Not all loans are bad and not all investments are risky.
Decades series: forties
Hi and welcome to The Ladybird Purse, my weekly newsletter about women and money.
This is the fourth post in my series looking at money experiences and attitudes through life, decade by decade. You can find links to the previous posts at the end.
Forties
Kathy Slack, 45
Kathy Slack is a cook, veg grower and writer who worked in advertising agencies in London for more than a decade before burnout and depression took hold and she escaped to the Oxfordshire countryside, finding solace, and a new career, in the veg patch.
Kathy’s first book, From the Veg Patch (Ebury) was named one of the Top 25 cookbooks in 2021 by Delicious magazine and was shortlisted for The Guild of Food Writers Award for Best Cookbook 2022. Her second book is out in 2025.
Kathy won the Young British Foodie award and the Soil Association's Best Blog award in 2019 and the Guild of Food Writers Award for online writing in 2019 and 2021. Her podcast was a finalist for Best Audio Broadcast in the Garden Media Guild awards 2022.
You can find more of her writing on Substack where she creates seasonal, mostly-veggie recipes inspired by the veg patch and shares tales from the garden to reconnect you with nature.
How were financial decisions made within your family when you were growing up?
Save it then spend it!
What did your parents teach you about money? Intentionally or otherwise.
You worked to get where you wanted. My dad was the first person in his family to go to university and he worked and saved hard. So I had a job from the age of 14 (McDonald’s drive thru!) and had a job from then on.
They were also always generous. I remember when I was a kid and we were somewhere far flung and remote (for the 80s) when our flight home got cancelled. The couple behind us in the queue had a young baby and were frantic about how they’d get home (I don’t recall why). So my parents gave them money to buy new tickets. That’s always stayed with me because it seemed like a decent thing to do.
Did you experience any financial challenges when you started your career?
Honestly, no. I was on a graduate scheme in advertising so it was a clear and solid career path. When I left to go retrain as a cook and writer and went freelance it was a different matter!
How has your perspective on money changed over time?
I’m not sure it has. I’m quite conservative about risk and always have been, for example.
Are there any financial goals or milestones you would still like to achieve?
Pay the bloody mortgage off!
What are the biggest lessons you've learned about managing money?
Not all loans are bad and not all investments are risky. (Still struggle with that last one!)
Have you encountered any gender-specific financial challenges or biases?
Only a weird cultural one. Sometimes there’s a feeling that because I freelance whilst my husband has a salaried job, my job must be something I just ‘play’ at. As if I’m a posh housewife who doesn’t need to work and just has a silly little vanity project that’s writing/cooking. Maddening!
How are you approaching saving for retirement or planning for the future?
Pension pension pension.1
What advice would you give to younger generations of women when it
comes to finances?
See above!
But I think the challenges now are different. It was much easier to buy a home when I was in my 20s and that changes everything.
Find Kathy on Twitter, Instagram and at kathyslack.com
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Very practical insights—quite applicable and validating of where I’ve been and where I’m heading now. Thanks!
Good advice from Kathy and I've now subscribed to her veg patch Substack, thank you!