third lasted eighteen years.[4] However, Vaz-Oxlade, in a money-saving endeavour, has not divorced her last husband. Rather, they are legally separated.[4] Vaz-Oxlade has two children, Alexandra (Alex) Kaitlin Prue (born September 1st, 1993) and Malcolm Kenneth Prue (born March 1st, 1996)both by c-section. [3]

Books

Vaz-Oxlade has written several books, including:

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Personal debt makes good reality television". Financial Post. Retrieved 2010-06-30.
  2. ↑ http://gailvazoxlade.com/blog/archives/2882
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Suzanne Ellis (2011-11-20). "How to teach your kids about money". CityNews Toronto. Retrieved 2011-11-25.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 Sarah Hampson (2010-01-30). "Gail Vaz-Oxlade: The accidental guru". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2010-06-30.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Tom McFeat (2011-11-07). "Banks hooking Canadians on credit, Gail Vaz-Oxlade says". CBC. Retrieved 2011-11-25.

External links