Why I Love Gail Vaz Oxlade

If you have to say "who the heck is Gail Vaz Oxlade" then you obviously don't know much about Canadian personal finance. Gail has come to the rescue of many couples from all different financial backgrounds, as the host of Til Debt Do Us Part. But not only does she impart her wisdom on the tv show, she has a wonderful website that you can find here. There is a section that is dedicated to the fundamentals of the show, but mostly she has created a site full of wonderful information in relation to every topic of personal finance/budgeting/debt repayment that you could ever think about. The best part is that she spells it all out, step by step so that if you're just starting out you could easily navigate your way through the website and become 10 times more knowledgeable in just a few short hours.

Case in point - I happened to come across her website through another message board and decided to check it out. Since that time, I have read through every single article she has published, all the questions that she has answered that her loyal followers send to her, and also followed up on the section devoted to Reader's stories about Getting to Debt Free (yes, I have submitted but haven't seen my name put up yet).

My favourite parts of Gail's website are as follows:
1. her daily blog. I have it in my Google Reader and it's the first thing I read in the morning after checking email. She covers such a wide range of topics and tells it like it is. I rarely disagree with things she types (why would I??? She changed my life!)

2. Her articles. Gail has broken down just about every topic that you can think of and has posted numerous articles to help you understand what she is trying to get at. The most important thing you can do is to educate yourself so check these out. i'm currently reading through her articles on kids and money. My son is about to turn five and I'm anxious to start his allowance and get him on the right track for spending vs. savings!

3. Finally, the last thing that I absolutely love about Gail is her interactive budget. Here you can put in ALL your financial data for monthly expenses and income, and it shows you what percentage you are allocating your funds too. There are also guideline percentages so you can see how you are stacking up to what is suggested. There are some things that make this tricky when you own a family...like for instance, Gail's life category. Gail says it should be 25%. But Gail doesn't have to send two children to daycare while we both work full time, so this percentage is higher because my daycare costs are included in there. Once they are both in school full time (my little one is just two but with the new proposal by the Mcguinty government to have full time kindergarten by next year it might come sooner than I thought), my "life" percentage should shrink back down to a more reasonable figure.

Gail fields questions from all kinds of people every single day. Each week she posts three questions on her website, but responds to people individually. Last week I sent Gail a question. I asked her how I should direct my savings approach now that the debt repayment approach is over with. I actually got a response! i wish everyone could have seen my eyes light up as I read her reply. So Gail, thank you, you made my day! Now I probably will have to wait to see it up on her website. Another blogger, Jessie from Jessie's Money got a response from Gail back in March and just saw it go up on the website yesterday! So I will wait patiently!

In closing, I love Gail Vaz Oxlade for helping me get onto the right path of debt repayment. And though I don't feel as though I need to use the jar system, it has helped me create my budget with a monthly dollar allocation for each of my unique budget categories