Basic Trope: A character comes into money, only to lose it all shortly thereafter.
- Straight: Bob wins the lottery, but makes a poor investment choice and loses most of the money a month later.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob wins the lottery, and buys a huge mansion in a gated community, two luxury cars, and a yacht. He's bankrupt 24 hours after winning the lottery.
- As soon as Bob cashes the check, the stock market crashes, society and civilization collapse, and anarchy ensues, rendering paper money and liquid assets useless. Then he gets mugged.
- Bob and all of his friends win the lottery, but then lose their money due to hyperinflation.
- Bob wins the lottery and spends a small portion of his winnings before collecting it. He later finds out that many, many more people just so happened to pick the same winning numbers that day. Once the prize money is split among all the winners, the windfall is so small that Bob winds up breaking even.
- Downplayed:
- Bob gets a minor windfall and spends it on a vacation rather than place it in a savings account.
- Bob wins $5000 from a one-dollar lottery ticket. As soon as he gets his winnings, he buys 5000 more lottery tickets, which proceed to win ... nothing.
- The first thing Bob does with his new money is pay off his debts, then he spends the rest frivolously.
- Justified:
- Bob has never been wealthy before, so he has no idea how to manage large sums of money.
- Bob spending the money for vacation with his family reflects his belief that the memory you spend with your loved ones are more valuable than money.
- Inverted:
- Bob earns his money little by little through savings and sound investments.
- Bob consults a financial expert as soon as he learns he won — before he even claims the prize. He sets up a trust to contain it and doesn't touch a cent of it, but invests and only uses the interest.
- Bob normally has enough money to live on, but has to survive on little or no money for one episode.
- Subverted:
- Bob initially loses money in the stock market, but another investment of his soars in value.
- Bob is floored by how expensive the bill for his ostentatious vacation was. But it turns out that, while expensive, the vacation only chipped away a fraction of his winnings. It ends up being a wake-up call for Bob to spend his fortune less frivolously.
- Double Subverted:
- But the investment didn't gain enough value for him to break even.
- He goes on another spending spree later on.
- Parodied:
- Bob wins $50 on a lotto ticket, but acts as if he had won millions: he starts strutting around wearing a monocle and top hat and attempts to buy a boat.
- Bob wins the lottery, but The Status Quo Demon tears up his ticket.
- Zig Zagged: Bob wins the lottery, but loses money in the stock market because the company in which he invested the lion's share of the money has just gone down. Then his stocks recover, and he's rich again. This happens repeatedly.
- Averted:
- Bob does not become rich.
- Bob gets rich but doesn't lose the money.
- Enforced:
- An Aesop about wish fulfillment.
- "We need Bob to win the lottery, but he can't keep his wealth because it would alter the plot of future episodes. Let's have him blow his money foolishly, or lose it due to circumstances or something."
- In a tabletop RPG the maximum net worth is capped by a wealth stat which represents money management skill. Past that point the player must spend a certain percentage per month on temporary items or services or else spend XP on wealth to be able to retain more assets.
- Lampshaded:
- "I had it, then I lost it."
- "So, I hear Bob lost everything when the market crashed." "No. He lost his money before the crisis, because he was foolish with it."
- Invoked: Bob invests his lottery winnings in the stock market during rough economic times, without really knowing what he's doing.
- Exploited: Alice knows that Bob can't handle money very well, so bets that Bob will lose all the money within a month with Bob himself, the stakes being Bob's last $5000 should he lose.
- Defied: Bob learns to manage his money effectively and gets himself a good and reputable financial adviser. Because of his money-managing skills, he keeps the money and increases his wealth further.
- Discussed: "Be careful with your savings, Bob. I've heard of people blowing vast fortunes overnight."
- Conversed: "This show has An Aesop that you don't see every day: You gotta be careful with money."
- Implied: Bob wins the lottery, and in the next episode, he's back where he started. It is never stated what happened to his money.
- Deconstructed: Having enjoyed a taste of wealth, Bob refuses to cut down on his expenses even as his riches dwindles away. When he is forced to admit that he can no longer afford the luxuries he managed to have for a brief moment, he falls into depression, which he wouldn't have suffered if he had never gotten the money in the first place.
- Reconstructed: Bob does not waste money on luxury items, and learns to make smart choices regarding where to put the money, but still ends up losing it due to circumstances outside his control.
- Played For Laughs: Bob is berated by Alice for wasting their money on stupid things.'"Why the heck did you buy a yacht? We're LANDLOCKED!"
- Played For Drama:
- Alice murders Bob over his wastefulness.
- The whole fiasco involves The Mafia.
- Played For Horror: Bill kidnaps Bob and demands 50% of Bob's fortune or little pieces of Bob will start appearing in the mail. Bob wasted it all financing Planet Macarena. Bob dies screaming.
Drat, the stock market crashed. Back to A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted, I guess.
