Gail Vaz-Oxlade (born June 18, 1959) is a Jamaican-Canadian financial writer and television personality. 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 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 Gail Elizabeth Theresa Vaz[4] to a wealthy family in Jamaica, Vaz-Oxlade emigrated to Canada with her family in 1977. 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; 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 and Malcolm Kenneth Prue.[3]
Books
Vaz-Oxlade has written numerous books, including:
The RRSP Answer Book (Stoddart annually 1991–1998)[6]
