Kochies Guide to Keeping It Real
Kochie’s Guide to Keeping Reality – (My Cradle to Grave Approach to Family and Finances)
Pier 9 Post (Published 2006)
Written by David Koch
Australia
4 Star Review – Excellent Review
How the propaganda describes the book:
David Koch, the charismatic co-host of Seven Network’s Sunrise, got his start in financial journalism more than 20 years ago. He is one of the most recognizable people on Australian television: a recent Reader’s Digest poll found him to be one of the 25 most trusted Australians.
His list of accomplishments illustrates the breadth of his experience, from owning a small business; financial editor; Silver Logie Nominee 2004, 2005 and 2006; and commentator on more than 50 radio stations. He is the author of Your Money and Your Life and co-author of I’m Not Made of Money and The Teenagers’ Guide to Part Time Jobs and Leaving Home. Recognized for his love of pranks, Kochie’s humor and charm are also at home on Seven Network’s Where Are They Now, which he co-hosts with his much-loved TV partner Melissa Doyle.
Kochie has been married to Libby for nearly 30 years and they have four children: Samantha (married Toby), Brianna, Alexander, and Georgina.
Kochie’s Guide to Keeping It Real is a manual for life: an accessible, relevant, and entertaining guide to financial planning, relationships, and raising a family. Unafraid to voice his opinion, Kochie draws on more than twenty years of experience as a respected financial journalist, as well as his role as a co-host on Channel Seven’s Sunrise, to offer practical advice for Australian families.
Kochie’s Guide to Keeping Reality takes a common-sense approach to planning and managing finances, relationships, and raising a family. Kochie draws on her own life experience, her financial acumen, and feedback from her Sunrise audience in this cradle-to-grave guide for modern families.
Enjoy Kochie’s helpful and often witty insights on just about everything from saving for a house deposit, creating a pre-pregnancy budget, and raising children, to building wealth, running your own business, planning for retirement and deal with taxes, divorce and even death!
Mr Home Budget Review:
This is just one of the few books that David Koch has written. But I came to this book only really knowing about it from the Sunrise TV show. This book reeks of Breaking Dawn, it’s almost as if I could be rewriting a word-for-word script of the show. It’s light, fun and fresh. But if you like the Sunrise show, you’ll love this book.
However, if you are just looking for a simple budgeting book, this is not for you. It includes topics that are totally outside the topic of budgets. He manages to tie them down in money and their finances.
David is extremely and perhaps surprisingly open about his successes and failures. And it has included stories about him, his wife and his children. Stories about his best moments, not only in journalism, but in business. David talks about how he went from being an accountant to hosting Sunrise. Or as he calls it, “pure ass.” In addition, he gives the most important advice of his: “Always have enough confidence in yourself to try anything. But also have enough confidence that if it doesn’t work, go and do something else.” He also shows the other side of the coin where his businesses have underperformed or simply failed. Also non-money related moments like the Beaconsfield mine disaster, which he calls a highlight of his entire career…a great decision.
However, before you start thinking that this book is just his memoir, it definitely isn’t. There is lots and lots of useful information on household budgeting. The kind of information that, if you followed it, it would be almost impossible not to increase the size of your bank balance. The book’s blurb says this is “a cradle-to-grave approach to family and finances” and they mean it! He even gives tips for children ages 2-4. He gives advice on everything from babies to parents in retirement towns and everything in between.
There is also excellent information related to a home budget that is not normally included in a home budget book. For example, how to ask for a salary increase, how to deal with a divorce and what a will should contain. It forces you to think about things you’d rather not think about.
Some of the great quotes I must share with you:
“Never, ever delegate responsibility for family finances entirely to the other spouse. Like marriage itself, family finances are a team effort, in which both spouses must be intimately involved.”
“I know that money can’t buy happiness, but a life without financial stress is so much easier and happier.”
In short, this book is a great read. He talks about the small initial steps you can take every day to increase your confidence in life. Have a coffee, a quiet place and start reading.
Pros: Gives insight into all things David Koch; media, family, money, stories and even emotional (retains very little).
Very fun and light, don’t expect boring numbers or long mathematical equations.
It gives you an insight into the next stage of your life; financially and emotionally.
Cons: If you are looking for a purely black and white budgeting book, this is not for you.
If starting your own business isn’t on your to-do list, some parts may not interest you.
