OFF the CUFF

  • Saving Money the ‘Ultimate Cheapskate’ Way

    By Maia Samuel | Off the Cuff – Tue, Jul 30, 2013 10:37 AM EDT

    Jeff Yeager calls himself the “ultimate cheapskate.” He drives a 15-year-old pickup truck with 200,000 miles on it. He’s never had a cell phone. He cooks goats’ heads for dinner. And he makes a living at it.

    Yeager, a former executive in the nonprofit sector, is the author of four books about living on the cheap – his latest is “How to Retire the Cheapskate Way.” He’s also an expert for AARP, and the host of a weekly web show.

    “Live within your means always, live below your means whenever you can. It sounds simple, it's very rare for Americans to do that. We tend to live beyond our means,” he said. “If you were simply, for most Americans, to reduce or eliminate waste from your life, and stop buying stuff that ultimately is going to disappoint you, most people's financial ships would be righted. “

    Yeager recommends going on a “fiscal fast” twice a year, a week during which you spend no money at all. Seven days of canned beans from the pantry and library books will teach you what you spend, what you save and how you waste your money, he claims.

    He said he believes you should buy a modest “starter home,” pay off the mortgage as quickly as possible, and ideally, never move again.

    Yeager, an environmentalist, has written an entire book on what not to throw away, and how to re-purpose almost everything. “I write, for some reason, a tremendous amount about pantyhose. Somebody said that one of my books wouldn't even exist if it hadn't been for pantyhose,” he laughed.

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  • Christie Hefner: What I Learned at ‘Playboy’

    By Maia Samuel | Off the Cuff – Tue, Jul 16, 2013 3:52 PM EDT

    Her mother was “very open about sexuality.” Her father founded Playboy. “I did grow up with the magazine. I grew up truly being able to say, ‘I read it for the articles,’” said Christie Hefner.

    She’d planned to “wind up in the Senate or on the Supreme Court,” but a stint at Playboy before graduate school became 20 years. She led the family firm first as president, then as chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises.

    She’s always worked. “I don't believe I had an alternative. Well, yes, I've always wanted to make my own money but also I wasn't being facetious. I don't get an allowance. I don't have money from my father. I live on what I make,” she said.

    At Playboy, she said, her father was supportive, but she didn’t consider him a mentor. “I wouldn't say he was a mentor, because we never worked in the same city and he defined his own role. Even when he was CEO, [he] was not functioning in the classic CEO sense. So I got more of the benefit of watching other executives as I was learning, then colleagues when I became president.”

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  • The Man Who Wants to ‘Make Over’ Kim Jong Un

    By Maia Samuel | Off the Cuff – Tue, Jul 9, 2013 3:53 PM EDT

    “Queen of All Media. Miss Idaho 1949. Celebrity Gay,” is how Carson Kressley billed himself in an interview with “Off the Cuff.” Kressley is also a style expert, clothing designer, TV personality, the author of two books, and professional wit.

    “I do a lot of different things. Television, film production, exotic dancing. Only in very dimly lit rooms on Thursdays in April,” he said.

    Kressley, a former stylist at Ralph Lauren, rose to fame the fashion guru on the Bravo makeover show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”, which debuted in 2003. (Comcast is the parent company of Bravo and CNBC).

    The show’s launch—and its unequivocal title—prompted Kressley to come out to his family. “We had one of those unspoken things. But we never had the formal, official coming out thing,” he recalled.

    “When ‘Queer Eye’ was coming out, the clock was ticking. Everyone was going to know. I wasn’t just coming out to my family, I was coming out to everybody. It was really daunting. It turned out that (it was)

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  • Hoda Kotb on Drinks, Cancer and Fame

    By CNBC | Off the Cuff – Mon, Jul 1, 2013 6:30 AM EDT

    First thing in the morning: hair, makeup, a swig of booze. For Hoda Kotb, the co-host of the fourth hour of NBC’s Today Show, it’s all in a day’s work. From 10am EST to 11am, Kotb and her co-host, Kathie Lee Gifford, have a fortifying drink. Or two.

    “Yes. We really drink on the show. We don't drink a lot. But some days we have a little more than others. And if you're the last guest, too bad for you,” Kotb told “Off the Cuff”. (Comcast is the parent company of both NBC and CNBC).

    Kotb switches into an impersonation of her Egyptian-born mother. “My mom was like, ‘They think you're an alcoholic.’ I go, ‘I don't even drink that much.’ I really don't,” she said. “She doesn’t love it because she’s very much like, ‘Oooh my friend said you were drinking and I said you don’t. And she said she saw you. So, you do.’”

    Kotb says there hasn’t been widespread public condemnation of their consumption of alcohol: “You'd think that it would turn into a whole thing. But (it hasn’t). And I think it's

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About Off the Cuff

Ever wondered what your boss eats for breakfast? Or why he or she works 24/7? Off the Cuff takes you outside the boardroom to show you what high-impact leaders do off the clock. Every week, corporate tycoons will answer questions about what they like (and loathe), what makes them get up in the morning, what inspires them, and what makes them the most proud.