I just rewatched The Big Short, and I have to say—it’s one of my favorite financial movies of all time.
When I say “financial,” I mean the kind of story where a few smart people make a lot of money through things like stocks, crypto, mortgages, insurance—stuff most people don’t fully understand, but still affects our everyday lives.
What I like most is that many of these movies are based on real events. The Wolf of Wall Street. Dumb Money. The Big Short. These aren’t fiction. They really happened. Real people actually pulled this stuff off.
Every time I watch one, it lights something up in me.
I start thinking—what if I could do that too? What if I started crunching numbers, looking for loopholes, spotting flaws in the system, and using them to my advantage?
In my head, I create these wild mental scenarios. I imagine myself with billions. I’m flying private, buying things I don’t need, taking care of my family, my friends—everyone I care about. Just spending freely without thinking twice.
And yes, I’ve tried learning.
I’ve tried to understand the markets, investing, how all of this works. But the truth is—it’s painfully slow. It takes time. It takes effort. And it’s frustrating.
Worse, you can learn all the theory in the world, but without real money to put in the game, it doesn’t mean much.
You read, study, watch tutorials, follow smart people on the internet… but you can’t practice unless you actually have money. And that part? That hits hard.
That’s usually when I stop.
I tell myself it’s pointless to know all this stuff if I can’t act on it. Then I feel sad. Like I’m just watching from the sidelines while others get ahead.
But still—I keep coming back to these movies.
The Big Short especially. I’ve seen it a few times now. And every single time, it pulls me in.
Something about watching smart, weird, obsessive people figure things out before everyone else—it makes you believe maybe you could too.
Maybe.
