Finance guru had early lessons
Spending to increase her own knowledge is best investment, says Gail Vaz- Oxlade
Gail Vaz-Oxlade is the host of Til Debt Do Us Part on Slice and the host of The Late Shift on Newstalk 1010. In our series on the financial habits of notable Canadians, VazOxlade shared her plant and book problem, the financial lessons learned through failed marriages and the value that comes from spending money on yourself. How did your family influence your attitude toward money?
When I was 12, I started getting an allowance, I got two dollars a week pocket money and I got five dollars a week for lunch money. When I was14, my dad offered me a savings-matching program. He said as much money as I could save . . . he would match it and we would open up my first bank account.
This was the year that my neighbours were celebrating a big anniversary . . . they had a massive magnum champagne bottle. I took it and every time my father gave me a penny I stuck it in the empty bottle. At the end, we opened up the bottle and my father was stunned to see how much money I had. What was the best financial advice you ever received?
My mother telling me to make sure that I had enough and the right kind of insurance. I bought my disability and life insurance when I was very young so I have had a very reasonable premium my whole life.
Everything with money interlocks like a jigsaw puzzle and when you are missing a piece you are f--ked. Having all that money in an RRSP does you no good if you have no emergency fund and no disability insurance because you will wipe it out in no time flat. What was your first job and what did you learn?
Telemarketing, I was doing politi- cal surveys. It taught me how to use my voice because you got paid by the completion of the survey. It made me very aware of how to grab somebody’s interest and how to lure them through to the next place. What was your first big purchase? A desk that I still have. It came with a Chippendale-style chair. It was a two-tiered desk with little drawers at the front. What has been your savviest investment? Me; the amount of money I spend on my brain. I spend a lot of money learning new things, reading books, finding ways to extend my creativi- ty. I do not have past a high school education, so everything I know, I know because I went out and found it. Any bad spending habits? I do have a little bit of a tea addiction and I can’t pass a book and green things, plants. If they are wonky that is even better. What is your best money-saving advice?
Be conscious of what you are buying. If you experience any buyer’s regret you are not being conscious.
Have you learned any hard financial lessons?
My hardest have probably come out of divorce. I have been married three times — and don’t have a husband (throaty, good-natured laughter). There is enormous, not just emotional, but financial expenditure that goes into separating assets and it can really set you back. I don’t regret any of my marriages . . . I got better at it as I went along.
Did you get any better at separating assets?
While I always respected my marriages as equal partnerships I kept my bank accounts separate. That is a system I advocate for very strongly. What is your retirement plan? I want to die in my boots. I love my life so much that I can’t imagine not doing the things I am doing. The great rule of life is to learn to roll with what you are handed next. Who knew at fifty-something I would be a TV star.
(Also) I don’t feel the need to spend all the money I make. I drive a 2006 Dodge Caravan, it has almost 200,000 clicks on it. I want to take it to 500,000. I live in a regularsized house in a small town . . . I don’t need to replace stuff that works. Are money and success the same thing?
No. I wish people would stop defining themselves by their money or what it can buy them. Success is when you are happy and the people around you are happy to have you in their lives, because being with you makes them happy.
That is success.