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Money can't buy you love. But keeping love alive without money can be pretty tough. In fact, ninety percent of marriage breakups are due to money problems. And to get advice on how to manage money usually costs money! Til Debt Do Us Part, is a series that offers tough-love solutions to those willing to face their financial troubles head on. In each episode we meet a couple in crisis. Some are on the verge of bankruptcy, hounded by creditors or facing eviction. Others are just getting by, but in the midst of a personal meltdown or relationship breakdown because of money issues. With the sensitivity of a therapist and the toughness of a CFO, our host, renowned financial author and columnist, Gail Vaz-Oxlade reveals what she's found in a couple's finances - and then she'll dig a little deeper. She asks some tough questions and then they'll be forced to face reality. Where will it end if they continue on this rocky road? To get things back on track, Gail takes control of their finances for one month. She devises a strict budget and enforces some dramatic changes. A two-car family may become a one-car; or no-car family. The new hair salon may become the corner barbershop and goodbye fancy lattes - hello thermos. All credit cards and debit cards are taken away and their only discretionary cash is a weekly allowance. Gail makes regular house calls to deliver the week's allowance and assigns a new challenge for the couple to make them confront bad money habits and to help get their relationship back on track. At the end of the month, we find out how well they've done - how much did they save, what did they learn about money, themselves and each other? What is the new forecast for their finances and relationship? Gail can reward them with cash based on how well they did on their challenges. In addition, she always surprises them with a small but thoughtful gift, certain to generate hugs and the occasional tear. Til Debt Do Us Part is a dramatic and fun series that shows how bad it can get and how to get out from under.
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Episode 1
22 mins
Dawn and Kelly, a massage therapist/acupuncturist and a farmhand respectively, recently bought a $500,000 house - their supposed dream home in the country as Kelly in particular is a country boy at heart - with a $100,000 down payment, some of which they had to borrow. They decided to build Dawn an office in the house so that she could work from home. However, because of the rural location, her income has dropped by about half from its previous $90,000 per annum when she was working in the city, leaving their combined income now at $86,000. In addition to Dawn buying new stuff for the house which they could already not afford, the house ended up being a fixer upper, which they did not anticipate. The maintenance and operating costs of the house are eating up their money, placing them in a catch-22 situation as they don't have the money to make the necessary house upgrades to save on those operating costs. Dawn handles all the household finances, Kelly not totally aware of how bad the situation is, it being so bad that unless things change, they could lose the house. Beyond the nuts and bolts of the financial plan, Gail has to get Dawn and Kelly to look at the house from a more critical standpoint, namely to get their brains out from their hearts, and what the costs and benefits are of that house compared to alternate housing.