It makes the world go around.
"We've GOT to have... MONEYYY."
— Lickboot, Tom and Jerry: The Movie
Tropes about wealth, currency, commerce, and economics in general.
Tropes about money:
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Sub-indexes
- Advertising Tropes: Tropes about advertising and marketing, or raising awareness of a product or service for sale.
- Bargain Tropes: Tropes about making business deals and transactions.
- Capitalism Is Bad: Tropes pertaining to the corrupt and negative aspects of capitalistic economics.
- Class Relations Index: Tropes about the social relationship between different groups with varying income levels (the poor, the wealthy, and those in the middle).
- Poverty Tropes: Tropes about people and places struggling with a severe lack of wealth.
- Rich People: Tropes about people who possess a far greater amount of wealth than the average person.
- The Con: Tropes about various forms of fraud and scams used by criminals to illegally acquire money.
- Currency Tropes: Tropes about coins, paper money, and other items used to facilitate trade.
- Gambling Tropes: Tropes about risking money for the chance of getting more money.
- The Gilded Index: Tropes about gold.
- Hollywood Economics: Tropes related to unrealistic depictions of economic systems in fiction.
- Indebted Index: Tropes about debt, monetary or not.
- Luxury Tropes: Tropes about nice, expensive goods you can get with just enough wealth.
- Occupation Tropes: Tropes about jobs and professions, which are necessary for anyone to earn money.
- Treasure Tropes: Tropes about hoarding caches of wealth.
- Tropes for Sale: Tropes about shops, merchants, and the products they sell.
Money in general
- 30-Day Free Trial: You get to try it out (or try out the premium version) for a fixed amount of time free, but after that, you have to pay.
- 419 Scam
- Action Insurance Gag
- Adaptational Wealth
- Affluent Ascetic
- All That Glitters
- The Almighty Dollar
- ...And 99¢
- Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: A character who has unlimited money.
- Artistic License – Economics: Unrealistic depictions of economic systems in fiction.
- Astronomical Exchange Rate
- Auction
- Bankruptcy Barrel: When the character is wearing a barrel to show that they are poor.
- Bank Toaster
- Barefoot Poverty: A character is barefoot to show that they are poor.
- "Begone" Bribe: Someone offers to pay off an annoying person with money to leave them alone.
- Big Fancy House
- Bottle Episode: An episode saves budget money by limiting the number of characters, backgrounds, etc. that can be used.
- Brand Names Are Better
- Briefcase Full of Money
- Broke Episode: An episode of the show where the characters run out of money and have to find a way to make ends meet.
- Bulk Buy Only
- Cash Lure
- Charity Workplace Calendar
- Cheap Gold Coins
- City of Gold
- Clamshell Currency
- Coin-on-a-String Trick: Someone ties a coin on a string so they can use the string to pull the coin out of a vending machine or arcade machine at the last minute in order to activate the machine without having to let go of their coin.
- Coins for the Dead
- Cold Cash
- Comically Small Bribe: Someone attempts to bribe another person with an absurdly small amount of money.
- Comically Small Demand
- Compound Interest Time Travel Gambit
- Conspicuous Consumption: A character shows off their wealth by constantly spending their money on expensive stuff.
- Corporate Dragon
- Corporate Warfare: When regular nonviolent competition between rival big businesses isn't enough, they decide to take up arms and go to literal war with each other.
- Counterfeit Cash
- Crack Is Cheaper: It can be expensive as hell to buy everything having to do with your interest that you desire.
- Credit Card Plot
- Credit Chip
- Currency Cuisine: Literally eating or drinking money in some fashion.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: The villain commits crimes even though their powers and/or equipment could easily be used to get money the legal way.
- Cutting Corners
- Death by Materialism
- Disney Owns This Trope
- Divorce Assets Conflict
- Do You Want to Haggle?
- Dowry Dilemma
- Dungeon-Based Economy
- Easy Come, Easy Go
- Eat the Rich
- Eleventy Zillion: Made-up numbers are often used to describe net worths and other money-related amounts.
- Energy Economy
- Enjo Kosai (Paid Dating)
- Every Man Has His Price
- Evil Debt Collector
- Fake Charity
- Fiction 500: A character manages to be wealthier than is possible in real life.
- Fictional Currency
- Financial Abuse
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: A character becomes rich, but ends up losing their newfound fortune.
- Foreign Money Is Proof of Guilt
- Forensic Accounting
- Forgot to Pay the Bill
- "Friends" Rent Control: A character lives in a residence whose monthly expenses should be way out of their income level.
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme
- Giant Novelty Check
- Gold Digger: Marrying a rich person just so you can have access to their wealth.
- Gold Fever
- Gold–Silver–Copper Standard
- Good Fortune from God
- Greed: An obsessive desire to gain more money.
- Money Fetish: Someone has a ridiculous obsession with money, to the point of desiring money more for its own sake rather than what can be bought with it.
- Greedy Jew: The antisemitic stereotype that Jews love money to ruthless extremes.
- All Jews Are Cheapskates: The stereotype that Jewish people are both greedy and stingy to the point that they don't like spending too much money.
- Grows on Trees
- Hear Me the Money
- Hero Insurance
- Heroism Incentive
- Heroism Won't Pay the Bills
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold
- Hospitality for Heroes: Heroes are allowed to get stuff for free.
- Hospital Paradiso
- I Don't Pay You to Think
- If I Were a Rich Man
- Impoverished Patrician: A ruler or aristocrat is poor.
- Improbable Food Budget
- Infinite Supplies
- Inflation Negation
- Insists on Paying
- Interclass Friendship
- Intimidating Revenue Service: The IRS will take away all your possessions if you don't pay your taxes.
- Involuntary Charity Donation
- Just Pennies a Day
- Kill the Creditor
- Kill the Poor: The poor are killed in an attempt to eliminate poverty.
- Land Poor
- Lint Value
- Loan Shark
- Lonely Rich Kid: A rich kid with no friends.
- Loves Only Gold
- Lower-Class Lout
- A MacGuffin Full of Money
- Mainlining the Monster: The monster produces something of high value that a character seeks to harvest and profit off of.
- Majority-Share Dictator
- Meal Ticket
- Milking the Monster: The monster's presence is tolerated because it generates a profit for the locals.
- Millionaire Playboy
- Miser Advisor
- Missing Steps Plan
- Mock Millionaire: Someone pretends to be wealthy.
- Money Dumb: Someone is incapable of managing their own money.
- Money Is Not Power
- Money for Nothing: It's easy to get money, but spending it is another story.
- Money Mauling
- Money Song: A song about money.
- Money to Burn
- Money to Throw Away
- Morally Bankrupt Banker
- Ms. Red Ink
- Nazi Gold
- Never Lend to a Friend
- Never Win the Lottery
- New Tech Is Not Cheap
- Nobility Marries Money
- No Budget
- Non-Idle Rich
- No-Paper Future
- Not with Them for the Money: A person falls in love with a rich person, but genuinely likes the person and isn't just interested in them for their cash.
- Nouveau Riche
- Offer Void In Nebraska
- Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: The bad guys are somehow able to afford expensive equipment and gadgets in spite of never being seen committing successful robberies.
- Old Money
- One-Hour Work Week
- Only Electric Sheep Are Cheap: The artificial product costs less money than the real thing.
- Only in It for the Money: A person is only interested in doing something because they'll get paid for it.
- Only Shop in Town
- On One Condition
- On the Money
- Organization with Unlimited Funding
- Parental Savings Splurge
- Pauper Patches
- Paying in Coins
- Paying for the Action Scene
- Peace & Love, Incorporated
- Penny Among Diamonds
- Penny-Pinching Crab
- Perpetual Poverty
- Piggy Bank
- Plunder
- Pooled Funds
- Post-Scarcity Economy
- Pottery Barn Poor
- Pro Bono Barter
- Progressive Jackpot
- Puzzlement About Payment
- Rags to Riches: A poor person becomes wealthy.
- Rare Money
- Refining Resources
- Retail Therapy
- Rich Bitch: A wealthy person who isn't very nice.
- Rich Genius
- Rich Idiot With No Day Job
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: A rich person lacks common sense because of their sheltered and pampered lifestyle.
- Rich Kid Turned Social Activist: An idealistic person from a wealthy family who is down with the downtrodden and assist the poor personally. They might want to change the unjust system that makes people poor in the first place.
- Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: A woman is courted by two men and has to choose between them; one is poor and one who is rich.
- Riches to Rags: A wealthy person becomes poor.
- Ridiculous Exchange Rates
- Ridiculous Future Inflation: Items will become way more expensive than they are now in the future.
- Royalties Heir
- Scolded for Not Buying
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: A (rich) person resorts to bribery in order to avoid facing repercussions for their misdeeds.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Someone demonstrates their moral/professional integrity by refusing to accept any bribe from unscrupulous folks.
- Bribe Backfire: Someone gets into even more trouble after offering bribes in an attempt to get out of trouble in the first place.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Someone demonstrates their moral/professional integrity by refusing to accept any bribe from unscrupulous folks.
- Secretly Wealthy: A person is actually rich, but keeps their opulence a secret.
- Self-Made Man: A person who started out poor became rich through a lifetime of hard work.
- Shockingly Expensive Bill: Someone has to pay a bill that is ridiculously steep.
- Silent Offer
- Silly Will
- Simple, yet Opulent
- Slobs vs. Snobs
- Slumming It: A rich person pretends to be poor because they want to know how things are for the less fortunate.
- Socialite: An unemployed person with a wealthy spouse.
- Solid Gold Poop
- Spoiled Sweet: A wealthy and spoiled person who is very nice.
- Stage Money
- Stock Money Bag: Money is frequently stored in bags with dollar signs on them.
- Suspicious Spending
- The Swear Jar: Putting money in a jar every time you swear to try and break the habit of using profanity.
- Swiss Bank Account: An unsavory character hides money in an offshore bank account.
- Tasty Gold
- Tax Deductions
- Taxman Takes the Winnings
- Thief Bag
- Time Travel for Fun and Profit
- Tontine: A group make the deal that a collection of valuables they've discovered will go to the last surviving member.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts
- Treasure Room
- Two-Headed Coin
- Unable to Support a Wife
- Uncle Pennybags: A wealthy person who uses their wealth to help out the poor and/or give those less wealthy than them a good time.
- Undisclosed Funds: It isn't specified exactly how much money a person pays or has to pay.
- Unexpected Inheritance
- Upper-Class Twit
- Wallet Moths: Moths fly out of wallets or pockets to indicate lack of money.
- War for Fun and Profit
- Wealth's in a Name: A rich person has a name appropriate to their status, often being a play on a word having to do with money or wealth.
- Wealthy Ever After: The ending has the protagonist become rich.
- Wealthy Philanthropist
- We Will Spend Credits in the Future
- Weird Currency
- Whammy Bid: A suddenly high bid for an item.
- Will Talk for a Price
- Work Off the Debt: A character who can't pay ends up working for the company until they've earned the money they need to pay.
- Worthless Treasure Twist
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: A culture sees money, jewels and the like as not being valuable.
- You Get What You Pay For
- Young Entrepreneur
- Zillion-Dollar Bill
Money in video games
Fictional money in video games
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Everything the player needs to buy is expensive.
- Betting Mini Game
- Command & Conquer Economy: In Real-Time Strategy games, no activity occurs without the player's explicit say.
- Discount Card
- An Economy Is You
- An Entrepreneur Is You
- Global Currency
- Global Currency Exception
- A Homeowner Is You
- In-Game Banking Services
- Karl Marx Hates Your Guts
- Money for Nothing
- Money Multiplier
- Money Sink
- Money Spider: Enemies that drop currency after being defeated.
- No Bulk Discounts
- No Hero Discount
- Player-Generated Economy
- Rewarding Vandalism
- Teaser Equipment
- Treasure Hunter
- Wallet of Holding
- We Buy Anything
- We Sell Everything
- You Require More Vespene Gas
Real money in video games
- Allegedly Free Game: A game is free to download, but makes it so that you have to spend money in order to unlock stuff faster and easier.
- Downloadable Content
- Freemium: There's a free version with some features, and a premium version with all the bells and whistles (but it costs money).
- Freemium Timer
- Microtransactions
