History Main / RichesToRags

** His bandmate Bez was declared bankrupt twice in 2005 and 2008. He appeared as a contestant on ''Celebrity Big Brother'' for this very reason.

* [[Literature/BadBlood Elizabeth]] [[Film/TheInventorOutForBloodInSiliconValley Holmes]] was a rising star -- a woman who dropped out of college to found a biotech firm that could analyze blood with a pinprick, becoming a billionaire at the age of 30. She graced the covers of ''Fortune'', ''Forbes'', and even ''Time''. She loved to wear black turtleneck sweaters as a ShoutOut to her mentor UsefulNotes/SteveJobs. She was valued at $4.5 billion. Then it all came crashing down in a series of lawsuits by government agencies, regulators, and insurance companies when evidence of systematic fraud surfaced. Her worth was revised to "nothing" by Forbes. [[HumiliationConga As of October 2019, her lawyers are suing her]] -- in their words -- "given Ms. Holmes’s current financial situation, Cooley has no expectation that Ms. Holmes will ever pay it for its services as her counsel.”

* [[Creator/DesiluStudios Desi Arnaz]] went through this as a child. He grew up in a very wealthy family (one of his grandfathers was an executive of Bacardi Distillers]] and his father was at one time the Mayor of Santiago de Cuba. The family ended up on the wrong side of [[MilitaryCoup The Cuban Revolution of 1933]], their property was seized and his father jailed. After a few months, the family was able to move to Miami, where his father started a small tile business.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'': As Dumbledore reveals to Harry, the House of Gaunt, whose last members in the family would become [[spoiler:[[BigBad Voldemort]]'s relatives with his birth]], suffers from this. The family was formerly wealthy and respected, but their lack of financial sense and liking for grandeur meant that their bank accounts drained quickly. The last members of the family were reduced to living in a tiny, filthy shack near a Muggle settlement, with only two valuable heirlooms remaining to call their own.

* [[Creator/{{Desilu}} Desi Arnaz]] went through this as a child. He grew up in a very wealthy family (one of his grandfathers was an executive of Bacardi Distillers]] and his father was at one time the Mayor of Santiago de Cuba. The family ended up on the wrong side of [[MilitaryCoup The Cuban Revolution of 1933]], their property was seized and his father jailed. After a few months, the family was able to move to Miami, where his father started a small tile business.

** UsefulNotes/{{India}} was once among the richest nations of the world with several Indian states having more gold than anyone imagined a single place could store. The likes of Marco Polo who came all the way to South India was agog at the wealth of the Tamil Kingdoms. Until the 1700s, India had a ''monopoly'' on the Diamond Trade, the crown jewels of every Crown in Europe came from the diamonds of Indian mines and Indian spices and textiles were highly prized and it maintained lucrative trade with Europe from the Roman Empire onwards. Two centuries of [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire British colonialism]] followed by post-independent malaise, Indians are far from being among the wealthiest nations in the world (though it is among the world's growing economic powers) and is famous around the world for massive poverty (as evidenced by the success of films like ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''), corruption, and high mortality rates. Its educated urban middle class emigrates in large numbers to serve in Western countries leading to a BrainDrain with India struggling to make its exports match its imports, a situation that is entirely the reverse of its economic condition in the early 1700s.

* Music/GaryGlitter declared bankruptcy twice, in 1977 and the 1990s, over unpaid taxes. He claimed this was because "someone didn't fill in the right forms". This ended up being the least of his legal problems, although he no longer has to worry about having enough money to live on in retirement.

* Creator/BrendanFraser went broke in the 2010s when he was unable to make alimony and child support payments. Thanks to surgeries for all the injuries he sustained doing action films, he was no longer getting the plum roles, which contributed to his financial woes.

** After the [=McDuck=] were driven out of their castle, Seafoam [=McDuck=] lost the family's fortune because of the disastrous sinking of a trading ship. (Reference to ''The Horseradish Story'' (1953) where Seafoam had put his own fortune as a guarantee that the ship's cargo would reach its destination.)

* Music/GaryGlitter declared bankruptcy twice, in 1977 and the 1990s, over unpaid taxes. He claimed this was because "someone didn't fill in the right forms". This ended up being [[RoleEndingMisdemeanour the least of his legal problems,]] although he no longer has to worry about having enough money to live on in retirement.

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': While the Drakes don't make it to outright poverty after several finical gambles on Jack's part leave them bankrupt they do lose their mansion in Bristol Township and have to move into their very nice flat in Gotham and change their lifestyle a bit and Jack reacts like he's lost everything, barricading himself from his son and wife while contemplating suicide over the loss.

* English comedian Jim Davidson filed for bankruptcy in 2006, having failed to keep up payments on a £1.4 million back tax bill that he had reduced to £700,000. In 2003, after a meeting with the Inland Revenue, he claimed he spent £10,000 a week on back taxes, commission to agents, maintenance and school fees, and a £2.2 million mortgage. He spent so much money on his four divorces, that he joked that the reason he's with his current wife is that he can't afford another divorce.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Holmes Elizabeth Holmes]] was a rising star -- a woman who dropped out of college to found a biotech firm that could analyze blood with a pinprick, becoming a billionaire at the age of 30. She graced the covers of ''Fortune'', ''Forbes'', and even ''Time''. She loved to wear black turtleneck sweaters as a ShoutOut to her mentor UsefulNotes/SteveJobs. She was valued at $4.5 billion. Then it all came crashing down in a series of lawsuits by government agencies, regulators, and insurance companies when evidence of systematic fraud surfaced. Her worth was revised to "nothing" by Forbes. [[HumiliationConga As of October 2019, her lawyers are suing her]] -- in their words -- "given Ms. Holmes’s current financial situation, Cooley has no expectation that Ms. Holmes will ever pay it for its services as her counsel.”

* ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife''" This can occur in ''Special Edition'' and ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonDS'' if you marry Lumina. She goes from being living in a mansion with her rich grandmother to living down the road as a farmer's wife. You can become wealthy if you are a good enough farmer but the game still treats it as this.

* Following Evel Knievel's conviction for assault in 1977, he lost most marketing endorsements and deals, including Harley-Davidson and Ideal Toys. With no income from jumping or sponsorship, he was eventually declared bankrupt. He spent much of the 1980s in obscurity before making a comeback in the 1990s.

We're all familiar with the story of the young man or woman with absolutely nothing who [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream worked hard to make enough money]] to open that business, and now [[RagsToRiches have it all]]. The overall tale behind Bill Gates' rise to multi-billionaire is one of these; he started building computers in his garage (although his family was wealthy), and now has one of the largest computer empires in the world.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Holmes Elizabeth Holmes]] was a rising star -- a woman who dropped out of college to found a biotech firm that could analyze blood with a pinprick, becoming a billionaire at the age of 30. She graced the covers of ''Fortune'', ''Forbes'', and even ''Time''. She loved to wear black turtleneck sweaters as a ShoutOut to her mentor UsefulNotes/SteveJobs. She was valued at $4.5 billion. Then it all came crashing down in a series of lawsuits by government agencies, regulators, and insurance companies. Her worth was revised to "nothing" by Forbes. [[HumiliationConga As of October 2019, her lawyers are suing her]] -- in their words -- "given Ms. Holmes’s current financial situation, Cooley has no expectation that Ms. Holmes will ever pay it for its services as her counsel.”

* ''LightNovel/TheTwelveKingdoms'': This happens to Komatsu Saburou Naotaka in the middle of a cruel local war in medieval Japan. His land had lost soundly, his retainers and supporters had all been slain in front of him, and Naotaka himself was badly wounded and all alone. Then he meets an odd kid named Enki, who turns out to be a ''{{Kirin}}'', a mythological beast who chooses and advises the rulers of another world, and he had just seen that Naotaka is the only one [[RagsToRiches who can become the leader of the Kingdom of En]].

* ''Film/MaidToOrder'' explores this with a spoiled rich girl stripped of her wealth and identity by a FairyGodmother, forced to work as a maid in a rich household and learn the value of hard work.