Humans of Finance: Antonius Van De Kerkhof

The original story was published in Finance and Coffee way back in August 2019.

The start of a journey is always used as a reference marker for how far you’ve come.

Born in Sydney, to a half South African half Italian mother and a Dutch Father (as if the last name didn’t give that away), my parents had pretty humble jobs. Mum tied down some office admin jobs whilst dad worked and studied part time engineering. Dad had been told he couldn’t move further up the chain at work because he didn’t have the right piece of paper. So, he flipped them the bird and went to Uni. A few years longer than it should’ve taken (Apparently international rugby was in its prime back then and Uni pub trips with lecturers might’ve been a distraction) and the piece of paper was in hand.

If you want something, go get it.

Dad landed a job in Newcastle and along we went. With a severance package payout, and his famed bit of paper, dad went to the local bank manager about getting a loan for their first home. Rates were around 16%. “No worries, you’ll find work pretty easy.” Thunk, stamp. Loan approved. (Good old days, right?). Never had problems paying the loan, and things went pretty well for the next few years. My brother Sam and sister Alana joined the party and that was our family complete. Just before I started high school, dad’s business landed a contract in Melbourne, as the local engineering scene in Newcastle was dying, and down we came. Now up to this point, I’d been in 3 different primary schools and arrived in Melbourne the weekend before high school was due to start. Not really ideal for having long term friends and relationships.

Change is a part of life, accept it and make something from it

I actually saw this as the perfect opportunity, as I was a flat-out nerd burger. I’d read Lord of the Rings in Grades 5-6, loved Pokemon, Star Wars, Star Trek, and basically anything that would get me made fun of on a Primary School playground. This was my chance to start fresh, absolutely no one knew who I was or what I was about, so with my fresh bowl-cut hairstyle from Mum, I decided to be a cool kid, (at least I tried). Turns out I was a pretty funny person when I used everyday pop references and not ones from obscure science fiction. Things did get interesting in high school; a dodgy broker caused my family an obscure amount of financial stress that set my parents back almost a decade. A lazy bank manager also did nothing to proactively help their situation either. Needless to say both of those professions, in my eyes, deserved little but scorn. (This all changed later!). I loved accounting though! At school, we could do accounting as a subject which has “business week,” which involved running a business and keeping all the profits, during recess and lunch at school. This was my first taste of being self-employed, and boy o boy did it taste good, (we sold fried dimmies, hash browns and snags – and we made $300 each in the group! Double entendre!!!). The three of us played to our strengths, I sourced the goods, James bean counted, Louis did marketing, and we all pitched in and cooked.

Each person should not only do what their best at, but pitch in as a team when required

Fast forward – I’ve just done my first year of accounting at Uni, failed half of my subjects, and realised this studying gig is not for me. I liked working, and making money. I had, at one point, 4 jobs.