Growing Up Poor: The Lasting Trauma of Childhood Poverty
In a personal essay, the author reflects on her childhood in poverty, raised by a mother dependent on welfare. Despite now being an academic with financial savings and investments, she still experiences panic at the supermarket checkout. The essay explores the persistent psychological effects of early deprivation, contrasting her past with the current financial culture among her peers, who discuss investment strategies, ETFs, and even buying forest land. She notes the ubiquity of ads from investment platform Scalable Capital and the popularity of Thomas Kehl's finance book. The piece questions whether one can ever truly escape the mindset of poverty.
Key facts
- Author was raised by a mother on welfare.
- Author now has financial reserves and invests in the stock market.
- Author still feels panic at the supermarket checkout.
- Scalable Capital ran ads with slogans like 'Deine Villa geschehe, auch ohne Vater im Himmel'.
- Thomas Kehl, known as influencer 'Finanzfluss', wrote a popular finance book.
- Author's friend circle consists of academics who discuss investment strategies.
- A friend bought a piece of forest; another invests €150 monthly in an ETF.
- The essay appears in the current issue of der Freitag.
Entities
Artists
- Elisabeth Pape
Institutions
- Scalable Capital
- der Freitag