Let us admit personal finance planning is not an easy task. We have to read a lot, understand, plan, execute the plan and ensure that we are up to date with the latest in personal finance – be it taxes, budget announcements or bank interest rates. Some of us like these things and relate to them, but for many of us it is a chore. However, we can make our study of personal finance a little more interesting once in a while. One great way to learn is through movies. There are many movies which teach us a thing or two about money. We have a summary of two Hollywood movies which give us some lessons on personal finance. 

Pursuit of Happyness
This is a story on entrepreneurship which teaches that one can create wealth through entrepreneurship. It is based on the life of Chris Gardner who overcomes various obstacles and becomes a wealthy man. In the movie, he invests the little money that he has on bone density scanners and the investment turns out to be damp squib. He remains homeless for a year. During that time he manages to get an internship with a stock brokerage firm. Due to his hard work and innovative ways to reach out to potential customers, he is offered a position with the firm and then goes on to form his own multi million dollar brokerage firm.
Lessons Learnt –

• Perseverance and willpower definitely pay off in the long run.
• You can become a financial success if you have the persistence to stick with your entrepreneurial venture and make it work.

Boiler Room
Boiler Room is about a non-descript stockbroking firm that uses high pressure tactics to almost force individuals to buy financial products that they do not want. The firm sells them stock of fake companies or companies that have closed down. The employees of the firm have the agenda of getting rich quickly by doing whatever it takes, without consideration of morals and ethics. The FBI then tracks the firm and manages to raid the firm. The inference we derive is that this happens everyday in our society. Sales people everywhere use a variety of tactics to make you buy on an impulse.
Lessons Learnt –

• Do not buy on an impulse be it financial products or any other merchandise. Buy only if you need the product/service and if you are convinced that it is of use to you.
• Research the financial products that are advertised or are presented to you by salespeople or financial planners.
• Crime never pays. You might quickly get rich by deceiving people but ultimately you will get caught and that will lead to your downfall.

Let us know which movies helped you in brushing your financial skills. We will review some more movies that help us improve our knowledge in managing finances.

In a nutshell-

Vidya Kumar                                                                                                                                                                     #gettingyourich
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