Bridging The Gaap

www.slice.ca

Youtube Video Tutorial Coming Soon!

What’s it all about?

Slice.ca is the online home of Slice, a Canadian television network, which offers full episodes of some of their more popular programs. Of these “Til Debt Do Us Part”, hosted by personable yet no nonsense Gaily Vaz-Oxlade, is the most useful for our purposes. A self-proclaimed “money maven”, Gail has written extensively on the subject of finance and debt (you can find out more about here on her official website) and maintains a helpful blog.

Every episode sees Gail attend to a different couple or family, some of whom are worse off than others, all of whom are in crisis due to their mounting debt problems. The episode details how each couple became so indebted, and how they can get out of their current situation. Through a variety of challenges (it is a reality show after all) Gail gives them the chance to win up to 5000$ to go towards paying down their debt.

What attracted me to the site

I like the show for a number of reasons, but here are two that stand out:

1) Anything debt related can serve as a cautionary tale to the viewer; I see the families that participate in the show as performing a valuable service by detailing exactly how NOT to comport one’s self financially. Sometimes the best way to know what to do is to be given examples of what not to do.

2) The show appeals to the viewer’s voyeuristic nature, as these families are literally exposed for the entire world to see. I don’t think that’s a bad thing: in the westernized Canadian culture, money is still a very taboo subject. We simply do not talk frankly and openly enough about it, which leads to unfortunate and troublesome gaps in people’s knowledge and handling of their own day to day financial affairs. A great deal of what I have learned comes simply from this exposure - I now know what an average salary is, how damaging Payday loans can be, the psychology of debt and spending, and so on.

Lessons to be taken from the site:

Along the way, both participants in and viewers of the show learn some pretty incredible (and sometimes frightening) things. For example: some common recurring themes in the analysis of how the family became so deeply indebted include unnecessary bank fees (perhaps the most surprising to the uninitiated), horrendous and unaccounted spending, and the terror of Payday loans.

The Final Word:

My recommendation is to watch every single episode available, though you should probably try to spread your viewing out if you are finding it repetitive. These are however, exactly the kinds of warnings and lessons that should be repeated until they become second nature to the viewer.

It is worth mentioning that this show inspired me to create the BTG’s “Where’s My Money?” Excel Budget Template to more easily help people track their monthly expenditures.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.