5Qs on Friday: Gail Vaz-Oxlade

CNBC's Gail Vaz-Oxlade Will Cut Up Your Cards
TVFirstLook

Money? Budgets? Paying bills? Groan.

Let's face it, many of us don't like to talk about money or think about money. And, when it comes to TV shows about money, yowks, no thanks.

But, to its credit, CNBC has mastered the art of making TV shows about money entertaining. For years, shows like The Suze Orman Show have taken the mystery and fear out of personal finances and made it fun to watch - inspirational, even.

Joining Suze's ranks is Gail Vaz-Oxlade, the straight talking (but sweet) host of Princess (Saturday, 8pm), a Canadian import in which Gail confronts over spenders head on. Take the credit cards, cut up. Create a budget and put a few dollar bills in your pocket, you know, for spending money. Repeat.

Gail, a financial writer and author of books like "The Money Tree Myth: A Parent's Guide to Helping Kids Unravel the Mysteries of Money," spoke with TVFirstLook about money, saving it and how she turns personal finance into entertainment.

TVFirstLook: On Princess, you help people who seriously overspend. Why do people overspend?

Gail Vaz-Oxlade: Usually, people overspend because they have become completely disconnected from the idea of living within their means.

Many people don’t even know how much money they make. So, they end up using overdraft, credit cards and lines of credit to make up for the money gap. Sometimes, they end up having to tap someone else’s wallet to make the payments on their bills, food, rent, car payments.

Ultimately, this disconnect eventually brings them to their knees.

TVFirstLook: Gail, you're a TV star, an author and a financial planner. How did you get started - and how did you end up with a TV show?

Gail: I’m not a financial planner. I learned about money by writing the training programs that taught financial salespeople how the products they’re selling work, from a legal, operational and marketing perspective.

After doing that for several years, I started writing books to speak directly to consumers. TV came to me, perhaps because of my reputation. I took to it like a duck to water.

TVFirstLook: Princess is fun to watch and it's informative. How do you make a topic like money entertaining?

Gail: The reason both Princess and Til Debt Do Us Part work so well is that the money part is wrapped up in a mythology. The TV shows tell a story. People engage with the story and the money part just sneaks on by. It takes root in their brains.

TVFirstLook: Gail, you’re well known for your no-nonsense approach with your clients. Why are you as straightforward as you are?

Gail: I am no-nonsense because the financial world has created mystery around money. I’m actually quite sick of the gobbledygook and want people to see money for what it really is: a tool.

Having more money doesn’t make you smarter, happier, better. But being stupid with your money is a surefire way to be miserable and to make the people you love miserable.

Why am I straightforward? I’ve always been a tell-it-like-it-is kinda girl. It doesn’t always fly with folks. But I’d rather be disliked for the person I am than for the person I’m pretending to be.

TVFirstLook: OK, last thing, if there is one piece of advice you'd give a person to get out of debt, what would it be?

Gail: You can’t start with the debt. You have to start with where your money is going now.

Most people don’t have a clue about where they are spending their money. Seriously. So you must start with a spending analysis. Then, you create a debt repayment plan. Then, you create a budget.

And if you have to get a second job, a third job, a better job to get the debt gone, that’s what you do. You spent all the freaking money and had a great time. Now, it’s time to suck it up and pay the piper.