"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; 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 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.
- All That Glitters
- The Almighty Dollar
- ...And 99¢: For various reasons, prices that end on a single penny before the next full unit are abundant, and thus .99 of your currency of choice is often appended to the end of unusual prices for comedic effect.
- Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: A character who has unlimited money.
- Artistic License – Economics: Unrealistic depictions of economic systems in fiction.
- 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
- Bribe Backfire: Someone gets into even more trouble after offering bribes in an attempt to get out of trouble in the first place.
- 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
- Buy or Get Lost: If you don't plan to use money you have, don't bother.
- Cash Lure
- Charity Workplace Calendar
- Cheap Gold Coins: While in reality, gold coins were extremely special (and still are as collectibles), being used almost exclusively for larger transactions (silver and copper coins forming the bulk of the cash in circulation), this isn't the case in fiction, where it seems just about anyone can get their hands on a hefty money sack full of the stuff!
- City of Gold: According to legends, this town is fabulously wealthy.
- 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: A character is introduced to the world of credit through the foolhardy action of giving them a credit card to do with as they please, and Hilarity Ensues.
- Credit Chip
- Currency Conspiracy: Where common bills and coins hold proof of The Conspiracy... allegedly.
- 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: When someone's greed and lust for wealth leads to their fatal downfall.
- 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: A (usually) decimalized fictional currency with denominations directly connected to the metal they're made from.
- Good Capitalism, Evil Capitalism
- Good Fortune from God
- Greed: An obsessive desire to gain more money.
- Greedy Jew: The antisemitic stereotype that Jews love money to ruthless extremes.
- Grows on Trees
- Hates Rich People: Hating on wealthy folks for hoarding lots of money.
- Hear Me the Money: It's possible to discern how much money you've got in your hand, or what it's made from, simply by listening to the noise it makes.
- 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
- I Was Young and Needed the Money: It’s revealed that an artist once took an embarrassing Old Shame gig for the cash.
- Jingle the Coins: The presence of money is confirmed by the rattling of coins.
- Kill the Creditor
- Kill the Poor: The poor are killed in an attempt to eliminate poverty.
- Land Poor
- Lint Value
- Literal Money Metaphor
- Living Currency
- Loan Shark
- Lonely Rich Kid: A rich kid with no friends.
- Loves Only Gold
- Lower-Class Lout
- A MacGuffin Full of Money
- Magical Counterfeiting: Making fake money with magic.
- Majority-Share Dictator
- Mammon: A demon associated with greed and wealth.
- 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, Dear Boy: Getting a good paycheck makes up for having to take a crummy job.
- Money Dumb: Someone is incapable of managing their own 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.
- Money Is Not Power
- Money for Nothing: It's easy to get money, but spending it is another story.
- Money Mauling: Money as an Improvised Weapon.
- Money Slap
- Money Song: A song about money.
- Money to Burn
- Money to Throw Away
- Monster Organ Trafficking: A fictional creature produces something of high value that a character seeks to harvest and profit off of.
- 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
- Payment Plan Pitch
- Peace & Love Incorporated
- Penny Among Diamonds: A commoner or less well-off character enters the world of the rich, but without acquiring vast sums of money themselves.
- Penny-Pinching Crab
- Perpetual Poverty
- Piggy Bank
- Plunder
- Pooled Funds
- Post-Scarcity Economy
- Pottery Barn Poor
- Pro Bono Barter
- Progressive Jackpot
- Rags to Riches: A poor person becomes wealthy.
- Rare Money: A coin or banknote which isn't counterfeit, but so seldom seen it instantly catches the attention of others.
- Refining Resources
- Retail Therapy
- Rich Bitch: A wealthy person who isn't very nice.
- Rich Genius
- 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.
- Ridiculous Repossession: When banks repossess a character's belongings, they go way beyond legal or moral limits for the sake of Rule of Drama or Rule of Funny.
- Royalties Heir
- Scolded for Not Buying
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Someone demonstrates their moral/professional integrity by refusing to accept any bribe from unscrupulous folks.
- Screw the Money, This Is Personal!: Someone refuses to be bought off because they'd rather get their revenge.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: A (rich) person resorts to bribery in order to avoid facing repercussions for their misdeeds.
- 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.
- Sell What You Love: A character sells a beloved item for money.
- Shockingly Expensive Bill: Someone has to pay a bill that is ridiculously steep.
- Silent Offer
- Silly Will
- Silver Spoon Troublemaker: The mischievous and rebellious offspring of a wealthy public figure who usually thinks they can get away with anything.
- Simple, yet Opulent
- Slobs Versus 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: Gold's properties, in particular it being a soft metal, means a character might test its authenticity by biting it.
- 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: Instead of dollar bills and coins, services and products are paid for using unorthodox items.
- 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 Currency
- 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
- Cast from Money
- 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 Is Experience Points
- 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 Break It, You Profit
- 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
- Premium Currency: Many games often make these most easily acquired by purchasing with real money.
- Real Money Trade: Real money is used to purchase in-game currency or items. Some games allow this, but most of them are done illegitimately via a third party.
