In today’s binge-watching and on-demand streaming era, television shows have become a significant part of our daily lives. While many people watch TV for entertainment, some popular shows also offer valuable lessons about handling money and personal finance.
From financial struggles to wise investments, certain TV shows present realistic scenarios that can teach us valuable money lessons.
In this article, we will explore some of the most important money lessons found in popular TV shows, including some produced or set in Australia, and how they can help us improve our financial well-being.
Shark Tank Australia – Understanding Investment and Negotiation
Shark Tank Australia is a reality TV show where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of wealthy investors, known as “sharks.” The sharks assess the viability of the ideas and negotiate potential investments. The show provides valuable insights into the world of investment and negotiation.
Lesson: Viewers can learn about the factors that investors consider when evaluating a business opportunity and how negotiation plays a crucial role in securing funding. By understanding these concepts, you can make more informed investment decisions and negotiate better deals in various aspects of life, such as salary negotiations or purchasing properties.
Scott Pape’s Money Movement – Financial Literacy and Money Management
In 2021, The Barefoot Investor author Scott Pape went before the cameras to host his own finance management show, called Scott Pape’s Money Movement. Like the book, the three-part series offers practical advice on managing personal finances. It has become a bestseller and resonated with readers across the country.
Lesson: Scott Pape’s Money Movement encourages readers to simplify their finances, reduce debt, and invest wisely for the future. Its principles can be applied to everyday life, helping individuals achieve financial security and build wealth over time.
Neighbours – Stopping Extravagant Spending
One of Australia’s enduring cultural products, Neighbours chronicles the lives of people in Melbourne’s Erinsborough suburb, particularly Ramsay Street. The show ran from 1985 to 2022 over Seven Network and Ten. It resumed in 2023 over Amazon Freevee, with the overall storyline set two years after the finale.
Although Neighbours is a family drama, a number of plots had finance angles such as extravagance and business partnerships (with some facilitated by Paul Robinson). In the first episode of the Neighbours reboot, Jackie Woodburne’s character Susan Kennedy is seen ordering so many lavish gifts online. Her husband Karl (Alan Fletcher) is not too pleased and when he prods her about a box of jewellery, Susan says she had earned the right to buy luxuries for herself after years of work, including early retirement as Erinsborough High principal, and thought the items would give her identity more value.
There’s also a deeper reason for Susan’s spending totalling $20,000 – she’s still bitter over Karl investing $200,000 of their retirement money in Montana Marcel’s cosmetics business, which turned out into a big scam after all. By the time Marcel was arrested, she had already spent the money elsewhere with no chance of reimbursing the Kennedys.
Lesson: Extravagant spending can boil to the surface fast and derail your existing financial status. If you feel the spending has gone too far, you may have to sacrifice it all and sell everything to recoup your money. The fact that Karl made the investment without telling Susan also is a sign of better communications needed between couples on financial matters, which may include keeping the spending in check.
Money Heist – The Importance of Planning and Budgeting
Money Heist is a gripping Spanish heist drama that revolves around a meticulously planned and executed heist on the Royal Mint of Spain. While the show primarily revolves around crime and drama, it subtly highlights the importance of planning and budgeting. The mastermind behind the heist, known as “The Professor,” meticulously plans every detail of the operation, emphasising the significance of thorough financial planning in achieving goals. A spinoff series, Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, focuses on a similar operation targeting a bank hosting the currency of a united North and South Korea.
Lesson: The show teaches us the value of budgeting and financial planning in our daily lives. Creating a budget, tracking expenses, and setting goals allows for better control over our money and makes educated long-term decisions.
Breaking Bad – Consequences of Poor Financial Decisions
Breaking Bad is a critically-acclaimed series that follows the transformation of a high school chemistry teacher, Walter White, into a drug lord after being diagnosed with cancer, creating a high-quality methamphetamine that generates much demand and income. Throughout the show, Walter makes a series of financial blunders that lead to severe consequences for him and his family.
Lesson: The show serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of greed, impulsive spending, and illegal activities. It underlines the importance of ethical financial decision-making and the need to consider the long-term impact of our choices. Some observers also noted that White’s insistence on hiding barrels of all his cash – an estimated US$80 million – in a single spot cost him a hard lesson in diversification when a rival gang found out the location and seized seven of the eight barrels.
Succession – Passing Down Generational Wealth
The drama series Succession focuses on the lives of the Roy family and its Waystar RoyCo media empire. Over the course of the series, patriarch Logan Roy is shown to be in declining health and is at the middle of strife amongst his four children with various agendas seeking to step up when he’s gone.
Lesson: The show provides hard realities of estate planning and diversification of finances. Writing for Forbes Australia, noted financial advisor Jacqui Clarke said the fact that Mr Roy’s two previous marriages resulted in four children and his third spouse has children from two previous relationships complicates any efforts at passing down his assets to rightful heirs. It’s even worse when his own family and personal advisors cannot decipher his handwritten notes detailing the breakdown of his estate.
Suits – Professional Development and Education
Suits is a legal drama series that showcases the lives of high-powered lawyers in a prestigious New York law firm. The show takes a look at how education, professional development, and the pursuit of knowledge advances one’s career and improves their financial prospects.
Lesson: By investing in education and continuously improving skills, you can increase your earning potential and open doors to better job opportunities. Additionally, the show highlights the significance of networking and building strong professional relationships in the business world.
Money for Nothing – Upcycling and Entrepreneurship
Money for Nothing is a UK-based TV show where discarded items are upcycled into valuable products by talented artisans. The show demonstrates how creativity and innovation can turn seemingly worthless items into profitable ventures.
Lesson: This show encourages viewers to think outside the box, embrace entrepreneurship, and explore ways to generate income from unique ideas. It also promotes sustainable practices, inspiring us to repurpose items instead of spending excessively on new ones.
Conclusion
Television shows can be more than just a form of entertainment; they can also be a source of valuable money lessons, from learning the importance of financial planning and budgeting to understanding the consequences of nasty finance blunders. So, the next time you indulge in binge-watching, pay attention to the financial aspects of your favourite shows—you might just discover some hidden money wisdom!
DISCLAIMER: This article is for informational purposes only and should not constitute official financial advice. QUICKLE is not affiliated with the producers of any show mentioned nor endorse the shows.
