"What mistake did your parents make with money that you also make?"

An interview with Kathleen Donahoe

Hi and welcome to The Ladybird Purse, my weekly newsletter about women and money.

Just an interview this week but it’s a banger.

I think I first discovered Kathleen Donahoe on Instagram and followed her to Substack, where she quickly became one of my absolute faves. I love her so much that I’ve got another interview with her coming up in my author newsletter tomorrow!

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An interview with Kathleen Donahoe

Kathleen Donahoe is a writer and poet living in Seattle. She has written about how her MS diagnosis informs her parenting and the worst gift she ever received. She is currently writing her first novel, and warmly invites you to follow her free Substack newsletter, A Little Laugh.

What is your relationship with money currently?

Slightly chaotic, fairly functional, and very fortunate.

What's your earliest money memory?

My parents told my sister and me that if we saved/earned half the cost, we could go on a Disney cruise. We cut coupons for 2 years and wrote the totals saved from the ones my parents used in spiral bound notebooks, and did it.

Me (in pink!) and my sister on the coupon earned cruise.

What advice would you give your younger self about money?

I'm going to answer a different question, which is what I tell younger people about money: how a partner fights and how a partner deals with money are the two most important foundations of a marriage. I recommend choosing a grown up.

What's the biggest money mistake you've made?

Staying at an abusive job for longer than I should for the money. Fresh out of my BFA, I scored a salaried job at a startup that would pay me to make creative work. The boss was a creep and maniac, and while I eventually left, I should have noped out sooner.

What's the best thing you've ever spent money on?

I bought a house because I listened to the song "Crowded Table" by The Highwomen. This isn't totally true, but I did walk by a junker of a house across from my kid's elementary school and texted my husband that we should buy it. We did and fixed it up, and now have a public swing set in our front yard that the whole community uses. And a trampoline and fridge full of popsicles.

And now : me (blue sunglasses) and sister 30 years later

I saw on your Substack that you’d had to close a business because of Covid. Could you tell me what happened?

My business partner and I built a pre and postnatal fitness company over 20 years. I started as her first employee, then became a partner in 2012 after earning my MBA. We took the company international with a licensing program, multiple apps, huge trainings offered to doctors, midwives, and OB-GYNs, and partnerships with insurance companies and Fortune 500 companies.

Then March 2020 hit. I had a 3-year-old and a kindergartner, and we were in Seattle, Washington—the first city to close schools for COVID and the last to reopen them. I had to step away from the company to care for my kids. It's been a loss financially and professionally, and a massive loss of identity as well. While the company still exists in a very scaled-back version, losing that income and that life's work was devastating.

My career as a writer is my second act—very different from running a fitness company but similar in important ways. I think my job is to see women and their experiences. For a long time, I did that in an exercise setting, getting women ready for birth. Now I try to do it in my writing, reflecting what the women in my life are experiencing, what's beautiful and funny about it. So much pain, but so, so much joy, and we're all inside this experience together.

Do you have a retirement fund? If not, do you have a plan?

Yes.

What would you do with $10,000?

I am aggressively spontaneous and generous of nature, so I feel sure I'd blow it in a day - a boat rental on South Lake Union here in Seattle, with a private sushi chef, 90s cover band, and childcare for my friends.

What little luxury could you get with a tenner?

Let's just say gummy Nerds and a whoopie cushion can bring a LOT of joy to a lot of people (myself included) for a tenner.

If you were me, what would you want to ask women about money?

What mistake did your parents make with money that you also make?

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