5 Money lessons from the FRIENDS
Here are my top 5 money lessons from Friends. We all know that Joey doesn’t share food; and it seems he also doesn’t share a lot of good money habits. Grab some popcorn and read on as I pick out my favourite learning moments from this nostalgic sit-com!
Live within your means
Before we begin, my first thanks goes to Rachel. She helped us to all grow up in one way or another.
One of the most memorable moments that come to mind when I think about FRIENDS is how Rachel finally took step towards her own independence. She literally cut down her credit cards, stopped taking money from her parents and controlled her shopping impulses. She took her weakness towards designer goods and transformed it into her strength by getting a job at a high-end fashion store. This is something I think we can all relate to in some shape or form. And you know what, at the end of the day she was much happier for it. As Monica calls it “Welcome to the real world. It sucks! You’re gonna love it.”
Side hustles and simple living may just be the magic formula
We know that Phoebe is the least wealthy person among all 5 friends, after having a struggling childhood she really learnt to grow on her own and make a living hustling. So, at times we see her in certain uncomfortable situation when it comes to money like buying gifts to going to eat out. And unlike Ross who likes to go to fancy restaurants – others like Joey, Rachel and Phoebe cannot afford to pay fancy meals. It really teaches us that its okay to actually speak up about these issues and not feel under pressure to maintain an artificial lifestyle which doesn’t suit your current situation.
What I also really loved about Phoebe is that in the end when she finds the love of her life to settle down with, and call him ‘family’, something she never really had – it teaches us that regardless of what your situation is, you can also be really happy if you treasure the little things in life. And it’s something as simple as this which shined her character in the end. And although Monica was pushing her for a big fancy wedding, because of a drastic change of weather, Phoebe gets the opportunity to have a small and simple wedding. In fairness, it’s something that Monica also decided to do in the end when Chandler offered his savings to pay for the wedding of her dreams. This money lesson from FRIENDS is something I also resonate with. Particularly in our Asian culture a lot of families spend a fortune on week-long extravagant wedding – while I personally think those money could be better used towards a new home for the couple or investments for the future.
Life is too short to be stuck in a job which pays well but sucks the life out of you
Chandler is a great example of this. Although he was doing financially well working as a Data processor supervisor, he absolutely hated his job. You can see how miserable he got while working and even talking about it. Then one fine day, many seasons later he quits to seek his passion. He of course has doubts and disbelief, but he followed through to his passion and Monica supported him. He had to re-start his career as an intern in marketing. That episode highlighted that diversity of thought, experience & age really matters and adding him as an intern among group of graduates helped the team perform better and come up with a creative solution in marketing for sneakers.
So don’t be afraid of taking risks and chances. Simply having a high paying job might not be the key to success.
Even perfectionists mess up. So plan well for rainy days.
In the second season, we see that Monica gets fired. It’s something she ever imagined happening. On her call with her Dad we hear her mention that she did use to save a certain percentage of income for the rainy days or as we call “emergency funds”. Living in an expensive city like New York and unexpectedly losing her only source of income meant she really needed to rely on her savings. We know what a perfectionist Monica is, so the fact that something like this happened to her really speaks volume. It teaches that, regardless of how much we try, we cannot control everything all at the same time. Bad times like these can come in anyone life, in the most unpredictable ways. So it is always a good idea to have enough savings as well as emergency funds in the form of bank savings. This is the most important money lesson from FRIENDS that you should definitely try to implement in your life (if you haven’t already).
Joey doesn’t share food or a decent money habit.
We all saw that Joey is not the best when it comes to money. Throughout the show we saw him borrowing money from Chandler all the time. His income was simply too volatile and so he had to rely on his friends during the odd shortfalls. However, even when he was doing well after landing a well-paid soap opera, he decided to move out to a fancy apartment and spend money on unnecessary items like a rain wall and greyhound statue rather than saving the extra money and building his wealth. And ultimately all these materialistic things didn’t make him happy, and he moved back in with Chandler again. If Joey had planned his money well, learnt to budget then he would’ve been in a completely different situation.
And when I think of the fact that money doesn’t buy happiness, the most iconic scene that comes to mind is when Rachel gets off the plane to show that she is ditching her Paris promotion (which of course included a high salary) and stays back for Ross where her heart is happiest. It was one of the most beautiful scene in the series.
The summary
The bottom line is this: there is always something to learn or takeaway from our everyday lives, even from watching a sitcom. And whether you loved watching FRIENDS or not, I hope these money lessons from FRIENDS provided you with some food for thought.