Gail Vaz-Oxlade


Gail Vaz-Oxlade 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. Gail most recently ventured into the divorce realm by offering financially based divorce services through The Common Sense Divorce.
𝕏 GailVazOxlade

Career

Vaz-Oxlade began her career after moving to Canada, working as an administrative assistant and later taking a job in marketing. 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. Within a number of years, Vaz-Oxlade began freelance writing, ultimately writing 27 columns every month.
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. After that time, she was asked by a production company to host Til Debt Do Us Part. In her role on that show, Vaz-Oxlade describes herself as a "super nanny for money". 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.
In 2011, Vaz-Oxlade began a campaign advocating for changes in the way lenders assess lending criteria, particularly for credit cards. 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.

Personal life

Born Gail Elizabeth Theresa Vaz 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. She has been married three times: the first marriage lasted one year; the second lasted nine years; and the third lasted eighteen years. However, Vaz-Oxlade, in a money-saving endeavour, has not divorced her last husband. Rather, they are legally separated. Vaz-Oxlade has two children, Alexandra Kaitlin Prue and Malcolm Kenneth Prue.

Books

Vaz-Oxlade has written numerous books, including:
  • The RRSP Answer Book
  • The Borrower's Answer Book
  • The Retirement Answer Book
  • Shopping for Money: Strategies for Successful Borrowing
  • The Money Tree Myth: A Parents Guide to Helping Kids Unravel the Mysteries of Money
  • A Woman of Independent Means: A Woman's Guide to Full Financial Security
  • Dead Cat Bounce: The Skinny of E-Vesting
  • Divorce: A Canadian Woman's Guide
  • Education Planning
  • Debt-Free Forever:Take Control of Your Money and Your Life
  • Never Too Late: Take Control of Your Retirement and Your Future
  • Debt-Free Forever:Take Control of Your Money and Your Life US Edition
  • Easy Money
  • Money-Smart Kids
  • It's Your Money: Becoming a Woman of Independent Means
  • Money Rules: Rule Your Money, Or Your Money Will Rule You
  • Saving for School: Understand RESPs, Take Control of Your Savings, Minimize Student Debt
  • Never Too Late: Take Control of Your Retirement and Your Future Revised Edition
  • Money Talks: When to Say Yes and How to Say No