Alvin D. Hall (born June 27, 1952) is an American

financial adviser A financial adviser or financial advisor is a professional who provides financial services to clients based on their financial situation. In many countries, financial advisors must complete specific training and be registered with a regulatory ...

, author, and

media personality Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...

Early life

Hall was born June 27, 1952, in

Crawfordville, Florida Crawfordville is an unincorporated community and county seat of Wakulla County, Florida, United States. Demographics 2020 census As of the 2020 United States census, there were 4,853 people, 1,729 households, and 1,046 families residing in t ...

, one of seven children to a family of farmers, day workers and fishermen. Interviewed on the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

programme ''Midweek'' he said that his grandmother had told him he was "everything she had", something that helped him get through difficult financial decisions; she was also a great saver and gave him 50 dollars when he was heading to Yale. He studied for a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in English at

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in American literature at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC S ...

. After a period of unemployment and working as a college professor (teaching literature), he started to take an interest in finance.

Financial adviser

In 1990, Hall briefly lectured British stockbrokers in London in preparation for the NASD exams in the United States. Hall has written books and articles on saving and investing as well as debt management. He presented ''Your Money or Your Life'' on BBC2 and has made various television and radio appearances, including as a panellist on ''

Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment ''Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment'' is a BBC television comedy series presented by Dave Gorman which was broadcast in 2002. The studio-based show was interspersed with footage of Gorman literally taking the advice of horoscopes for ...

'' and '' The Apprentice: You're Fired''. He also edits a money column in the UK's ''Reveal'' magazine. He has written ''Money Magic'' for the charitable organisation Quick Reads which encourages people to get back into the habit of reading. He was involved in

Jamie Oliver James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants. Oliver reach ...

's programme, ''

Jamie's Dream School Jamie's Dream School is a seven-part British television documentary series made by Fresh One Productions, first aired on Channel 4. In it, Jamie Oliver enrols a group of teenagers with fewer than five GCSEs into his "Dream School" – a school ...

''. On the programme, Hall taught the pupils

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

Art collector

Hall is an art collector whose pieces include works by Carroll Dunham, Victoria Morton, Tina Barney, Lee Friedlander,

Carrie Mae Weems Carrie Mae Weems (born April 20, 1953) is an American artist working in text, fabric, audio, digital images and installation video, and is best known for her photography. She achieved prominence through her early 1990s photographic project ''Th ...

and Mel Kendrick. "Artnet Interview with Alvin Hall"
''ArtNet''

Personal life

Hall is gay.

BBC Radio

Hall has presented several finance-related radio programmes for

, which often broadcast in the period when Radio 4's personal finance programme ''

Money Box ''Money Box'' is a weekly personal finance radio programme on BBC Radio 4, produced by BBC News, currently presented by Paul Lewis. The programme is broadcast live each Saturday in the half-hour slot just after midday. It is repeated on Sunday e ...

'' is off-air. Hall won the Wincott Award for business journalism for his 2006 documentary
Jay-Z: From Brooklyn to the Boardroom
' in which he interviewed and profiled the entrepreneurial rap star

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one o ...

. 2012 *
Alvin Hall in The Bonfire of the Vanities
': Alvin Hall compares the New York City of Tom Wolfe's scathing 1980s satire with that of today. :Episode 1
The Bronx
:Episode 2
Wall Street
:Episode 3
Justice
:Episode 4
English Journalists in New York
:Episode 5
The Politics of the Case
2011 *
Poorer Than Their Parents
': four programmes in which Alvin Hall assesses whether today's youth will be worse off than their parents. :Episode 1
Jobs
:Episode 2
Pensions
:Episode 3
Inheritance
:Episode 4
Housing
2010 *
Alvin Hall's Generations of Money
': Alvin Hall helps four different generations plan for an uncertain future and explores the economic bonds that tie them together 2009 *
The Money Grab
': Alvin Hall examines the continuous rise in executive pay. 2008 *
Alvin Hall's World of Money
': Alvin Hall asks where investors put their money during the time of a credit crunch. :Episode 1:
Commodities
' :Episode 2:
Wine
' :Episode 3:
Art
' :Episode 4:
Film
' :Episode 5:
Property
' 2006 *
Jay-Z: From Brooklyn to the Boardroom
': Profile of the rap entrepreneur

. * ''Alvin Hall's Secret Collection'': Hall gains access to remarkable private art collections.

Tribute to Alistair Cooke

*''In

Alistair Cooke Alistair Cooke (born Alfred Cooke; 20 November 1908 – 30 March 2004) was a British-American writer whose work as a journalist, television personality and radio broadcaster was done primarily in the United States.Letter from America ''Letter from America'' was a weekly fifteen-minute speech radio series broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and its predecessor, the Home Service, and around the world through the BBC World Service. From its first edition to its last, it was presented by ...

'' broadcaster, aired on the BBC World Service in November 2012."In Alistair Cooke's Footsteps", ''The Documentary''
BBC World Service, 18 November 2012.

References

External links

Official siteAlvin Hall On Small SpendingBBC raw Quick Reads - Money Magic by Alvin HallAlvin Hall's World of Money
on Money box for BBC Radio 4
"Your money or your wife? Ask Alvin Hall"
BBC, 18 June 2002.
''Interview with asrecommended''
*http://business.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1077&id=814932004} *https://web.archive.org/web/20090913102541/http://bettermoneyadvice.co.uk/finance/AlvinHallOnThe%20CreditCrunch {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Alvin 1952 births African-American television personalities American finance and investment writers Wakulla High School alumni Bowdoin College alumni LGBT African Americans Living people Writers from Tallahassee, Florida People from Crawfordville, Florida African-American non-fiction writers American non-fiction writers American gay writers 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people 21st-century LGBT people African-American male writers American male non-fiction writers