4 min readJust now
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How Max Matles’s ‘Big Wealth, Big Gap’ helped me see the systemic trap of modern finance
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Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash
I grew up in a middle-class family in rural Germany, the daughter of non-academic parents. Like many of my peers, I bought into the “work hard to build wealth” narrative hook, line, and sinker. By my twenties, I was running on fumes, eventually working myself into a state of burnout and clinical depression.
The most frustrating part?
The wealth didn’t follow.
Despite inhaling classics like [Rich Dad Poor Dad](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6…
4 min readJust now
–
How Max Matles’s ‘Big Wealth, Big Gap’ helped me see the systemic trap of modern finance
Press enter or click to view image in full size
Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash
I grew up in a middle-class family in rural Germany, the daughter of non-academic parents. Like many of my peers, I bought into the “work hard to build wealth” narrative hook, line, and sinker. By my twenties, I was running on fumes, eventually working myself into a state of burnout and clinical depression.
The most frustrating part?
The wealth didn’t follow.
Despite inhaling classics like Rich Dad Poor Dad and following modern investment gurus, I felt like I was running up a descending escalator. I blamed myself — I thought I just needed to hustle harder, be smarter, or learn more.
It wasn’t until I joined a Teach For All fellowship that the mirror cracked. I met individuals who were incredibly ambitious, intelligent, and hard-working, yet they remained trapped in cycles of poverty. I began to suspect that the *hustle *was a convenient narrative to keep a system in place that’s not working for most people.
And that narrative changed fully, after hearing Max Matles, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) and author, reading a section of his upcoming book ‘Big Wealth, Big Gap’, at a writer’s meetup.