Me And My Money: City ‘Superwoman’ Nicola Horlick reveals why she spends £5k a year on dog food and how she made her first million in her twenties’

Passion: Nicola with two of her whippets

Investment manager Nicola Horlick was dubbed ‘Superwoman’ for juggling a City career with bringing up her six children, writes York Membery. 

Now 63, she has been a leading fund manager for 40 years. 

During the five years she was managing director of Morgan Grenfell’s UK investment business, the assets managed by the firm grew from £4 billion to £22 billion. 

Today she is CEO of Money&Co. – a peer-to-peer lending platform. 

Horlick, whose second husband Martin died of prostate cancer in 2022, aged 64, lives in South-West London with her six dogs. Her eldest daughter, Georgina, died of leukaemia in 1998, aged 12.

What did your parents teach you about money?

Quite a lot. I grew up in a small village near Chester and worked during the school holidays for the family firm which was involved in the import and export of tanning materials – and was there full-time for a year after graduating, on a £6,000 salary. 

I was lucky because my father allowed me to get actively involved in the nitty-gritty of his business – that taught me a lot about money and how business works. My younger brother, who is a musician, spent his youth practising the piano, trumpet and organ. I also remember my father complaining a lot about the ridiculous level of taxes – they were incredibly high in those days.

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

Not really. I had an incredibly privileged upbringing in an historic house overlooking the Dee Estuary and because my father was such a good businessman most of the time, I didn’t even think about money.

Have you ever been paid silly money?

By City standards, I was very well paid at a young age. I was director of a bank by 28 and had made my first million by my late-20s. Some people criticise City salaries but the City is an important part of our economy, and companies pay good salaries because they want the best people. But when you’re running your own business, as I do now, you can’t pay yourself the same as a big bank would.

What was the best year of your financial life?

I’ve sold various businesses over the years and when you do, you can make a lot of money. But the best years of my life, earnings wise, were probably when I was at SG Asset Management, which I set up in 1997. The business grew so fast (my target of raising £5 billion within five years was achieved in two) that I received very good annual bonuses in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The most expensive thing you bought for fun?

Books and dogs. I’m not very materialistic but I’ve got a couple of thousand books and six dogs: two weimaraners and four whippets. I spend around £100 a month – or £1,200 a year – on books and £400 a month on dog food, which works out at around £5,000 a year. 

Luckily, my dogs have been pretty healthy, though last year I had to pay £1,800 on vets’ bills and a doggy hospital after one of my weimaraners, Cooper, ate a dozen nectarines and was sick. Is it worth it? Yes, Cooper in particular has been a huge comfort to me since my husband died 15 months ago.

What is your biggest money mistake?

I built a house 17 years ago which turned into a money pit – I actually lost money on it, quite a feat for a property in London. My mother was an architect so I thought I knew how to build a house, bought a plot of land for £1.6 million and spent a similar amount building a luxury house on the site. But finding good workmen in the capital to work on a domestic residential development is difficult, and the costs spiralled.

The whole thing was a bad idea and I took a substantial financial hit but it serves me right for attempting something I wasn’t qualified to do – I should have stuck to being a fund manager.

Best money decision you have made?

Building businesses and selling them. And I’ve been working incredibly hard on my current business which has been a good distraction since Martin’s passing.

Do you have a pension?

Yes, I’ll get a pension from one of the banks I worked for when I choose to retire, but the rest of my pension pot is in a SSAS [Small Self-Administered Scheme]. If you’ve got money in a defined benefit pension, leave it there because they’re amazing.

If you were Chancellor what would you do?

First, I’d invest in our infrastructure – roads, railways, schools and hospitals – because it’s collapsing. Second, I’d give businesses more incentive to invest. Lastly, I’d rejoin the Single Market – Brexit is making it difficult for our economy to grow.

What is your number one financial priority?

My children have all left home so my top financial priority is to make sure my dogs are fed and to keep supporting the charities close to my heart.

• Nicola is chair of the Anthony Nolan blood cancer charity (anthonynolan.org) and a trustee of the Childhood Trust (childhoodtrust.org.uk) which aims to eradicate childhood poverty in London.