Basic Trope: A wealthy (or relatively wealthy) person loses most of their money.
- Straight: Bob wins a hundred million dollars in the lottery. He buys two houses in Hawaii, and a luxury car, designer clothes, etc, and get himself a Trophy Wife (or proposes to his longtime girlfriend Alice with an Enormous Engagement Ring and has a very lavish wedding). Six months later, he's had to sell all his things, and move back in with his parents on the mainland, and his wife has filed for divorce.
- Exaggerated: The very next day, Bob is living in a cardboard box on the street.
- Downplayed: Bob is able to control his loses before he loses everything, but he never truly gets his old lifestyle back.
- Justified:
- Bob doesn't understand exactly how much of his winnings go towards taxes.
- Bob made some poor investment choices.
- Bob married a Gold Digger, and she cleaned him out in the divorce.
- Bob spent all the money on frivolous things, such as a boat for every day of the week.
- Bob came from a rich but abusive family, and when he left them, he had to leave all the money they had too.
- Bob became ill or injured, and the medical bills sucked up most of his money (the day-to-day cost of living took the rest).
- Bob lost his job, or quit, and so lost his income.
- Bob quit his job to pursue his passion, but didn't really think through how to do it, or just didn't have the talent or skill needed for it.
- Bob was already in debt (mortgage, student loans, car loan, credit card debt, what have you) when he won, and most of the money goes towards paying off debts.
- Bob fell victim to a Con Artist, or a malicious hacker that drained his bank account (and opened up new ones in his name).
- Bob bought himself a timeshare
in Bora Bora, but Forgot to Pay the Bill. Since he didn't make the monthly/quarterly/annual/etc. payment of the timeshare fee, he's now on the hook for the entire cost of the unit...which is way more than he has. - Bob lost a civil suit, and had to pay a hefty settlement.
- Or, he lost a criminal suit, and had to pay a huge fine.
- Inverted:
- Bob is living in a trailer park, barely scraping by in a minimum-wage job. He wins $100 million in the lottery, and only gets richer from that point.
- Bob is living in a trailer park, barely scraping by in a minimum-wage job. He marries Queen Alice, and becomes prince-consort.
- Rags to Riches.
- Subverted:
- Bob wins $100 million in the lottery, and buys himself a modest house or condo in Hawaii. He invests the rest of the money in the stock market.
- Rather than cashing out, Bob takes the annuity option, guaranteeing him a payment every year for the next 30 years.
- Bob has a modest, but nice, house.
- Bob has nice luxury items.
- Bob is living in a trailer park, and barely scraping by at a minimum-wage job.
- Bob does win the lottery, but it's only a few thousand dollars, a fairly modest amount.
- Bob, Inc. was once a large company and Bob its billionaire CEO, but it has gone bankrupt. Before Bob can lose his fortunes, however, his CEO friend Alice puts him in a nice executive job at her company.
- Double Subverted:
- His stocks don't do so well, and he loses a good chunk of his money.
- Bob spends his first annuity payment recklessly, which leaves him broke until next year.
- The housing bubble broke, and his house is now worth way less than he still owes on the mortgage. He and his wife are working two jobs each, just to make ends meet.
- He bought everything on credit.
- He loses that job, and eventually loses his trailer home.
- To him, it's a lot of money,
- Parodied: The very next day after winning the lottery, Bob ends up living in a cardboard box on the street. The box ends up getting repossessed.
- Zig Zagged:
- Bob is living in a trailer park, and barely scraping by at a minimum-wage job. (He even depends on public assistance, such as SNAP or Life Line to get by.) He wins $100 million in the lottery, and spends all of his after-tax winnings on two houses in Hawaii, an Enormous Engagement Ring and wedding expenses for Alice, luxury cars, boats, designer clothes, timeshares, going Back to School, a 50" hi-def TV, etc. In a matter of months, he's broke, ends up selling all of his things, and having to move back in with his parents, and the financial stress causes stress on the marriage, leading to a divorce. A year later, he wins the lottery again (albeit a much smaller amount), but finds he can't keep up with the cost of living after the money is gone.
- Easy Come, Easy Go
- Averted:
- Bob is not rich, and does not become rich.
- Bob, a former business executive with fabulous pay, uses his social connections to immediately land him another executive job with equally fabulous pay.
- Enforced:
- All That Glitters
- Never Win the Lottery
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted
- Bottle Episode
- Status Quo Is God
- Grandpa Bob losing all his money when he was 23 is a now Resolved Noodle Incident.
- Lampshaded: "I lost everything when the market crashed."
- Invoked: Bob, who has never been wealthy or managed large sums of money before, suddenly wins $100 million in the lottery and starts spending lavishly on things he doesn't really need.
- Exploited: A Con Artist contacts Bob, claiming to be (or represent) a charity, and cons Bob out of most of his money.
- Defied:
- Bob contacts a financial advisor, and learns to make wiser financial choices.
- Bob makes sure that he doesn't get poor at all, no matter the method.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Riches to Rags. And make sure you don't lose all of your cash, hard earned or not.
