10 minutes with… Marsupium founder Germin Chan
Germin Chan is the Adelaide-based author of the provocatively titled new financial self-help book Just Stop Being Poor. We spoke to the young finance guru about his unique approach to financial well-being.
Tell me about your background and career to date.
I’m the founder of Marsupium, a fintech company that gamifies financial education and helps young people rewire their relationship with money. My background is computer science and fintech, and I’ve spent the past few years working with schools, investors, and behavioural scientists to make financial literacy engaging. I’ve raised funding, built partnerships with companies, and taught financial education in high schools in South Australia and to International Students.
Why did you want to write a book?
The book came from watching people repeat the same financial mistakes despite having access to all the information they needed. I realised the real problem wasn’t knowledge, but psychology. Just Stop Being Poor is less about money itself and more about how emotional regulation, self-worth, and identity shape financial decisions. I wanted to translate what I’ve learned from building Marsupium, where money, behaviour, and emotion intersect, into something anyone could pick up and reflect on.
Have you read other self-help or financial advice books in the past? What were they lacking?
You might like
Yes. Everything from Rich Dad Poor Dad to Atomic Habits. Many focus on logic and strategy, but few deal with the emotional patterns that drive financial behaviour. You can’t budget your way out of insecurity. You have to rewire your relationship with yourself first – heal from within, and that’s what’s been missing.
What unique approach did you take?
I wrote this book as a mix of psychology, philosophy, and finance. It doesn’t tell you to save 20 per cent of your income or tell you what kind of investments there are. It asks why you keep sabotaging yourself financially. I use archetypes, shadow work, and behavioural triggers to help readers identify their emotional patterns around money and power. The aim is to bridge emotional intelligence with financial literacy.
Your book doesn’t tell people how to make money per se, but rather how to change their mindset. How important is that would you say?
Stay informed, daily
It’s everything. The mindset is the foundation. If your relationship with money is built on fear, guilt, or shame, no strategy will last. The way you approach one thing is the way you approach everything. It’s your perception of life. The wealth gap is psychological before it’s financial, and when you shift the internal wiring, the external results follow naturally.
It’s quite a provocative title – is it really that simple?
It’s intentionally provocative. Just Stop Being Poor isn’t about dismissing poverty; it’s about challenging mental poverty, the beliefs that keep people stuck. The title grabs attention, but the content redefines what “poor” actually means: it’s a state of disconnection from self, not a bank balance. And importantly, Just Stop Being Poor isn’t a guide on how to become rich, it’s a reflection on how to stop identifying with lack.
I understand you self-published the book. How was that process for you?
It was liberating. I wanted full creative control, from the writing to the cover design, 3D mockups, and marketing. It became a crash course in publishing, branding, and distribution. I released it through Amazon KDP and personally handled all design in-house, which taught me how much ownership matters when telling your story. I’m now looking to co-author the next edition with an academic researcher, bringing in a deeper evidence-based perspective to strengthen the psychological and behavioural frameworks behind the book.
Do you have any plans to write anything else?
Yes, it’s definitely in my pipeline. However, with my current roles and responsibilities, my focus is on scaling Marsupium and our financial education impact. Just Stop Being Poor felt like a must-write book for this moment, something foundational that needed to exist before expanding into future works.
