History Main / RagsToRiches

* This is literally a name of one of the scenarios in ''VideoGame/SimCity 3000'', where you have to fix up a Crapsack Madrid.

* Virtually every Creator/HoratioAlgerJr story ever written follows this same plot. Poor boy works hard, is virtuous, and is helped by a kindly older man, and he eventually makes his fortune, relatively speaking.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TopCat'' movie, ''Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats,'' is precisely this to Benny.
-->'''Spook''': It's the old rags to riches story.
-->'''Top Cat''': Right, except Benny could never afford the rags.

** A bit of LifeImitatesArt, Creator/SylvesterStallone was a former struggling actor who slept in bus terminals and [[BleachedUnderpants did softcore porn]]. ''Film/{{Rocky}}'' vacated the need for such desperate measures.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' sees Ron pick up a cheque for $99 million of fast food royalties as a ContinuityNod. [[StatusQuoIsGod It doesn't last]].
* In the ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' episode "Fish Full of Dollars," Fry becomes extremely wealthy after discovering that his old bank account is still active and has been accruing interest for 1,000 years. The status quo is restored after Fry spends it all on anchovies.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has the family win the lottery and Peter alienates his friends with his newfound snobby attitude because of it. Not only that, but the family foolishly spends their money on trivial things until they go broke. The Griffins then get rich again through the lottery, only to go broke ''again'' a week later. Quagmire helps the Griffins out with the profits he made in his investment and the family manages to get back to where they were before the lottery.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Greg Universe was given $10 million for royalties when his old manager sold one of his songs as to a burger company for use as a jingle. Aside from a few indulgences here and there, and promising to set aside some for Steven's college fund, he remains a multi-millionaire, and [[AffluentAscetic chooses to continue living in his van because he's perfectly content with his life as it is]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'': The default "Crashlanded" starting scenario is a collective example if the player does well enough. Three complete strangers (some of whom may be [[RichesToRags an inversion]] at first) [[{{Robinsonade}} clamber out of their lifepods in the wilderness]] with nothing but the clothes they stand up in and some extremely basic survival gear can bootstrap their way from a crude wooden shack and a few vegetable patches to a thriving town with a population of over a hundred and all modern comforts and conveniences. The Naked Brutality start takes this [[{{Up To Eleven}} Up To Eleven]] by starting the character out with nothing, not even clothing.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'': The default "Crashlanded" starting scenario is a collective example if the player does well enough. Three complete strangers (some of whom may be [[RichesToRags an inversion]] at first) [[{{Robinsonade}} clamber out of their lifepods in the wilderness]] with nothing but the clothes they stand up in and some extremely basic survival gear can bootstrap their way from a crude wooden shack and a few vegetable patches to a thriving town with a population of over a hundred and all modern comforts and conveniences.

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* Implied with A-Train in ''Series/TheBoys'' when he gets into an argument with Starlight for exposing Compound V to the world and threatening their employers, by claiming the only people who believe money doesn't buy happiness are people who had privileged upbringings like she did:

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': Sid Hammerback, the coroner, is pretty much a working-class guy, managing okay but by no means wealthy — until his new pillow design is sold to a Japanese group for $27M.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall "Spyfall"]], Daniel Barton, one of the villains, is said to have gone from growing up on a council estate in Britain to the head of one of the world's largest mega-corps. It turns out that still isn't enough for him.

* On ''Series/{{Empire}}'', a major part of the Lyon family's backstory is going from rags to riches. Lucious and Cookie were selling drugs in the streets of UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} to fund the titular record label, which eventually leads to Cookie spending 17 years in prison. Meanwhile, Lucious manages to make Empire into a multi-million dollar business, and the Lyons are obscenely rich by the time the show starts.

* ''Anime/HelloSandybell'': Marc's mother is the Countess of Wellington, but his father squandered all their money, leaving them poor. [[spoiler: However, his paintings were discovered by the art dealer Roussanne, and he won the Grand Prix at the European New Artist Paintings Exhibition, so he becomes rich and famous again]].

* ''Film/TheBlindSide'': Michael goes from the projects to the wealthy household of the Tuohys to a multi-million-dollar NFL contract.

This trope is also popular with {{telenovela}}s, many of which star a dirt-poor NaiveEverygirl from the slums who is swept into the world of the super-wealthy, either through an [[UptownGirl interclass romance]], finding out she's the long-lost daughter of a millionaire, switching places with a lookalike so the latter can run away with her secret lover, or other such shenanigans. In this case, the heroine is often an AudienceSurrogate for viewers from the same humble origins. As such, these shows are often a form of WishFulfillment and the girl usually keeps her fortune at the end of the series.

This trope is also popular with {{telenovela}}s, many of which star a dirt-poor NaiveEverygirl from the slums who is swept into the world of the super-wealthy, either through an [[UptownGirl interclass romance]], finding out she's actually the long-lost daughter of a millionaire, switching places with a lookalike so the latter can run off with her secret lover, or other such shenanigans. As the girls are often an AudienceSurrogate for viewers from the same humble origins, these shows are often a form of WishFulfillment, and as such, they usually keep their fortune at the end of the series.

This trope is also popular with {{telenovelas}}, many of which star a dirt-poor NaiveEverygirl from the slums who is swept into the world of the super-wealthy, either through an [[UptownGirl interclass romance]], finding out she's actually the long-lost daughter of a millionaire, switching places with a lookalike so the latter can run off with her secret lover, or other such shenanigans. As the girls are often an AudienceSurrogate for viewers from the same humble origins, these shows are often a form of WishFulfillment, and as such, they usually keep their fortune at the end of the series.

* ''Film/ForrestGump'': In addition to shaping mid to late 20th-century pop culture and history, Forrest along with Lieutenant Dan become rich seemingly overnight in the shrimping business following Hurricane Carmen destroying every boat but theirs. As Forrest puts it:
-->'''Forrest:''' Shrimping became real easy after that.
** In another example, Forrest gives what would've been Bubba's share of the money to his family. Bubba's mother faints from seeing how much her check is worth. The very next scene shows her in a much nicer house and much nicer clothing, complimenting food cooked by her housekeeper.

* ''Literature/TheAeneid'' is this in a sense as a small band of refugees is destined to be TheEmpire.

* Inverted on ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment''. Actually, it's the whole premise of the series - a wealthy Southern California family loses their money and many members have to deal with actually working for the first time. HilarityEnsues.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Ronald Singh was an impoverished, juvenile delinquent who went on to become Kade Merek, the most popular player in ''TabletopGame/{{The Splinter}}''; an enormous, ever-changing, labyrinthine world that's used for gladiatorial combat and dungeon crawls. It has made him fabulously wealthy.
* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'': The Kharadron Overlords' society, as a sort of plutocratic meritocracy, enforces this: No one is born rich, not even if your parents are admirals. ''Everyone'' must start from the bottom and claw their way up. But, if they're good, ''everyone'' can climb another step. Every admiral you see among them (which, as the "plutocratic" part explains, are filthy rich) was a simple crewman with a pistol, a sword, and a paltry couple of coins once. [[RichesToRags And they will kick you back down if you mess up too often]].
[[/folder]]

* In ''Film/{{Napoleon}}'', the title character goes from being forced to fashion boots out of cardboard at his lowest point to being a war hero revered in all of France by the end.

* Subject of a gag in one Don Martin cartoon for ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'': a scruffy-looking panhandler hits up a man in a business suit. The suit-wearer snaps "Get a job!" as he stalks past. Cut to the panhandler, still sporting the same ratty outfit and hairdo, sitting behind a large desk in an office high up in a skyscraper.

* Parodied in ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'', when Jason gets $10.00 - combined with his previous savings, he ''becomes a millionaire'' [[spoiler:in Turkish Lira - 77,000 to the dollar.]] Sadly, his opulent lifestyle comes crashing down when he loses his entire fortune [[spoiler:buying five comic books.]]