BANDUNG, unpas.ac.id – One of the enjoyable and popular activities to spend during Covid-19 pandemic is watching movies. Do not get it wrong, watching movies is not for entertainment or a waste of time only, but also has positive benefits, such as being aware of social issues, source of inspiration and even teaching you financially literate.
Well, while college class is still asynchronous, we have recommendation for good movies for students to watch so they could understand more about finances. You will learn and understating about gaining ‘cuan’ (cuan means profit) from different side of story, wrapped in an interesting storyline. Here are three financial-themed films, recommended by a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Ardi Gunardi, S.E., M.Sc., CSRS., CSRA, check this out!
- Inside Job
Inside Job is a documentary directed by Charles H. Ferguson. This movie depicted a clear description of economy crisis occurring in the United States of America in 2008. You might know that America is a superpower country with fairly prosperous economy. But who would have thought that 13 years ago America was hit by a great crisis until it was forced to its knees!
The recession became the worst one after Great Depression had once hit America in the decade of 1930s. As a result, millions of Americans lost their jobs an were forced to give up their homes.
This movie won the Best Documentary Feature in the 2011 Oscar and explored the change of policy, systematic corruption and bank practice leading to financial crisis. The movie begins with the showing of the condition of Iceland which underwent massive deregulation in 2000 and resulted in the privatization of its banks. When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and AIG collapsed on September 15, 2008, Iceland and the rest of the world went into a global recession.
Inside Job is divided into five parts: How We Got Here, The Bubble, The Crises, Accountability and Where We Are Now. This movie might be your comprehensive reference without depicting complicated plot. The image editing accompanied by slick narration make the storyline easy to understand, even for people who are unfamiliar with finance.
Charles Ferguson successfully ‘triggered’ the anger of most people to the corruptors who have never been into jail even once. More than that, when receiving his Oscar, Ferguson acclaimed that “The great economic crisis occurred because of mass deception/fraud, but none of them (the executives) going to jail!”
- The Wolf of Wall Street
Recently, there are a lot of people investing on stocks; plus, the cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin and Dogecoin seems promising and tempting. However, there are a lot of people who do not know how ‘dark’ and ‘cruel’ it is. This is what The Wolf of Wall Street tries to show to the audience.
Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio is an employee at the stock exchange office in Wall Street, America. During his career, Jordan Belfort was considered successful until he had to stop because the office where he worked collapsed due to Black Monday (the world financial crash that made stock prices decreased) in October 1987.
At one time, Jordan was accepted in a small company that brought not-less profits than his old company. He was even able to set up his own securities firm which he named Stratton Oakmont. During its journey, Stratton Oakmont was successful and directly involved in the issuance of stocks worth to U$$ 1 billion. However, the success he achieved was the result of the issuance of fake stocks. This is what makes him gotten into jail.
This film will make you think again and do long research before deciding to invest and learn from the mistakes of others. Interesting right?
- Confessions of a Shopaholic
For those who like to watch a romantic-comedy movie and are addicted to shopping, Confession of a Shopaholic is a perfect movie to watch. This movie is adapted from its novel series ‘Shopaholic’ written by Sophie Kinsella and contains a lot of know-how about how to manage and spend money.
Confession of a Shopaholic tells the life journey of Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher), a shopping addict who lives in New York. She is so crazy about going shopping that she even does not hesitate to use her credit card, until she got into debt. Unfortunately, she cannot rely on her current job to pay for her debts.
In this movie, you can imitate the way how to manage their finance, including by avoiding impulsive buying, evaluating shopping habit, distinguishing between needs and eagerness, being wise using the credit card and being comfortable when you need to consult about financial condition.
Those are three movie recommendations to watch if you want to be financially literate. Watch and try them! (Reta)*