History Main / RagsToRiches

* Also used in ''Manga/HaouAiren'', where a girl who has to struggle with a part-time job, her high school studies, ''and'' taking care of her IllGirl widow mother and her cute little siblings... until she is suddenly thrown into a world of fabulous riches and luxury in Hong Kong, when it turns out that the handsome stranger whose life she saved is actually a high-ranked Triad leader who wants her as his mistress (and he also promises to send money to her family in Tokyo, so the girl's mom can have adequate treatment and she won't have to worry - and as far as we know, he keeps that part). Too bad this also brings [[BreakTheCutie HORRIBLE misfortune]] [[TheWoobie to the poor girl]], as the dude is a massive BastardBoyfriend ''and'' the people in their surroundings are corrupted to the core.

* In ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', Edmund Dantes takes such a journey.

* This is part of Rinne Berlinetta's backstory in ''Anime/VividStrike'' as an orphan who was adopted by fashion moguls.
* The titular protagonist of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' grew up an orphan who was [[MinorLivingAlone living on his own]] well before he was ten. As a result, Naruto was poor throughout much of his youth. Come several years later in ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' and Naruto now lives in a lavish house with his wife and children. He is the leader of his village, after all.

* Mild example in ''Manga/HidamariSketch''. Shortly after starting her senior year, the brother of the [[PerpetualPoverty perpetually poor]] yet [[DitzyGenius very talented]] Miyako- a cabbage farmer- lands a contract with a major restaurant chain, thus significantly improving her ability to afford to go to college.

** In Volume 02, Flum takes in a young girl named Ink who was an abused experiment of the Church of Origin. She subsequently becomes a member of the household, and she loves living with Flum, Milkit, and Eterna as her new family.

* Zig-zagged in at least one ComicBook/RichieRich story which has a RichesToRags at the beginning and uses the rest of the story to describe the Rags To Riches result.

* ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' ''Better Days'' has the crew getting a big payoff and daydreaming about what they’ll do with it. Jayne wants a ship crewed by pretty girls and named after his mom. Zoe and Wash want to settle down and Book has a hilarious HookersAndBlow prank that shocks his colleagues until they realize he’s kidding. They do get a nice vacation, but alas, the money is soon lost and they’re back to being poor.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'' has Scrooge [=McDuck=]. Born to a very poor family, he became the ''[[Fiction500 richest duck in the world]]'' through hard work and smarts.
* Zig-zagged in at least one ComicBook/RichieRich story which has a RichesToRags at the beginning and uses the rest of the story to describe the Rags To Riches result.
* In ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', this was mentioned to be Breezie the Hedgehog's backstory, with a little bit of backstabbing Sonic that's not mentioned.

* Nav from ''Fanfic/DiariesOfAMadman'' initially starts with nothing, but gains a lot of money after winning a few tournaments, selling human inventions, and [[PlagiarismInFiction plagiarising human art]]. Not that he has much use for or understanding of just how wealthy he is.
* Pauline is depicted this way in ''Fanfic/TwentyFiveMDistanceBetweenUs''. From growing up in a poor Italian immigrant family and working as a showgirl when she was older, she eventually ended up the affluent mayor of New Donk City.

--> '''A-Train:''' You don't get it. You don't fuck with the money. You never fuck with the money. We're gonna lose everything. The cars, houses, bonuses...
--> '''Starlight:''' There are more important things!
--> '''A-Train:''' You know, the only people who say that.. are the people who grew up with money.

* Also used in ''Manga/HaouAiren'', where a girl who has to struggle with a part-time job, her high school studies, ''and'' taking care of her IllGirl widow mother and her cute little siblings... until she is suddenly thrown into a world of fabulous riches and luxury in UsefulNotes/HongKong, when it turns out that the handsome stranger whose life she saved is actually a high-ranked Triad leader who wants her as his mistress (and he also promises to send money to her family in Tokyo, so the girl's mom can have adequate treatment and she won't have to worry - and as far as we know, he keeps that part). Too bad this also brings [[BreakTheCutie HORRIBLE misfortune]] [[TheWoobie to the poor girl]], as the dude is a massive BastardBoyfriend ''and'' the people in their surroundings are corrupted to the core.

* Creator/JimmySavile grew up in Leeds during UsefulNotes/TheGreatDepression and later claimed, "I was forged in the crucible of want". He described his father as "scrupulously honest but scrupulously broke."

[[quoteright:216:[[VideoGame/MadTV https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ragstoriches_4355.png]]]]

* Real estate agent H. G. Higwig from ''VideoGame/MadTV''. He starts off as pretty much a bearded hobo. If you keep giving him profit by buying and selling studios, he'll get richer and richer until he's a smug businessman.

'''The Bartender''': Is she now? Weren't you homeless the other day? And now you're some corporate big shot?\\

** It's heavily implied that [[FeminineWomenCanCook Maria Campbell]], a commoner unlike the two examples above, will end up having higher status and fortune due to her genius intellect, pleasant personality, and her rare light magic. It's even noted by Sirius[[spoiler:/Raphael, who like Maria, is a commoner who wields magic and is also an example of this trope]] of how foolish nobles are for abusing their power and throwing their weight on her when she's slated to elevate to a status that is equal to the ruling house of Sorcier by working at the Ministry of Magic in a few years. Even in the unaltered timeline, she will end up in this trope by marrying her chosen LoveInterest (who are all members of the nobility) if she achieves the Good Ending route.

** Her adoptive younger brother [[NotBloodSiblings Keith]] is a distant relative from the Claes branch family whose bastardry and his uncontrolled magic end up as a source of pain in his formative years. And if the events of the game are unfolded, his time when he is adopted to the main branch in which he is also treated like crap by [[CainAndAbel Catarina]] and her [[WickedStepmother mother]]. His strong earth magic allows him to be adopted by Duke Claes to become the duchy's next heir after Catarina is engaged with Geordo, risking the Claes house of losing its heir.
** It's heavily implied that [[FeminineWomenCanCook Maria Campbell]], a commoner unlike the two examples above, will end up having higher status and fortune due to her genius intellect, pleasant personality, and her rare light magic. It's even noted by Sirius[[spoiler:/Raphael, who like Maria, is a commoner who wields magic and is also an example of this trope]] of how foolish nobles are for abusing their power and throwing their weight on her when she's slated to elevate to a status that is equal to the ruling house of Sorcier by working at the Ministry of Magic in a few years. Even in the unaltered timeline, she will end up in this trope by marrying her chosen LoveInterest (who are all members of the nobility) if she achieved the Good Ending route.

* ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'': The titular protagonist of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' grew up an orphan who was [[MinorLivingAlone living on his own]] well before he was ten. As a result, Naruto was poor throughout much of his youth. Come several years later in ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' and Naruto now lives in a lavish house with his wife and children. He is the leader of his village, after all.

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', Kanao Tsuyuri came from an extremely poor and abusive family, her parents literally threw her out and sold Kanao as a slave; however she got rescued by Kanae Kocho and Shinobu Kocho before Kanao’s life as a slave could actually begin, the Kocho sisters came from a well off family and even after being orphaned they became Demon Slayers under the very wealthy Ubuyashiki estate, with that the Kocho Mansion was kept well maintained by the fee earned through demon-slaying; Kanao is registered as the youngest sister of both Kocho girls, enjoying a resourceful life as a member of the Kocho family.

* ''Webcomic/GFSerendipity'': Fiddleford [=McGucket=] and Stanley Pines became wealthy entrepreneurs thanks to the former's inventions and the latter's salesmanship.

* Shun Akiyama, from ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}} 4'', was a hobo living on the streets of Kamurocho. Then an explosion broke out from Millennium Tower one night (at the end of the events of the first ''Yakuza'') and money rained down upon the people. Akiyama snatched up all the money he could carry and used it to start his own successful money lending business, Sky Finance.

** Her adoptive older brother [[NotBloodSiblings Keith]] is a distant relative from the Claes branch family whose bastardry and his uncontrolled magic end up as a source of pain in his formative years. And if the events of the game are unfolded, his time when he is adopted to the main branch in which he is also treated like crap by [[CainAndAbel Catarina]] and her [[WickedStepmother mother]]. His strong earth magic allows him to be adopted by Duke Claes to become the duchy's next heir after Catarina is engaged with Geordo, risking the Claes house of losing its heir.

* Both band members of Music/TearsForFears were from single-parent families and lived on a UsefulNotes/CouncilEstate. Curt Smith [[https://thequietus.com/articles/13379-tears-for-fears-the-hurting-interview described]] his impoverished background as "We had nothing, so I would go and [[{{Delinquents}} steal things]]. It was a very poor, basic upbringing." Roland Orzabal [[https://recordcollectormag.com/articles/talk-big-chair recalled]] that when he and his then-girlfriend (and later wife) Caroline Johnston were living together, their financial situation was so dire that "Even Curt brought food, we were that poor." Once the band became famous, "[we] had money beyond the dreams of working-class kids like us."

* Independent Minnesota author Amanda Hocking.

* Susan Boyle is one of the most famous examples.

** [[IdiotHero Catarina]] is the SpoiledBrat daughter of a duke until one day when she hits her head and wakes up to the memories of her past life, a middle-class Japanese tomboy, which becomes the dominant influence on her. Unable to take herself so seriously anymore, she stops acting so ladylike and bitchy and starts plowing fields for fun, climbing trees, making friends with commoners, and so on, much to the exasperation of everyone around her, especially her mother. While she may call herself Catarina and recognize Catarina's parents as her own, she's still basically that middle-class tomboy called the "[[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Monkey Girl]]".

* ''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 [[AffluentAesetic chooses to continue living in his van because he's perfectly content with his life as it is]].

More modern uses of the trope are more cynical, and may feature the character getting their wealth through unethical or illegal means, and [[WasItReallyWorthIt discovering that]] [[LonelyAtTheTop wealth doesn't make them happy]], (e.g. ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'') and might include an Anvilicious statement on why sudden wealth leads to corruption. If the plot for a single episode, will usually feature the character [[AcquiredSituationalNarcissism becoming haughty and vain]] and [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted eventually losing his or her money]] and [[StatusQuoIsGod returning to normal]], showing that they never needed money in the first place. Occasionally played, is the Aesop of preferring personal freedom over the trappings of success, especially when that success comes at the cost of [[SellOut compromising your pride and dignity]]. In such cases, the person who goes from rags to riches realizes that they are virtually owned by those to whom they owe their success; something that frequently happens in the entertainment industry. The [[AmbitionIsEvil darkest and]] [[CorruptCorporateExecutive edgiest versions]] of this trope sometimes overlap with FromNobodyToNightmare. In the RiseAndFallGangsterArc, the first half of the story will use this trope, and the second half will depict them [[RichesToRags losing everything]], often including their life.

More modern uses of the trope are more cynical, and may feature the character getting their wealth through unethical or illegal means, and [[WasItReallyWorthIt discovering that]] [[LonelyAtTheTop wealth doesn't make them happy]], (i.e. ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'') and might include an Anvilicious statement on why sudden wealth leads to corruption. If the plot for a single episode, will usually feature the character [[AcquiredSituationalNarcissism becoming haughty and vain]] and [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted eventually losing his or her money]] and [[StatusQuoIsGod returning to normal]], showing that they never needed money in the first place. Occasionally played, is the Aesop of preferring personal freedom over the trappings of success, especially when that success comes at the cost of [[SellOut compromising your pride and dignity]]. In such cases, the person who goes from rags to riches realizes that they are virtually owned by those to whom they owe their success; something that frequently happens in the entertainment industry. The [[AmbitionIsEvil darkest and]] [[CorruptCorporateExecutive edgiest versions]] of this trope sometimes overlap with FromNobodyToNightmare.

** In another example, Forrest donates most of the shrimping money to Bubba's family. His mother faints from merely seeing all that money.

* Robert Ford goes through this in ''Film/IShotJesseJames'', becoming a {{Prospector}} that uncovers a fair amount of silver. He does this in a ploy to win the hand of [[LoveInterest Cynthy]], but [[spoiler:she leaves him for someone else]].

** A bit of LifeImitatesArt, Creator/SylvesterStallone was a former struggling actor who slept in bus terminals and did soft porn. ''Film/{{Rocky}}'' vacated the need for such desperate measures.
* ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire'' has a call-center worker (and former orphan from the slums) win the grand prize of ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire''. Though the money isn't his real goal, he only goes on the show to help find his childhood crush Latika.
* ''Film/TradingPlaces'': Both Billy Ray Valentine and Ophelia leave their rather humble Philadelphia roots to become absurdly wealthy by the film's end. The butler Coleman ends up being able to afford a butler. The most notable case is Winthorpe, who begins the movie rich, then is driven to homelessness and nearly suicide, and ends the movie having bankrupted the people responsible for his temporary destitution and it is implied he's far more wealthy than he was at the movie's beginning.

** Bronn begins the series as a grubby sellsword in the Riverlands and successively becomes Lord Commander of the City Watch, a knight, and finally is set to marry into a lesser noble house. The marriage deal is reneged upon by Cersei, although Jaime promises Bronn a better marriage when they return from Dorne.

** A famed Westerlands story tells of how Lann the Clever, patriarch to House Lannister, managed to swindle the ruling House Casterly out of their castle of Casterly Rock.

* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'' does this with both [[PlayerCharacter the Boss]] and the Third Street Saints. At the beginning of the game, the Boss is a prison escapee with a handgun and the clothes on their back who lives in a run-down studio in the basement of a run-down building while the Saints consist of them, Gatt, and a handful of other people. By the end of the game, the Boss owns multiple lavish condos with a fleet of vehicles, boats, airplanes, and helicopters while the Saints have become the effective rulers of Stilwater.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' sees Ron pick up a cheque for $99 million of fast food royalties as a ContinuityNod. It doesn't last.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Greg Universe was given $10 million for royalties when his old manager sold his song as a burger 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 chooses to continue living in his van because he's perfectly content with his life as it is.

* UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi. He's born as a sandal-bearer named 'Tokichiro Kinoshita'. Then he joins UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga, works his ass up to the point that he became Nobunaga's right-hand man, avenges his death, and finished what Nobunaga couldn't accomplish: actually ''unifying Japan'' and becoming the most powerful man in the nation. Although the immediate downfall of his clan immediately after his death can partly be contributed to his status; he couldn't even forge a Minamoto[=/=]Taira lineage as everyone knew his background, which made his family ineligible for the top posts in the country. He ruled as [[RegentForLife kampaku]]-- not a shogun-- because he was adopted by a Fujihara just before the fact, and his legitimacy was only sustained through his own power. (On the other hand, UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu had been able to forge himself a Minamoto lineage and make himself eligible for shogun.)

* Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger was a kid growing up in post-WWII Austria, with all the limited sources this implies. He got interested in bodybuilding, and once he moved to Munich to train in a better gym, Arnie lived there! Once finally fulfilling his dream of visiting the United States, attending the Mr. Universe in New York City, a famous gym owner in Los Angeles asked him to move there to train (and he accepted, despite all his possessions being in Europe). And his attempt at UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream, which included working on construction in the off-hours, saw Arnie become the greatest bodybuilder of all-time, an action film hero with the biggest paycheck in Hollywood, and Governor of California.
* Basically [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rags_to_riches#Notable_people anyone listed here]]. This list includes the best example of a "rags to riches" president in American history, UsefulNotes/BillClinton, who was able to go from being a poor kid raised by a single mother (who would later marry and provide Clinton with a stepfather and his younger stepbrother Roger) to becoming a Rhodes Scholar and a successful lawyer, eventually becoming Arkansas governor and then president.

** The Han Dynasty was full of those, with two emperors, Xuan[[spoiler:brought up a commoner, later became emperor]] and Guangwu[[spoiler:Lived as a peasant at one point despite being a distant royal, eventually restored the dynasty]], and one empress[[spoiler:Wei Zifu, she was born the fourth child of a family of peasants, but ended up being employed by a princess and ended up marrying her older brother, Emperor Wu, being his second empress and the second longest-serving empress in Chinese history, losing only to the wife of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty]]

* Yelawolf was at one point ''homeless'' due to a crippling skateboard accident in Berkeley, CA, which crushed his dream of being a pro-skater. Then he became a rapper and is now worth about $5 million.
* More or less everyone in some rapid-growth countries. "Tiger economies" such as UsefulNotes/SouthKorea, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}} and UsefulNotes/HongKong transformed from poor farmlands to world-leading business centers within a generation. The same thing goes for the oil-exporting countries of the Persian Gulf, such as UsefulNotes/{{Kuwait}}, UsefulNotes/{{Qatar}}, and the UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates, where standard of living has skyrocketed.

* ''Creator/TiffanyHaddish'' went from living in many foster homes and living ''in her own car'' to being one of the most known actresses from her breakout film ''Film/GirlsTrip''.

* [=Supermodel=] Creator/IrinaShayk came from a small poor village in Russia. In the September 2016 issue of ''GQ Italy'', she said that she had nothing to wear and nothing to eat when she first arrived in Paris and that she felt embarrassed in front of the other models because of how she was dressed. Today, she's been on numerous magazine covers and is one of the most sought out models in the business.

* William of Wycombe was born a medieval peasant, but he ended up founding Winchester College. William never forgot his humble origins, so the college was more open to peasants then other institute's at the time.

* Eve Dallas of the ''Literature/InDeath'' series goes from underpaid police lieutenant to beloved wife of [[{{Fiction 500}} Roarke, the richest man both on and off the planet]]. She tries desperately to ignore the millions that Roarke quietly keeps slipping into her bank account.

* In ''Literature/TheMayorOfCasterbridge'', Michael Henchard starts out as an itinerant hay-trusser, walking from town to town in search of work and lodgings, with no more than a few shillings in his pocket. Eighteen years later, he has become a successful grain merchant and mayor of his hometown, with a fine house and furniture to match. Unfortunately, he goes from riches back to rags after a series of bad decisions, and by the end of the novel, he has had to go back to being an itinerant hay-trusser.