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FIVE POPULAR MOVIES TO WATCH TO LEARN ABOUT MONEY

Who says learning about money can’t be fun? It can now be accomplished with the same ease as viewing a movie. In fact, that is what you must do. You can learn so much about budgeting, debt, and the keys to a successful financial life by viewing films about characters who cope with their finances. […]

Who says learning about money can’t be fun? It can now be accomplished with the same ease as viewing a movie. In fact, that is what you must do. You can learn so much about budgeting, debt, and the keys to a successful financial life by viewing films about characters who cope with their finances. We’ve compiled a list of five films that will teach you priceless financial skills that should have been taught in school but weren’t.

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (2013)

You are missing out on some of Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill’s best performances if you haven’t seen this Scorsese-directed movie tracing the rise and fall of a well-known stock scammer, Jordan Belfort.

“The Wolf of Wall Street” is based on actual events that took place around the infamous Stratton Oakmont, an over-the-counter brokerage firm, and a pump-and-dump scheme that assisted the IPO of several significant public companies in the late 1980s and 1990s (again, with significant dramatic license).

MARGIN CALL (2011)

The 24-hour day in the life of a Wall Street corporation on the verge of collapse is shown in “Margin Call,” maybe the most financially realistic film on the list (modeled closely after some of the large bulge brackets).

Margin Call tries little to hide its disdain for some of the biggest banks’ careless risk-taking in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, including trading complicated derivative contracts that they themselves hardly comprehended. Two of the film’s main characters are discussing the imminent disaster that will soon befall their bank and the unprepared financial landscape in a sequence that is immensely heartbreaking. A janitor is standing between them and is utterly unaware of what is happening.

THE BIG SHORT (2015)

The Big Short is an American biographical drama movie that won an Oscar in 2015. It has a strong ensemble cast. Adam McKay is the director and the film’s cast includes Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Melissa Leo, and others. It is based on a 2010 book that describes how the US housing bubble contributed to the 2008 financial catastrophe. The movie discusses how important it is to weigh all the advantages and disadvantages before making a market investment and how one shouldn’t follow blindly without conducting their research. It is a plus if the wall street conditions have been thoroughly researched and analyzed. Additionally, in “The Big Short,” celebrities like Selena Gomez and Margot Robbie make financial terminologies more understandable for the audience.

WALL STREET (1987)

“Wall Street”, an Oliver Stone 1987 American drama movie starring Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, and Daryl Hannah, has gained cult status. Sheen plays a young, inexperienced stockbroker who works with veteran stockbroker Gordon Gekko, played by Douglas, who is rich yet astute. We all know that greed is bad and only leads to wanting more than is necessary, thus the movie’s subtitle, “Greed Is Good,” is a lesson in and of itself.

However, it is excellent to be greedy in areas of unrelenting passion, in the form of knowledge and a desire to study, as a means of continuously improving and achieving more important life goals. And the film brilliantly conveys that point while also illuminating how the stock market operates.

GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (1992)

“Glengarry Glen Ross”, written by David Mamet, is a film that is well worth seeing merely for the iconic Alec Baldwin monologue and is full of insightful, sophisticated dialogue. The focus of the entire film is a struggling Chicago real estate office. We witness the lengths people will go to in order to obtain a large sum of money as each salesman is under intense pressure to clinch deals or risk losing their jobs.

Despite the fact that these particular working men are crooks, this movie is about the struggles of the average working man. The tagline is: “Lie. Cheat. Steal. All in a day’s work.”

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