Financial lessons to take from Squid game

Sorunke Onaopemipo

By Sorunke Onaopemipo

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Warning: Spoiler alert!

If you haven’t seen it, I’m sure you’d have seen all the memes on the internet about it. A Korean Drama called Squid Game is taking the world by storm and we are here to provide some financial insights that we learned from it.

What’s the show about?

Squid Game is a Netflix show that tells the story of Seong Gi-Hun, a father that owes loan sharks and banks a lot of money and finds himself in a dangerous game where participants – people like him on the verge of financial ruin – are forced to play children’s games with grave consequences. 

Diversify! Diversify!! Diversify!!!

Diversifying your investment protects you to a large extent from losing on all sides. When one is underperforming, another may outperform it” Cho Sang-woo invested in stocks and futures and this went bad for him. 

He could have recouped the losses if he had mixed asset classes. So, whenever you are investing, don’t settle with only one investment asset. 

Avoid Gambling 

A gambler is simply someone that makes their living out of false hope. Gi-hun’s life tells the story of gambling addiction and how it affects all aspects of his life, and we could see from the show that gambling is not the answer to a better life.

The money Gi-Hun took from his mother could have been used to treat his daughter to a nice meal on her birthday, or he could have paid for a toy for his daughter with the 10,000 won, instead, he decided to gamble it away with the claw machine. While gambling may be a way to win quick cash, it is never guaranteed. 

Get That Insurance

None of us can tell what lies around the corner; there are unforeseen circumstances such as losing your car to a road accident, serious health issues or even the death of a loved one that can leave you and your family facing tremendous emotional and financial distress. With insurance in place, you or your family’s financial stress will be reduced, and you can focus on recovering and rebuilding your lives.

In episode two of the show, Seong Gi- Hun urged his mother to get her diabetic foot treated, only to be reminded by her that he had stopped paying for the health insurance years ago. This reminds us that we should not wait before things get desperate before we invest in insurance. 

Remember, if it sounds too good to be true…

The best example of this advice is our sweet Ali, a desperate man who has been taken advantage of many times and is betrayed by Sang-woo. It is even more interesting knowing that in Sang-woo, Ali sees a tribe and a brother he can rely on and this costs him his life. 

There are a lot of people out there that are out to take advantage of you, and they do this by selling you deals and offers that sound too good to be true. You know those text messages or emails that ask you to send your name and contact details to win large sums of money? 

Do your due diligence, do research and understand what the deal is, ask questions and don’t be too trusting. Always remember “them they pay” is not due diligence. 

Secure your ATM cards 

ATM cards provide us with seamless means to carry out transactions, yet, it comes with few challenges especially when it falls into the wrong hands. In episode one of the show, we watched Gi-hun steal his ailing mother’s card. 

If there is anything we can learn from that scene, it is to jealously guard your cards and keep them in a safe environment. If Seong-Gi-Hun can steal from his own moths- imagine what happens to people that don’t know you. And improve your passwords and avoid generic passwords like birthdays or first names.

Last but not least, if a stranger asks you to play a game while you’re minding your business in a danfo, please I’m begging you- say No.

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