Basic Trope: A character who obtains something valuable loses it because Status Quo Is God.
- Straight: Alice wins $1,000,000 in the lottery but loses her entire winnings due to taxes and a Ponzi scheme.
- Exaggerated: Alice wins $1,000,000,000 and uses the entire prize to buy an enormous mansion which she subsequently loses in a fire.
- Downplayed: Alice wins $100,000 and invests it in her kids' college funds.
- Justified: Alice is not financially literate and had never seen such money in her life.
- Alice won the lottery because she was always a gambling addict and bought a lot of tickets, increasing her odds; she is unable to change her habits when she actually wins the money and keeps gambling it all away.
- Inverted: Alice loses her job, her house and her life savings. However, thanks to picking up a discarded winning lottery ticket, she gets everything back by the end of the episode.
- Subverted: Alice wins the lottery, and in spite of a few mishaps, she is still successful by the end of the episode.
- Double Subverted: ...but it turns out she's a Mock Millionaire and that all her fortunes are worthless.
- Parodied: Alice finds out that the lottery prize she won entitles her to "big money". When she goes to claim her prize, it's literally gigantic dollar bills that turn out to be worthless.
- Zig Zagged: Alice buys multiple lottery tickets putting her in the hole. She wins big on a few numbers but loses most of it due to a series of unfortunate events. She spends the remainder of her winnings on more lottery tickets, thinking she'll keep winning.
- Averted: Alice never takes a chance to improve her financial well-being.
- Enforced: The producers want everyone to know that good fortunes can be squandered if people aren't careful.
- Lampshaded: "Well, you know what they say. Easy Come, Easy Go."
- Invoked: Bob sees Alice wearing an expensive fur coat one day but the next time they meet, the coat is suddenly gone.
- Exploited: Bob sees Alice on the news with the winning lottery ticket and calls her up, asking what she plans on spending her winnings on provided that she has any left.
- Defied:
- Alice sees lottery tickets at a convenience store and passes them by, wondering who needs that kind of fortune.
- Alternatively, Alice wins the lottery and carefully monitors her winnings so that she doesn't lose anything.
- Discussed: "What are you going to do with your winnings, Alice?" "Well, there's this hot stock that I think I'll put some money towards..."
- Conversed: "Look at that, Alice won the lottery. Her prize won't last long because things will be back to normal before you know it."
- Implied: Alice is not successful in the next episode, and seems a little touchy.
My fortune's gone! Might as well go back to Easy Come, Easy Go
